I woke up a little after 3am thinking about Nigeria and its future.
Sliced bread is metaphoric for a near perfect and elitist state of existence. It represents ready made situations, it represents an organised state of things, in fact it simply represents the best among the rest.
Nigerians would love their standard of living to look like sliced bread. Special, worthy, respected and valued.
The question is, who will engineer them to that status? When I think about the three leading candidates in the forthcoming elections, I find that we are in very interesting times.
Let’s start with their similarities.
First, the three of them are all past ‘Excellencies’.
Secondly, they all had 8years to prove themselves.
Thirdly, they are all passionate about wanting to lead Nigeria.
Now their antecedents:
Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu is one of the architects of modern Lagos. A city that has been blessed with progressive governors, who left a mark on the sands of time as far as infrastructural development is concerned. From things Jakande built to places Marwa cleaned, from people Tinubu raised to solutions Ambode provided etc
Tinubu is an astute politician with an enviable track record of winning elections, he has a big war chest, in other words his barrel is full of dollars. If His history is anything to go by, he is the Next President of Nigeria.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
Atiku is an enterprising politician who has benefitted immensely from the northern political oligarchy.
His businesses are multi million dollar concerns, his coterie of wives come from the north, south, east and west. As Vice President he had a very outstanding record of contribution to national development , but this changed when his principal suspected him of treachery, corruption etc.
Aside the strength and spread of his party coupled with his ancestry in the north, his glory is fading.
Peter Obi
After 8years of transformational leadership in the face of probably the most turbulent tenure of any governor in Nigeria’s political history has ever had, Peter Obi can best described as an indefatigable fighter.
Thrown out of office twice. Betrayed internally and externally, yet he stayed the course and focused on his goals, one can say He has the grit of a long distance runner, for just when you think they are about to tire from all the stress, that is when they refire.
He is not a Politician in Nigerian context. He left office without a pension or any compensation. He left significant sums in government coffers.
But perhaps one of his greatest legacies, was his commitment to institutions. Equipping schools, building hospitals and paying promptly for services rendered.
His lifestyle of prudence is rare and difficult to match by even average Nigerians. Disciplined people of his kind seldom win even the position of Class Captain, it is still a miracle he won a gubernatorial election. Of tested and trusted was a person, his name will match the phrase.
In a nutshell
The strongest points for Tinubu and Atiku are the structure of their respective parties. APC and PDP share the 36states between them. Obi’s Labour Party doesn’t even have an local government chairman.
It is perhaps for this reason that the largest unregistered party in Nigeria which is the Nigerian youth have decided to constitute themselves into the structure that Labour Party needs.
Again without reiterating the current situation of things in Nigeria, the average Nigerian knows that Tinubu and Atiku have little to lose if things remain the same.
Obi is not perfect, but while all the other candidates sound like the regular empty promises, whenever he speaks , many Nigerians forget politics and think of their realities and the future.
His major archilles heel today is his ethnic heritage. Aside political affiliation, Nigerians, regardless of their exposure or experience are still significantly tribal in thinking.
One thing however is almost certain. Nigerians want sliced bread. By land, By air or By sea, we are one of the most immigrated nations in the world, what are we looking for outside , if it is not sliced bread- A place where things work.
Nigerians want to be top of the shelf in their own country and on the table of value accross the world. A foreigner is credited to have said Nigeria is the only nation he knows where foreigners are treated better than citizens.
Nigerians are tired of artificial love induced by election seasons and evidenced in vote buying and stomach infrastructure. Some of them seem ready to spend their money today for a sustainable tomorrow.
This also shows that Nigerians are not just waiting for a messiah, rather they are joining hands as apostles on the journey to national salvation who daily preach the gospel of a bright future where no one old or young will ever labour in vain.
Nigerians don’t want to play fourth fiddle anymore. We want to be among the best. We want to be first among equals, we even want our own sliced bread to be the best bread in the world like record breaking Tobi Amusan.
Our dream is to have a life smooth as ice and twice as nice, just like sliced bread.
So, if you like the distinguished look of sliced bread.
Vote Wisely!
Charles Okeibunor
I invite you to follow me on twitter @Okeibunor11
