Who Should I Vote For?

That’s the question a young lad very close to me asked me today. I guess the lad asked me because he heard that during the US presidential election that pitted Hillary Clinton against the then candidate Donald Trump, I predicted who will win about two months before the election. Many people were surprised at my prediction. Some called me mumu. Some called me plain mad. They asked, can't you see the handwriting on the wall? Can’t you see what the opinion polls say? They said Hillary has won even before the election they chorused. I laughed. They were all to come back and eat their words. Till date, a certain man that goes by the name Robert Muller is still investigating how the Russians helped Trump to win the US presidential election. Straws in the wind. If you want to read more about my prediction read it here.

As every marketer knows, a good product sells itself. You don’t need to go about knocking doors literally begging and crying please buy my product, buy my product, sometimes using strong-arm tactics, pure lies, deceit, half-truths, manipulation, coercion, force, threats, invading the national assembly, sacking of the Chief Justice of the Federation, you name it. My good friend Mohammed Jalal even commented that were it to be in China, the CJN would have been shot. Jalal forgot to mention the system of government China has. It’s called Communism. There you have the Chinese Communist Party. It's a one party state. Stealing attracts one bullet to the head. In Nigeria, Pa Imodu and Mallam Aminu Kano toyed with the idea We all know what happened. They were rejected. We chose democracy that rises and falls on the principle of "the rule of law." Fela would call it DEM ALL CRAZY. 

So back to marketing to help you decide. The aim of MARKETING Drucker says, â€œis to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself. “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” Another guru, Andre Chaperon, said "MARKETING is the way we communicate how our ideas translate to value for people seeking to solve a problem or meet a desired outcome." Great marketers believe first and foremost in empathy. They put the customer first. Enter Seth Godin, another marketing guru, "Great marketers have empathy - empathy for what's going through the other person's head." A great marketer says I feel the way you feel. He tells people here’s what you should be doing about it and here’s how - specific. He helps provide people with focus, which leads to clarity, which gives power. Power gives understanding. Understanding gives certainty. Certainty gives trust. Without trust, people won’t take action.

 Clarity is very pivotal to leadership because it’s what gives people a sense of direction - where they are headed or being led to. In a world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, Nigeria needs a courageous leader that takes them not necessarily to where they want to go, but where they ought to be. However, courage is not enough; Nigeria needs a leader who has loads of vision. Nigeria need a visionary leader in the mold of Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and, Harry S. Truman rolled into one. Of Grant, this is what Wikipedia has to say “During the Reconstruction Era President Grant led the Republicans in their efforts to remove the vestiges of Confederate nationalism, racism, and slavery. The same Wikipedia has this snippet on Roosevelt, “His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore, alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. In polls of historians and political scientists, Roosevelt is generally ranked as one of the five best presidents.” And finally on Truman, Wikipedia says this on one of the deeds that makes America a country worth dying for, “…issued Executive Orders to start racial integration in the military and federal agencies.”

 So who are the marketers selling us their wares? First on the block is the All Progressive Congress (APC) selling the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari. As the incumbent, he has had almost four years to prove himself. He rode on the arc of popular sentiments to power and was sworn in President on 29th May, 2015. So I don’t bias your opinion, I’m not going to repeat what people say about him on social media, but this is what his current campaign chief, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC national leader, said about Buhari in 2003, â€œGeneral Muhammadu Buhari is an agent of destabilization, ethnic bigot and religious fanatic who, if given the chance, would ensure the disintegration of the country. His ethnocentrism would jeopardise Nigeria’s unity.” However, understanding that in politics there are no permanent friends and enemies only permanent interest, Tinubu swung his weight behind Buhari in 2015 ensuring Buhari’s easy ride to power. Among others that saw Buhari’s to Aso Rock in that year were gods like ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, General (Rtd.) T. Y. Danjuma, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Senator Bukola Saraki, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso and lesser gods like the then Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana, Dele Momodu, Femi Adeshina, and Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, to mention a few. Jonathan’s fate was sealed.

Buhari’s backers were all united in the conviction that the President at the time, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, was not the right man for the job. They also strongly believed General Buhari (Rtd.) had changed (as he claimed) and was a fully-fledged democrat. Buhari was incorruptible. He owned no oil blocks. He was poor, living on his meager army officer’s pension, a closely guarded secret. Indeed he was so poor he could not afford to pay for the APC presidential nomination form pegged at N27million. An anonymous volunteer bought the form for him strongly believing Buhari once in power would swing into action and deliver everything in line with APC’s manifesto. Read the APC,s copyrighted Election Manifesto here. APC through the Buhari’s government would eradicate CORRUPTION and bring in CHANGE. The broom would be the tool, the equipment, and the technology to send corruption to permanent retirement and usher in a new corruption-free Nigeria. The broom was everywhere, dancing in stadia all over Nigeria. In Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, the price of broom skyrocketed from N200 ($1.25) to N2,000 ($12.50) per broom. Exchange rate at the time was $1 = N160. Today it's $1 = N360, the bank authorised rate.

