It can never be “anything but Buhari” even as the threats to the union become more palpable, and uncertainties grip the nation. It will require a high degree of leadership wisdom to avert the impending doom, because, the country is precariously limited to a few decisions that must be carefully made to save the marriage. Just a mistake of retaining the divisive status quo or fielding another bad manager, can wreck the nation. Nigerians are desperately yearning for an alternative that can restore their hope.
We are at a critical juncture where we certainly need an urgent intervention if we must have the rare chance of salvaging a thoroughly battered Nigeria. The alternative to Buhari cannot and must never be about just any other person. It is not in doubt that a significant number of the Presidential hopefuls for 2019 will do better than Buhari, but performance opportunity will only come after the presidential election is won. And this goes beyond just a money bag or an enterprising candidate slugging it out with the incumbent. Several factors must be considered.
The leading opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has thrown open the process of selecting its Presidential candidate in line with fine democratic principles. It has also cobbled a loose but now budding alliance of about 30 political parties to form the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). The alliance is certainly strong enough to rescue Nigeria from the grip of a ferocious dictator and his blundering administration, but its prospects of success rest on fielding a candidate that has the political gravitas and reach.
It is a delicate period and any arrangement by the opposition to redeem the country would require a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – that is able to take several things into consideration, work on our fault lines, and sufficiently galvanise the nation. The SPV can only be driven by a stable, consummate, refined, corruption-free and popular candidate. Because, this patriotic intervention will amount to nothing without the selection of a good candidate. And that is why the Ahmed Makarfi option becomes sacrosanct because it towers above the rest in the winning factors.
The PDP-CUPP alliance must also realise there is no common language or strategy that could be deployed centrally to assuage the concerns of the different zones in the country. While restructuring is very strong on the plate of the South, insecurity and hunger could dominate the concerns of the North. The process needs a meeting of the mind with the people through a town hall engagement. This is what Makarfi, a two-time governor of Kaduna State has been doing, putting aside the purposeless jamboree of crowd gathering. His quality of engagements has been very outstanding.
As the tempest rages, Nigeria certainly needs as a President, a stable character whose stability of mind, measured through stable antecedents, could become very vital in stabilizing and uniting the country. This special quality can only be found in politically consistent characters like Makarfi, who have either over the years, develop a sound ideological trajectory or have remained consistent in their political leanings. With the right leadership, agitations can cease, fault lines can be repaired, and Nigeria can work, but it is not automatic. This is instructive for the PDP ahead of its primaries.
Abraham writes from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
