The 2015 Buhari, Jonathan contest

By  Benjamin Aobiajulu Aduba

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 14, 2015 election, has dealt a severe political blow to President Goodluck Jonathan’s head, capable of staggering the president. The impact of the blow would be seen in the future and would depend on Buhari following up with more blows and also on how Mr. Jonathan responds to the body blow.

Within few days of winning the APC nomination, Buhari declared his assets and by the action he dared JEG to follow suit. Or be designated a corrupt politician. It is GMB’s first show of his hand: he will make corruption a kind of heavy armor in his arsenal. He has placed GEJ in a bind. The constitution requires asset declaration after one wins the election and JEG has won before without obeying this requirement. What is he hiding? Will GMB follow up this line at his every campaign stop and how shrill would he be? We shall see.

JEG has two options: Declare his own assets, hopefully it would be creditable and stand scrutiny. Luckily for him the declaration is allowed with broad statements like GMB’s: I have at least 1 million naira in the bank. A statement that would be true even if it turned out that he has I trillion naira in the bank and would be a lie only if he has “a mere N900,000” to his name.

Or find another matter where GMB has a comparable failing. I have no idea what that would be.

He can dig into his past positions as governor, minster, and Head Of State. He has a track record.

In the absence of such a finding, the West who fear GMB’s religion might come to forgive this “religious sin” and provide him clandestine support. Or at least turn a blind eye. As for Nigerians corruption has long seized to be a punishable offence.

But for GMB to succeed with this weapon, he must weld it with dexterity. Show convincing anger and show how he would be different. Both himself and his team.

Obiajulu  Aduba is a US-based Nigerian professional.