LETTER TO PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN AND MUHAMMADU BUHARI. Written by Saint-Olawale Jimoh

Dear Presidential Candidates,

     I believe that both of you followed the last US 2012 elections and learned a few lessons about democracy. You would recall that even when Florida votes had not been counted, the Republican had already conceded and accepted Obama as the winner. No guns involved, no bombs, no court cases, no cold wars, no kidnapping, no abuses and that's exactly what we want.

    No matter who wins or loses in 2015, nobody should incite bloodshed please!

      Few days to the commencement of our 2011 presidential election, one of the groups loyal a presidential candidate alleged that an aeroplane was loaded with electoral materials to rig the election, the allegation which was found to be untrue. While the false alarm is yet to die down, presidential election took place, one won and the other lost. Hell let loose at the northern part of the country where over 800 people lost their lives including 11 youth coppers who served as INEC electoral officers. What incited the mayhem was the comments of the one who lost. We don't want a repeat of such in our land.

       In fact, both of you must count yourself lucky and highly favoured for emerging again to be in position to be elected as the president of the Federal Republic Of Nigeria. You have both tasted the position once and emerging again is not just by chance, but a very rare privilege. Today, there are many brilliant and intelligent Nigerian youth who have best qualifications yet unemployed. Or how do we profile a 35 years old youth who still share same room with his parents and siblings. You guys must therefore count yourself lucky that you have youths who are not only unsuspecting but resilient and non-violent, else the story would have been different. This is more reason why you must see this as a golden opportunity to reshape Nigeria's history.
    

        President Goodluck Jonathan is a key to ensuring peace in the Niger-Delta in case he doesn't win. The ex-militants still listen to him. Muhammadu Buhari too can ensure there's peace in the North if only he can choose to accept in good faith if he's defeated in the on-coming election. Knowing fully well that negative comments from the defeated party can incite another untold bloodsheds.
Posterity will not forgive whoever goes against peaceful co-existence of Nigerians in whatever form.

NIGERIANS' QUEST FOR NEW PRESIDENT: BEHEADING IS NOT A CURE FOR HEADACHE. Written by Saint-Olawale Jimoh

  One of the reasons why the international communities are not taking our war against corruption serious, is because of our corrupt approach. Where we stand as part of this enterprise of Nigeria is not well defined. We want change but we are not absolutely sincere about it. Yet no matter how we want to rationalise it, there can never be a better definition of corruption than perversion of our institutional controls and laws? We allow sentiment to becloud our sense of true judgement. Incidentially, some of these unruly practices have a way of coming back to haunt us.
    Over the years, the Northerners were in charge of the military and they allowed all manners of individuals to get enlisted even without the required educational qualifications. They raised standard for all non-Northern candidates and lower it for the North in the name of federal character, that is what is boomeranging now. The result is what we are faced with today. We now have a military personnel who escaped military verification exercise over the years and eventually rose to the rank of Major General and was still not investigated as at the time he retired in 1985.
        If these practices continue unchecked or the likes of Buhari are allowed to have their ways despites their records, it means a dangerous precedent has been set in Nigeria and it will haunt the soul of this nation forever. In advance nations, perjury is taken as a serious offence, but it doesn't matter in Nigeria so long as we like the one who commited such offence. What a nation! Sometimes I wonder what we expect the younger generation to learn from all these.
       While President Goodluck Jonathan (GEJ) may not have done enough to convince some Nigerians why he must be re-elected, General Muhammad Buhari cannot be a better alternative. A man cannot change overnight, just as a tiger will never change its strips. Asides from the disputed certificate issue, Buhari has made many public indicting and inciting statements not befitting of a national leader. Making GEJ leadership ungovernable; bloody baboons stories, advocating BH amnesty, an attack on BH is a fight against the north and all of that.
      Past leaders including Buhari instilled fear into people in order to conceal and covered their ill-acts while others suppressed the press and other out-spoken sources. Governments before GEJ killed and silenced every grassroot interest in politics. But now, we can write, campaign and advertise politics as we wish. This is democracy!
There are other meaningful improvements. As at today, Nigeria's Interstate High Speed Rail Project has been listed amongst the world's top 100 infrastructure projects with a sense of fulfillment. Nigeria now has two automobile industries manufacturing vehicles, Innoson in Nnewi and Nissan in Lagos under this administration.
And last time I checked, our GDP is now viable, overtaking that of South Africa and Brazil for the first time. Nigeria is now the biggest economy in African. All these were achieved under an administration led by someone people say he's clueless.
As for the insurgency, it's a collective battle. If the Northern leaders have genuinely agreed to work with GEJ just like South-South leaders persuaded the militants to surrender their arms, things wouldn't have gone this bad.
In conclusion, the war against corruption must be absolute and not partial and should be championed by credible people with verifiable records!