For some Nigerians, who
expected so much from this administration at its inception, this isn’t the best
time to talk of 2019 elections.
But 2019 is
fast approaching and politicians think more of the next election than anything
else.
Last Friday,
Buhari Support Organization (BSO) – in readiness for the commencement of
Buhari’s 2019 campaigns — had very close associates of the president in
attendance duringthe opening of its headquarters in Abuja.
Though the
president was not in attendance, he tacitly boosted the morale of the folks who
would work in this office. Last Friday, in a meeting with the 189 Support
Groups that worked for his 2015 election, the president admonished his
supporters that their work required sacrifices, both physically and materially
ahead of 2019.
There has
also been all kinds of endorsements from politicians for the president to run
in 2019. But not from folks like Ahmed Tinubu and Abubakar Atiku, who were
prominent figures in the 2015 election.
But it is not
going to be easy for these support groups.
Probably
because many career politicians who worked for Buhari’s 2015 election had not
been compensated, the president remarked: “I do not think anybody will
join this organization for material reasons.What you are doing is for the
nation and not for me as an individual. Therefore, there is no way you can lose
because what you are doing is for posterity’’.
It would be
interesting to see where these supporters would get their motivation from if
they were not supposed to expect anything in return, in the normal Nigerian
tradition.
In the same
vain, President Buhari’s close associate, Hamed Ali, during the launch of BSO’s
headquarters, blamed the lack of progress in the APC-led government on the
members of the PDP who are still in government.
This is not a
good campaign slogan for someone asking for support after spending more than 2
years in office. Blaming the last PDP government is likely going to be the
focal point of the next election.
Many
fundamental issues, which are dear to southern APC governors, have not been
addressed by the current administration. Little wonder that just as the
northern governors endorsed President Buhari for 2019, southern governors went
into a summit where they laid out their own agenda. Surprisingly, southern APC
governors seem to need southern PDPgovernors to push their demand at the
federal level.
The division
in the APC was visible right from 2015, after the president was sworn in.
Buhari’s long
absence as a result of ill health and his age might not endear him to the crowd
of social media supporters he got in 2015. But he has the power of incumbency.
And the power
of incumbency has not always helped African democracies. President Buhari
should endeavor to create an equal playing field if he wants to throw his hat
into the 2019 election. He has to take our electoral space to a level which is
higher than what he met. Currently, there has been no fundamental modification
in that space.
This is the
more reason the president should consider reports of the Senator Ken
Nnammani-led Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee. Many
recommendations of that committee, such as the adoption of independent
candidacy, have not been given enough attention.
Source; The Cable
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