ATIKU OR BUHARI, A CHOICE WITHOUT REAL CHOICE?

Icheoku says like the proverbial two knives in the household  of a poor person, wherein one knife is sharp but has no handle and the other knife has handle but is not sharp, the APC is stranded between two not so good choices in the declared presidential candidacies of Muhammadu Buhari and Abubakar Atiku. Icheoku says ordinarily no political party would want or prefer such a situational limbo in choosing who flies their presidential flag, especially in an election cycle many consider as the opposition's to lose? But regrettably though, this seems now the sure fate of destiny that awaits the APC as their choices have drastically and threateningly narrowed to just two detestable, much loathed and highly unelectable candidates, Buhari and Atku. 

Icheoku says both candidates, having repeatedly ran for the office and now literally morphed into presidential candidates emeritus, have somewhat become very desperate and dangerous or at least are now perceived as so? Icheoku says such craving-desperation by both Muhammadu Buhari and Abubakar Atiku for the office of Nigeria's president forebodes of something sinister. So it is very safe to assume that both Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar are driven not by their altruism, but by some other ulterior motive, including obtaining a platform to take  out vengeance as well as the power to do evil. They should therefore be stopped, prevented and avoided.

Icheoku says considering the dearth of other credible potential presidential candidates in the APC and the near-desperateness of this two already irredeemably damaged presidential candidates Buhari and Atiku,  it is increasingly becoming obvious that the APC is running on empty in their quest to snatch from President Jonathan, the keys to Aso Rock in 2015? But cruel fate has apparently boxed the party into a corner with this two leprous candidates, non of who would nor could yield them their desire to form the next government at the center. Icheoku maintains that except a miracle is pulled off the hat of Bola Tinubu in giving Nigerians a presidential candidate they could vote for, the APC's dream of shoving Jonathan out of Aso Rock in 2015 might remain a hollow pipe dream and at best an illusionary nightmare. 

Icheoku says never in the annals of Nigerian political engineering has two frontline presidential candidates of a major political party, especially the opposition, come this laden with weighty putrid baggages. The two presidential   candidates, Muhammadu Buhari and Abubakar Atiku, both come heavily laden, heavily handicapped and heavily damaged with political barbs the APC wish they never carried or have to deal with. Icheoku says this is the dilemma of the All Peoples Congress Party as they search for an acceptable and credible candidate to fly their presidential flag this 2015 election season in Nigeria. Unfortunately, with Buhari and Atiku, their search remains a work in progress that requires more concert and grit. Call it the conflict of abstractions of two opposites or the lack of a fulfilled cause in a given quantum or a choice with no real choice or the compound dilemma. A complexity of complexities of some sort, that in either candidate, the party is not satisfied nor fulfilled that they have a winning candidate. 

Icheoku maintains that the candidacy of either Buhari or Atiku would be an insurmountable problem for the APC to solve or try to sell to Nigerians in the 2015 presidential election. Neither Buhari nor Atiku is the "IT" candidate and none of them is the much needed magical silver bullet to 'shoot' Jonathan out of Aso Rock in 2015. 

First Muhammadu Buhari, the austere one, although  disciplined enough to lead Nigerians is rather too fundamentalistic or at least perceived as such by Nigerians. Icheoku laments that unfortunately his handlers are not helping matters or doing enough at solving this his image problem which is hounding him and heavily militating against his electoral chances. Muhammadu Buhari is also too mean-spirited, lean and dangerous. As William Shakespeare observed of Cassius through Julius Caesar, such men should be feared and Nigerians have been put on notice. It is also arguable that Muhammadu Buhari might be more disposed to solving Nigeria's intractable corruption problem; but there is increasing fear in some quarters that he might not be able to put his money where his mouth is once the wheeling and dealing of election is done and he is sworn in, especially with Bola Tinubu calling the shots. 

In recent past, Muhammadu Buhari had threatened to reveal the type of corrupt NNPC and Nigeria's oil industry the duo of Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo ran respectively? He never followed through, but instead  made a b-line and backed down under pressure? Muhammadu Buhari also not too long ago, visited the Kano State and at the grave site of Sani Abacha, extolled him as the best head of State Nigeria ever had? Icheoku bemoans how a man like Abacha, who committed untold atrocities on both the physical and psyche of Nigerians, and who stole Nigeria blind to the tune of over three billion dollars, with some of his loot still being repatriated back to Nigeria, could be qualified by any sane Nigerian talk less of one who wants to be their president, as the best leader Nigeria ever had? 

Icheoku adds that any mind or brain that could arrive at this judgment or opinion, about the despicable midget of Kano, and despite the myriad of evidence and facts of consequence at everybody's disposal, is a mind-demented, a mind-troubled with reality or one simply delusional as to what is or what was? Till date and over thirty one odd years after, Muhammadu Buhari has also not been able to satisfactorily explain to Nigerians the circumstances surrounding the 53 suitcases that his then ADC Jokolo smuggled into Nigeria during the currency exchange in 1984? Icheoku says it is simply difficult, if not impossible, for such a mind as fore encapsulated, to be compatible with a mind that is seriously anti-corruption tinged or that would successfully lead Nigerians out of the woods and into the promised land. 

Icheoku says that Muhammadu Buhari is a very mean person  and has succeeded in alienating himself from decent and sensitive Nigerians is equally obvious. Buhari has been on the stage before and his records then was not stellar. Buhari  has killed innocent Nigerians before and would do it again? Buhari is also finding it extremely difficult to understand or accept how repulsive and abhor able an act it is to carry out the sentence of death on anyone based on a retroactive decree? Buhari is also finding it difficult to appreciate why civilized Nigerians are mad as hell at him for murdering those three innocent Nigerians whom his junta accused of drug peddling? Icheoku says no man with a good soul would kill innocent people who did not break any death-sentence law or arbitrarily carry out a sentence of death on them  just to prove that he is a blood-thirty monster that should  be feared. Icheoku says Buhari needs to understand that what he did was not only wrong but violates every sensibilities of a civilized behavior and must make atonement for them. Icheoku says humans do not just kill people just because they can and Buhari, except his habitat is in Serengeti, needs to apologize to Nigerians, particularly the families of those deceased three, and ask for general forgiveness. 

