Anthony Obi Ogbo
Dislodging the status quo: Nigerian voters must take anger and conscience to the Polls
Significantly, a vote for Obi and the LP would systematically dislodge a predatory two-party system that has caged this nation since the end of military rule in 1999 —Anthony Ogbo
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In less than one week, on Saturday, February 25, 2023, Nigerian voters will head to the polls to elect a new president amid intensifying anger and frustration over deteriorating insecurity and economic destitution. Among a long list of contenders, candidates from three major political parties stand out. They are a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, representing the Labor Party (LP).
The purpose of this editorial is to reiterate the significance of this election in redeeming this country from decades of captivity under a malicious clique of political delinquents.
Since its independence in 1960, Nigeria has struggled violently with every area of democratic dividends. The voting process, which allows citizens the choice of electing competent leaders, has always been falsely designed. The constitutional structure is unfairly compromised to protect ethnic favoritism, fraud, and mediocrity. The standard of ethical leadership has been fictional, leaving this nation in sheer depression. For decades, each election year has produced the same caliber of visionless political miscreants recycled under the same crooked political organizations. Without a doubt, Nigeria as a nation has never been lucky with decent leaders.
As Nigerians prepare to head to the polls, it might be necessary to undertake a short analysis of what the country stands to gain or lose with each candidate. Each of the front-runners has indeed been in the political system for decades, yet the current electioneering trends draw sharp distinctions. It might be a waste of editorial space to go into party proposals or campaign rhetoric because those metrics have not favored the masses in the past. In the current political terrain, making electoral choices would not be a difficult one.
In the almost eight years of its incumbency, the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), has rendered the worst development record in Nigeria’s political history. Besides unchallenged insecurity, accelerating inflation is reflected in the rising cost of living, leaving many families struggling to survive. The latest figures from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics show that 33% of the population is unemployed—jumping to 42.5% for young adults.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a ruthless political godfather intoxicated with power and greed.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Kashim Shettima (both Muslims), represent this party. Besides leading such a failed political entity, Tinubu is not a good man. He is a ruthless political godfather intoxicated with power and greed. Armed with a huge amount of influence, cash, and a sense of entitlement, he believes that he wants to be president because it is his turn. His running mate Shettima is a proven jihadist whose spiritual ideology abhors democracy.
A vote for this team could translate into a 16-year prolongation of APC’s disastrous stewardship. Under the current culture, the incumbents (president and vice president) have the political advantage to manipulate the system and exploit a constitutionally allowed double four-year tenure (eight years) each. Thus, an APC victory under Tinubu and Shettima could finally erase a representative governance culture from the system. Placing two radical Muslims as leaders in a secular country with a history of violent religious extremism might not be a good electoral choice.
PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate, Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, are believed to be less notorious yet politically unsafe for Nigeria. It may be recalled that the PDP has ruled this nation for 16 years, and indeed, is a coconspirator of the current draconian constitutional structure. Atiku was a vice president in a PDP regime under Olusegun Obasanjo (1999–2007) who somehow missed becoming the next president at the time. Since then, he has spent a huge amount of resources struggling to return as president.
A vote for Atiku and the PDP would yield nothing but continued governance of loot sharing and system hopelessness.
Atiku is one of those political elites who prospered through the looting of public funds. Pompously rich, he shuttles between wealthy cities in the Middle East and would swagger with money, extravagant gifts, and young women. Atiku’s fraud case with William Jefferson—a former Louisiana politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 to 2009—made global headlines. A vote for Atiku and the PDP would yield nothing but continued governance of loot sharing and system hopelessness. Voters could be looking at another 16 years of hardship.
The LP candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, are not exactly new in politics. Yet both individuals represent what could offer Nigerians a fresh start in rebuilding a nation that has never seen peace, stability, and system fairness in nearly six decades. Significantly, a vote for Obi and the LP would systematically dislodge a predatory two-party system that has caged this nation since the end of military rule in 1999.
The difference is clear. The duo of Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed remains the most qualified team for steering this country in a different direction. Both candidates are open-minded liberals who are open to structural change and who truly see Nigeria as a united nation rather than a personal property.
The standard for political candidacy is not supposed to be a turn-by-turn privilege. Challengers must be morally and intellectually upright, tender convincing proposals for change, and show knowledge of the conversion of strategies into governance actions. To date, the APC and PDP have offered no single excuse for their years of mismanagement. Yet they have been parading basic campaign posters of unsubstantiated policy proposals irrelevant to the major issues of the moment.
Voters must leave hypocrisy at home and take their anger, conscience, and interests to the polls.
The stakes in this election are very high. Voters must leave hypocrisy at home and take their anger, conscience, and interests to the polls. They must snub their tribal or religious comradeship and opt for values that serve a national interest.
One of the core doctrines of change in the political framework is how candidates fare in significant areas of national interests. In this case, however, both APC and PDP, along with their candidates, represent fear, amoral values, and abject failure.
At this time, voters are faced with a choice between two ideologies. They may choose to embrace the brutal APC–PDP status quo and continue living in system wretchedness. Alternatively, they may opt for the LP and start over to create a nation and structures of their choice.
♦Publisher of the Guardian News, Journalism and RTF Professor, Anthony Obi Ogbo, Ph.D. is on the Editorial Board of the West African Pilot News. He is the author of the Influence of Leadership (2015) and the Maxims of Political Leadership (2019). Contact: anthony@guardiannews.us
Nwokedi’s “Shred of Fear” masterfully captures a phenomenological account of a three-year hellish journey toward an unfulfilled dream of a promising nation, Biafra. —Anthony Ogbo
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The machinery of childhood memories remains a mystery grounded in neurological maturation, socialization, and other factors that often influence an individual’s recollection of momentous childhood events. In his book, Shred of Fear, Uche Nwokedi renders a memoir of his experiences living through the Biafran War (also known as the Nigerian Civil War). His recollection is unmatched and encompasses many critical moments unfamiliar to the current generation.
