...BUT, AGE IS 'A GAME OF NUMBER'

President Buhari of Nigeria

There had not been so much ecstasy in Nigeria as it was in March when, after a much-kicked effort, General Buhari was elected as the president of Nigeria. It was a time when Nigerians all over the globe, for the first time in 15 years, thumbed-up for INEC, for at least giving Nigerian electorates the taste of the soup they paid for.

But, Nigeria has never had the global attention it had days before the election. The sights and sounds of global leaders were, during the pre-election days, channelled to Nigeria. They called for peace. They called for change.

One thing was that GMB might not have won, but GEJ lost. GEJ didn’t lose in the poll but in the six-year race as president of Nigeria; he lost Nigerians’ support, not really their votes. His failure is unconnected to the bothersome shenanigans which his government hosted and aided with impunity. 

GEJ had lost the election even before the polling date; for the cash which was smoked-off to the tune of 3 Trillion Naira (for bribery and tout-renting during the election) was a mere frivolity which meant nothing to the voter.

One man argued that Nigerians needed change. So, even if I was the one who picked the Presidential form in the opposition party, I would have been a good alternative to GEJ. The truth: change is constant!

Nigerians needed change at a time when life was totally unbearable, regardless of the party or person.  The wrinkled skins and rumbled lips were our least concern. We cared less about the grandpa-like accents and the unclear tonality which we heard during the campaign. We needed the deeply-rooted wisdom which sits in the reverberating sounds of change, which lurks within those baritones voices of GMB.

Our hopes are high, and our confidence strongly reposed in GMB, not because of his age; were it for age, we would have at best gone for a younger candidate, not even GEJ.

We wanted change. We wanted a fulfilled democrat, learned, informed and with the widest scope of thought and exposure on state’s affairs. We know that GMB knows Nigeria more than GEJ. He has got some cool clues about the country owing to his statesmanship roles in the country.

Change’s hotspot is on with about 150 million people tethered to it. Age is nothing to us but... ‘a game of number’

Emmanuel Shebbs