In a particular town, a certain man is infamous for his ease at marrying and divorcing wives too often. Women do not stay with him for long in marriage. At one moment he is with a woman, his wife, the next moment, he has divorced that woman, and in few months, he finds another woman, a new wife. He wastes no time at getting a new wife. He now has a long chain of divorce as an ‘achievement’. His home is a war zone; if he’s not fighting his new wife, his new wife is fighting his children from other women, or the children fighting themselves based on mother line. Some believe he has not been lucky when it comes to women, others believe he doesn’t know how to treat women. Whichever way you look at his situation, one thing is evidently clear; ‘there is something wrong somewhere.’
In 2015, it was ‘Any Option But Jonathan’. Although I wasn’t a fan of the Jonathan’s administration, but I remember stating in one of my articles then, before the election, that, Nigeria might end up like a man who got fed up with his wife, divorced her, and then rushed to marry a new wife, only for him to realise that the new wife is far worse than the former. Sadly, what I thought then, came to be, as it’s clearly evident today that the administration that replaced Jonathan’s (the new wife Nigeria married), is worse than failure. Nigerians are regretting voting the current ‘head’ of government to power; quintessential of a man regretting marrying a new wife that’s worse than the former; a new wife that’s almost causing him death.
Alas, the same mistake is about wearing a crown. It appears the frustrated man is set to divorce his current wife for another lady. It’s a déjà vu.
As 2019 approaches, Nigeria, a bleeding nation, like the pathological divorcer hoping his next wife will be better than the current one that’s giving him serious issues, is set to elect someone to become president, who is expected to perform better than the current ‘head’ of government. And like in 2015, it is now, ‘Any Option But Buhari.’ There is a danger in this. Any ‘option’ is not a well thought out option, and hence may not be a good choice. It may be a disaster. The mistake made in 2015 is about repeating itself.
Now, let’s look at the life of this man in that village who divorces and marries effortlessly. What is that thing that’s wrong which he is yet to discover? It is not necessarily that he is a bad or hostile man, and neither is it true that these women he divorced are bad; no, they’re not bad. There is woman for every man, and there is a man for every woman. Jessica might be a good wife to Philip, but not a good wife to Francis, and so can Samuel be a good husband to Rachel, but a bad husband to Gloria. It therefore means that one has to take his or her time to search and get the right partner, and when you miss that step, you end up marrying someone that should be for another person. Applying this to politics and governance for instance, Buhari loves his tribal people and might be a good leader to them, and so he’ll serve better as the Governor of Katsina state, and will not serve well as the president of Nigeria, as we can see. Somewhere in one of the states in Nigeria, someone is performing poorly as a Governor, such might do better as a president of Nigeria; who knows?
Going further, the man who has a knack for marriages and divorce, having failed to search properly before making a choice, lands himself in the prison of regret and frustration. His frustration snowballs into a state of desperation and rush, and then he jumps into another marriage; a fresh dangerous mistake. Apparently, we are at that desperate time now, and sitting on the edge of a fatal error, and if care is not taking, we might elect someone worse than the current ‘head’ of Nigerian government. Some would argue that no one can be as bad as Buhari. That is however not a certainty. Make no mistake, someone can be worse than Buhari. We know that the presidency is more or less zoned to the North, and we know that an average Northerner is sentimentally sensitive to national issues. What happens if ‘Any Option But Buhari’ produces an ethnoreligious bigot with a youthful vigour?
And come to think of it, must we always settle for the average? Do we forbid the best? Come 2019, there are going to be several options. Majority of these options will not have the political capital to win an election. But we must not allow the best to lose this election because he or she has no political capital across the length and breadth of this nation like the two major parties. We can lend ourselves to such, as part of his or her political capital. I have decided that I won’t just sit on the fence this time and watch without voting. I’ll vote come 2019. Therefore, I’m making this clarion call to you all my friends, and I hope you extend the clarion call to your friends, and your friends also extend the call to their friends. And what is this call about? That we look out for the best presidential candidate and support him, irrespective of his or her unpopular party. No matter how unpopular the party his, we can make the party very popular by using our individual means, medium or platforms to campaign for the candidate, and by that, we can increase his or her political capital. Who says any other party apart from APC or PDP can’t win an election? Let us change that mentality and create a beautiful history. If we truly care about this nation, we must give ourselves freely to support the best, and to get this best, we would need to conduct a proper examination on each of these candidates. We can make good use of social media as well to achieve this goal. It’s high time we got rid of this culture of aligning with the perceived winning team in our quest to fulfil our civic duty during elections. Please, let us spread this gospel.
The man known for regular divorce, always has issues with his wives that no one can settle him with these women; issues that are irreconcilable. The new wife is never better for him. One is sure to hit irreconcilable differences in marriage when there is no proper background check and scrutiny before such marriage. General Bolivia, a highlife musician from my place, in one of his songs, says; “Emha le binu’shishi, nena th’omo yeo, omo mhe ye mho egbha, nu kha nw’isomhi photo (the background or family needs to be scrutinised before marriage, be careful my son, so you don’t marry based on photo {physical appearance})” The consequence of not knowing the true nature and background of the person you’re getting married to is divorce, just like the infamous man in that town. As 2019 draws near, we must examine with utmost care, the person to whom we are entrusting the life of this nation before voting. We must kill sentiments and do the needful. We cannot afford to again ride on a desperation-boat, for the one we got in in 2015 brought Nigeria to this current mess, and should we jump into another desperation-boat, it may sink this country down the sea this time. We have the best among us; let us search for that best. ‘Any Option But Buhari’ should not be our option.
