BUHARI: The Postponement of the 2015 Nigerian Presidential Election: What Would Pa Awo Have Done?

Suspend his campaign? Take a victory lap? Travel overseas, seeking attention and legitimacy from unregistered and non-participatory voters? Courting western leaders? Or take the postponement as a blessing in disguise - crisscrossing the entire length and breadth of Nigeria, propagating his populist leadership ideology, reassuring his followers and convincing the undecided voters that he is indeed the changer they seek? 

What would Awo have done in the face of uncontrolled uncertainties?

I certainly know what Pa Awo would have done. Twice, he came to my village, Ewohimi – Esan Tribal Region. First was in 1959, and then in 1979. I was at the 1979 rally with friends and family members. And not to be left out was my Mother, a huge fan and a disciple of the sage. It was not only my village that Pa Awo visited; he went round the entire Esan land and EVERY NOOK AND CORNER of Nigeria, asking for votes, teaching his social-liberal philosophy, the meaning of life and the essence of power and leadership. Today, it's all about MEGA RALLY at state capitals. None of the candidate can decipher the sound of my last name or who we are as a tribe and as a region. Hardly have you come across any candidate interacting one on one with would be voters or engaging the crowded arena in real lecture on the philosophy of what the party represents, or why he, as a candidate, is the better alternative.

I thought General Buhari, being disadvantaged by incumbency factor, would readily jump on the postponement to re-brand his progressive messages. He is at the moment in London, England, seen addressing a hall populated by black faces. Without any sense of equivocation, this trip is inconceivable and strategically speaking, ill-advised. The international community knows who General Buhari is. The trip is a sideshow, and in every respect, a fruitless ego maneuvering. Of what use taking your campaign before a foreign audience at this very late in the race, the same audience whose view or opinion of you will not have any direct or remote impact on the behavior of Nigerian voters at home.  It doesn't make sense.

By the way, where is the progressive narrative General Buhari and APC are marketing? Every political party wants to fight corruption. The fact that it is your goal or desire to fight corruption is not a manifesto or a slogan that voters would willingly embrace. They heard that before in the past, and also from the other candidates. Develop a definite plan of action on how you hope to eliminate corruption from our political system. Why is corruption insurmountable? That is the issue. Do you represent that value? Do you project that value? Is there any thing, performance, pronouncements - concrete examples - in your past that tend to project or emphasize that value.

Also, you want to build roads and open up the hinterland to the major cities. Your opponent is already doing that - building roads, constructing bridges and rail way lines at unprecedented scale. You just have to brand yourself, General.

Given the fact that you declined a one on one debate or confrontation with your major opponent, this period would have been an ideal moment to embark on a televised Town Hall Meeting kind of campaign. In that case, you would have had the opportunity to take questions from arranged friendly audience and loyal fans – using the opportunity to refurbish your corruption fighting skills and reassuring the undecided voters in the process what your candidacy represents.

There is no denying the fact that the extremist image painted of the retired General regarding religion and insurgency in the North-eastern part of Nigeria by his opponent is frightening. What I would have done, if I am managing him or his campaign, and in addition to the Town Hall Meetings, is to arrange for a major speech to be delivered at either Unilag or ABU, focused on tolerance, diversity, sharia law, free education, managing our monstrous federal system, and mechanisms to eliminating corruptions from our public service. You cannot overcome that void with foreign trips. Awo did the same regarding his funding of free education at all levels program. In 2008, Barack Obama had to proceed to the Constitutional Center in Philadelphia to give a major speech about race and racism. General Buhari is not helping his ticket, travelling to UK to court western leaders. Democracy is about campaigning and wining at the poll. You are not there yet, Sir. 

At this juncture, I will not hesitate to cut President Jonathan some slack - he has succeeded in taking his battle to Tinubu's own back yard, with devastating precision, meeting with diverse interest groups, and consolidating his message of change unhindered. More importantly, there is no doubt that the picture of President Jonathan at the Naval Dock Yard in Lagos, standing side by side with Naval Officers and commissioning four newly acquired Navy Warships is a knockout blow to all the former Generals and Presidents who came before him. So, General Buhari and his handlers must change gear and focus on the undecided voters who are still skeptical of the Retired General's Islamic fundamentalist label painted of him by the opposition.