Further Buhari's overthrow of a duly elected President Shehu Shagari's democratic government is equally an albatross on his neck. Icheoku says Buhari cannot be allowed to probate and reprobate on an issue. So a denier of democracy cannot be allowed to turn around and seek to be a beneficiary of the same democracy he previously spurned and disparaged. Then add Decree 4, the muzzle-decree, that forbade any criticism of his junta regime and you see a man running amok with absolutely laboring to control every facet of life of fellow Nigerians. 

Icheoku says Muhammadu Buhari's baggage is too plentiful, it hurts his chances so much.  The Buhari then is the same Buhari now and there is no evidence that he has seriously walked himself back into the minds and hearts of decent Nigerians. Icheoku therefore maintains that an APC presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari is not sellable to Nigerians,, despite some fanatical following in certain  quarters of the country. Buhari's despotism is still there, although arguably latent, but would surely bubble back to the fore in the event of his getting back to power.  

Icheoku agrees with Mohmmed Abdulrahman that although "Buhari may be a good person and can also be a good leader but he will never "rule" Nigeria again. Buhari was and still remains a dictator and has no business analysing political processes and direction. Buhari was a die-hard dictator who executed those three drug carriers unlawfully and jailed the newspaper men, who exposed the truth. Buhari cannot be President of Nigeria again. It takes more than being a good person to be President of Nigeria, considering other factors, like quality of being humane as in humanity, ethnicity, religion as well as other factors."

Abubakar Atiku on the other hand, is a much more amenable of the two candidates to all the different disparities in Nigeria. Atiku is more liberal with his religious views and inter-personal relationships with other Nigerians who do not knock their forehead on the ground in prayerful supplication to their "God or Allah or whatever nomenclature that suits?" However, Atiku's worst leg-chain is that the is eminently very corrupt. Put in another way,  Icheoku says Abubakar Atiku could be described as a personification of corruption or the human face of corruption in Nigeria. It is on record that till date Atiku is yet to accept Baba Iyabo's challenge to travel to the United States and be arrested for corruption? 

Nigerians are aware that Atiku Abubakar is a fugitive on the run from justice in the United States of America on account of multiple  corruption one of which was implicated in the case that sent US Congressman from Louisiana William Jefferson to prison. It was on account of this that Baba Iyabo, Olusegun Obasanjo, sarcastically remarked "I dey laugh" when the issue of Atiku's first attempt at running for the presidency was broached. It is also on record that Atiku Abubakar has nothing to show for explanation as the source of his stupendous wealth, other than that he worked for the Nigerian Custom and Excise and then went into politics?  

Icheoku says if Bola Tinubu ever settles for any of this two candidates, he will have some serious explaining to do for Nigerians on why they should trust their destiny in either evils?  But the man who owns and runs APC PLC will first have to inform Nigerians in APC, why they should choose a very mean-spirited Muhammadu Buhari over a very corrupt Atiku Abubakar or vice versa. 

Icheoku says that both men have unsuccessfully made the same bid for Aso Rock, on two occasions in the past and each time came miserably short of the goalpost, does not bode well for this repeat attempt. Icheoku harps that nothing has changed since their previous presidential runs, both in their like-ability factor and their campaign performance/strategy, to warrant or suggest that this time the outcome is going to be anything different? None of the candidates have developed any wow factor or mesmerized Nigerians enough for them to suddenly fall in love with them and fall in line behind them. 

But until APC decides or settles on which of the two unelectable candidates, Icheoku wishes them luck in their effort at displacing the man already occupying Aso Rock, President Goodluck Jonathan? An occupant who would have ordinarily been easily beaten due to non performance and Nigerians disenchantment with his governance thus far, but the lack of any credible alternative would force Nigerians to go to the poll with their noses covered and reluctantly cast their ballots for Jonathan and the PDP in 2015. As the saying goes, the devil one knows is still far better than the strange but possibly bellicose angel. As between the deep blue sea that either Buhari or Atiku choice represents, and the hard rock which the non performing government of Goodluck or rather "Hardluck" or "Badluck" Jonathan is, the bet is that survival chances are better with the hard rock than ending up as dinner or lunch in one marine mammal. 

Peradventure, the APC might settle for an entirely and surprisingly new candidate, possibly of previously unknown quantity, but who would be credible enough to be accepted by Nigerians. If such candidate emerges and provided it is not a candidate just to replace an already in place Christian president or displace an already in place South-south candidate or simply for power shift back to the same Northwest, then APC might stand a chance at forming the next government in 2015. Nigerians are disillusioned at the government of President Jonathan inability to have real traction on the firmament and would gladly welcome a better option for a change but this option must not and should not include either Muhammadu Buhari or Atiku Abubakar. Icheoku emphasizes that unless APC makes to Nigerians an offer they could not refuse nor resist with a viable Jonathan's alternative, the 2015 race will be President Jonathan's to loose with either Buhari or Atiku flying their presidential flag. In that case, Nigerians would rather vote against either Buhari or Atiku and thus elect Jonathan by default as a preferred evil. Until then, Icheoku alongside millions of other Nigerians, will join Baba Iyabo in saying "we dey laugh o" at the declared presidential intention of Abubakar Atiku and Muhammadu Buhari's based on their antecedents and their electability question. What an albatross? What a Catch-22 nobody in APC would otherwise want?