An Army of Self

The Tale of A Merger

It is just a few days to the 2011 Presidential elections, and the events of the last few days have left me with only one view – The Politicians don’t give a sh*t about us!

First it was the attempted merger between the CPC and the ACN. Yeah, that would have been a very good opportunity to stand a chance at denting PDP’s amour, at least with all the permutations and combinations flying about, this probably, remotely possibly, could have reduced the number of votes that GEJ would have got in States controlled by the CPC and ACN and then maybe force a re-run.

The accounts of how the merger meetings went south totally left a sour taste in my mouth. I have had discussions with my media connects and some of my informed colleagues about this. I have also read newspaper reports on this. The only conclusion I have been able to come to is the fact that Nigerian politicians are an association of friends who only have allegiance to one another and their pockets. These group of humans don’t give a hoot about the masses, they don’t care a farthing what becomes of the common man walking the streets of Nigeria hunting for his daily bread. He can eat guano for all they care!

The CPC/ACN attempted merger turned out to be nothing but an extra effort by the political class to make gains that will enrich their own pocket, not gains that will make our lives better. Each and every one of them is just there for what he can take to the bank. Tell me, if Pastor Bakare was so in love with Nigeria, what stopped him from conceding that point that destroyed the consensus the two parties where trying to reach? Yeah it will be a loss to him if he did that, but it also would have been to the greater good, to the benefit of the many who can’t wait to see PDP’s back. These Politicians will never change. Even General Buhari shedding tears on the pages of the papers almost made me tear out my beards, saying his love for Nigeria has turned him mushy and into putty. Oh please Sir, save your tears for the crocodiles, I don’t need them!

I will not be surprised if on Saturday I simply thumbprint for a certain John Bull, a member of “Party For The Boys” (PFTB) – an outsider who prolly will get his girlfriend’s and barman’s vote, plus mine. Yeah, that is looking very likely, because I seriously do not see any of these candidates as being credible to any extent. From GEJ, Buhari, Ribadu, to Shekarau, all are just members of the “Army of Self”, they are only interested in what the treasury can offer them. I rest my case.

I am here and now conceding defeat to the regressives, their luck has held out again. I hope we are not about to go into 4 more years of rot, 4 more years of “had I known”, 4 more years of lost opportunities.

Bob Dee – What is his endgame?

Before I rest this post, I want to take a last, “complementary” look at what Dele Momodu, one of the Presidential aspirants, is up to. This man came from nowhere (yes, nowhere) to contest for the Presidency of Nigeria. What is his pedigree? He ran away to Ghana in the heady days of the Abacha tyrannical government, for reasons bothering on threats to his life (I am still unconvinced how), and became a successful publisher, publishing the glossy, upper crust of society magazine OVATION. That is where it ends.

One would have expected that a man with no Political face like him would start his climb from the grassroots, from the wards. Maybe begin by running for the House of Reps or maybe, just maybe, the Senate (because of his age). That would have given him some political capital to spend. No, he chose to start from the top…very funny, even GEJ, who is universally acclaimed to be riding his luck like a drunk cowboy, didn’t start getting lucky from the top, he started from his local government. So how on earth can anyone take Bob Dee’s ambitions serious? even his party,the NCP, didn’t win as little as a quarter of a seat in any village’s house of assembly. Uhm.

Maybe, just maybe, like I have jokingly told my friends, being a former presidential aspirant is some title like that, for instance – Chief Dele Momodu, POM, iPAD, Former Presidential Aspirant. That might just be the simple reason he hired the youngest presidential campaign manager in Nigeria’s history. The kind of things rich men can do to get very intangible things sef.

My last question is this, who is Dele Momodu’s running mate? Abi he is planning to go this matter solo when on May 29th he is sworn in as C-in-C? We will never know.

Go cast your votes as you deem fit on Saturday, but please don’t sit at home and watch African Magic or the English Premier League, the movement to redeem Nigeria has began. It might not happen now, but the interest we all have shown in this dispensation leaves a smile of hope on my face, one day we will, via the ballot box, win back our fatherland, save our democracy, and place us on the firm path towards true growth and development. We shall one day be back as the giant of Africa. This is my firm belief.

God bless us all, and God bless Nigeria.