 Has Buhari delivered? Nigerians are used to suffering. They've been suffering since 1960. So they ask for patched roads, electricity (if just for 3 hours per day), average schools (not Mayflower), basic hospitals (not John Hopkins), security (not British Police), armed forces (not American Marines). Just the basics. Still not to bias you the voter, I will not reel out the indices from credible world institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Labour Organization (ILO) about the state of our economy, maternal mortality rate, exchange rate, year-on-year inflation rate, population growth rate or the general management of the economy as a whole. As we said, a good product markets itself and requires no hard sell. By now Buhari’s good deeds should be speaking for him. He would have been sitting cozily in his country home in Daura sipping tea from Nigeria’s Mambilla Plateau (some say the best tea in the world is on the Mambilla) and Arabian coffee from Ethiopia. Buhari wouldn’t need to be limping all over the place to be booed almost everywhere he goes, including Abeakuta and Kano, both APC controlled states.

If Buhari had performed, by that I mean delivered what APC promised, even if by 30%, he would not have been deserted by almost 90% of the people that backed him in 2015, including Obasanjo, Danjuma, Atiku, Saraki, Dogara, and even Tinubu, whose body language is as difficult to decipher as a quasar. Even another of his campaign chiefs, Rotimi Amaechi, has been caught on tape saying that Buhari has nothing to offer. As if the big guns abandoning him were not enough, over 99.99% of his supporters on social media have all deserted him. I kept count in 2015. The APC come across as a party of riffraffs, ready to “go to war”, send people home in “body bags”, call other countries including the US, UK and the EU to order. What an irony noting that in 2015 APC begged US to ensure the elections were free and fair. Buhari even threatened to "make the country ungovernable" if the elections were not only fair but clearly seen to be so. Today nothing is beyond the APC. Nigeria is not a banana republic they thump their chest.

The other party selling itself is the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The PDP used to humor itself as the biggest party in Africa, boasting 60 million members. It boasted it would rule for 100 years, why not 1000 years as the third Reich? It didn’t say. Then everything came tumbling down like a park of cards. It ruled for just 16 years (1999 – 2015). Like all other political parties, it lacked and continues to lack internal party democracy. It was so bad in 2015 when they reimposed Jonathan, about half the party’s big guns, including Obasanjo, Atiku and Saraki, to mention three, left the party. That’s, however, a story for another day.

The PDP’s flag-bearer is said to be corruption personified. Ex-president Obasanjo was once his most vitriolic attacker. To cut a long story short, all the deserters are back to the party united in one task, to get Buhari out of power. The PDP has since pleaded for forgiveness. Noting Nigerians have short memories, you can start hearing the empty slogan PDP! Power!!, in the air all over the place. While Buhari has not been able to articulate why he should be returned to power, Atiku has carefully articulated his blueprint to bring Nigeria out of the abyss. Though a Muslim as Buhari, his support cuts across religious, ethnic, and tribal lines. Not much younger than Buhari (72 against 76), he seems to be in much robust health than Buhari. With all the powers under Buhari’s control, Atiku, is clearly the underdog.

 We have come a full circle. The party, which was rejected by Nigerians just four years ago, is now being looked upon as the lesser of the two evils. Atiku is the messiah to take Nigerians, as the Biblical Israelites, to The Promised Land. Like drowning men and women who cannot but latch unto any straw, Atiku is now Nigeria’s last hope against disintegration PDP would want us to believe. Buhari has said he would not come back after 2023, as if that matters. APC has said it underestimated the extent of Nigeria’s rut under Jonathan, yet the clueless Jonathan ruled for just six years. If we are to believe APC, how come they came up with their “beautiful blueprint”, according to their then party’s spokesman, Lai Mohammed, referring to APC’s Manifesto, to salvage Nigeria from rut?

So who do we vote for, Buhari or Atiku? In 2017, I predicted President Trump would win about two months before the election. Again you can read what I said here. The best I can say to Nigerians is to go out en-mass and vote for the candidate of their choice just as the Americans did in 2017, just as we did in 2015 and just as we did in 1993. Remember June 12. Vote for Nigeria and not for a candidate. I know who will carry the day. I will vote for Nigeria. Make your vote count if you love Nigeria.