According to Nwokedi, “Childhood memories of that time remain indelibly etched into my psyche. Now and then, I see them in my mind’s eye, in shades of sepia, like old photographs from a family album.”
The author is confident about his memories of the war and explains their significance: “I treasure these memories and hold fast to them, as they are the watershed years of my journey in life so far. I fully embrace the emotions they evoke, with no apologies for what the child remembers.”
The story of the Biafran war is not new. Yet, a lot of events surrounding this bloody mayhem have not been told, and unfortunately, the advent of social media and technology innovation has not made telling the story about the great Biafran journey any easier. For instance, several analyses, books, and publications have pervaded the internet with Google-generated unsubstantiated content. Even some authors who fought in the war have rendered subjective accounts to appease specific social and political interests. Some activists equally went astray, creating Biafran war content to pursue their “We the people” agitation crusades.
Shred of Fear, however, is far from those. Shred is not a political written handout. It is not a children’s bedtime storybook. It is a masterful rendition of the Biafran War devoid of Google speculations. The author, a child at the time, creatively captures a phenomenological account of a three-year hellish journey toward an unfulfilled dream of a promising nation. Indeed, from beginning to end, Shred unloads from a unique perspective the very interesting and relatively unknown events that marked this horrific season.
But the most exciting and credible endorsement of this book comes from Chief Arthur Mbanefo, a commissioner and roving ambassador in Biafra (1967–1970). According to Chief Mbanefo, “As one who participated fully in the Biafra War, Shred of Fear is a powerful and vivid factual recollection of events that defined the war for the author. Written with such brilliant simplicity, one is taken on a journey of the changes in life in a time of war by the author. A must-read. Highly recommended!”
One remarkable aspect of this book is the author’s representation of Aba, the great Enyimba city, which he describes as “one of those quintessentially colonial Nigerian towns with all the hallmarks of a place with plenty of growth potential.” From Aba’s City Life to The Pound Road Bombing and finally, the “Fall of Aba,” the author paints a realistic picture of what transpired inside Biafra at the initial stage of the war. Again, here is the author:
“I saw pictures of mutilated bodies and they gave me the chills. To crown it all, there were constant mobs of angry young men running through the streets of Aba carrying leaves, crying for vengeance, and chanting in the Igbo language, “Ojukwu gives us a gun to defend ourselves.”
In addition to music, which became a therapeutic part of the culture in the Biafran land, the author recounts how air raids became the hallmark of this war. Killer fighter jets preyed on innocent masses at will. In his own words, Nwokedi writes, “We would see the MIGs [jet fighters] suddenly swoop down from the sun like hawks, fly low past the GRA [Government Reserved Area], bomb the town center and markets, climb back up into the sky and then leave as quickly as they had come.”
Another interesting aspect of this book is the author’s recollection of the Aburi Accord. On January 4 and 5, 1967, delegates and representatives from both the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Eastern Region, led by Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, met in Aburi, Ghana, to agree on what is now known as the Aburi Accord. This meeting at Aburi was supposed to be the last opportunity for both parties to resolve any conflict to prevent civil war.
Nwokedi approaches the Aburi Accord from a different perspective. He remembers how the phrase “On Aburi we stand” was widely chanted and adopted by everyone. “We heard older people say it often, and so we repeated it all the time as well. We loved the sound of it,” he narrates.
The book explores the genuineness of Biafra’s failed struggle. Consequently, its contents emit unprecedented historical relevance to a people, their strength, and a vision that was never accomplished.
The author’s account subtitled “The Line in the Sand” rightly indicates how the collapse of the Aburi Accord created a playing field for two warring combatants ready to terminate each other. Yet his final reflection on the collapse of this accord remains intelligible. He writes:
“Quite clearly, these two young soldiers escalated a war of words into an internecine war. With those conflicting clarion calls, the line in the sand was drawn, and the war began in earnest.”
The book explores the genuineness of Biafra’s failed struggle. Consequently, its contents emit unprecedented historical relevance to a people, their strength, and a vision that was never accomplished. As the author says, “The flickering light of Biafra had been unceremoniously snuffed out, but the darkness of defeat had not yet enveloped it. The sun was sinking, and we were drifting fast into the gloaming of defeat.”
In 14 chapters loaded with his candid recollection, the author does not ignore the political implications of the war, the lessons learned from the uncertainties that triggered the destructive duel, and where Nigeria currently stands. According to Nwokedi, “The Biafran War is long over, but the peace it won remains fragile and full of anxiety.” He continues, “We continue to live in anticipation of the promises of Nigeria.”
Shred of Fear is a superb memoir of a man who lived through the horrendous Biafran civil war as a child. Currently, Uche Nwokedi is an accomplished Nigerian author and lawyer, and Shred is not his first endeavor. He is also the writer and creative producer of the award-winning musical production Kakadu the Musical, which has toured Nigeria, Switzerland, and South Africa to great critical acclaim.
Order this book from Nigeria: >>> | Order this book from Amazon: >>>
♦Publisher of the Guardian News, Journalism and RTF Professor, Anthony Obi Ogbo, Ph.D. is on the Editorial Board of the West African Pilot News. He is the author of the Influence of Leadership (2015) and the Maxims of Political Leadership (2019). Contact: anthony@guardiannews.us
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