WHILE I was a student at Mayflower School, Dr Tai Solarin used to tell us lot of things especially how to be great men and women when we grow up and how we could make a big difference in the entity called Nigeria. Then, we were just school children and we never took him serious preferring to indulge in our youthful exuberant. However of all things he told us, I will forever remember an incident he claimed happened to him while he was at Molusi College, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun-State.According to him the final year students always take it in-turn among themselves to go to the market and buy the food stuffs needed by the whole school on a weekly basis. As a rule all the students that had their turn before Tai, normally dont buy meat to be included in the meal when they had to take eba or amala as supper. One would have thought there wasnt enough money for such frivolities. When it was Tais turn, he found out that after buying the usual food stuffs, there was still lots of money left. He was surprised! He could put the money in his pocket as the people before him had done but it was not his money. It was the schools money by extension the students money. He could return the difference as change but none before him had done that before. He decided to use the change to buy meat for the whole school. This has never been done before. In the evening when supper was served, to the surprise of all the students, it was served with meat! The whole school went into wild jubilation singing and clapping that Tai has done it again! Tai has done it again! Through that week supper was always served with meat. After Tais turn the next person could not afford to serve without meat and that was how meat became a regular part of their supper. Now that I am much older, I now understood the message he was trying to get across then.Since the return of the country to democratic rule in 1999, one would have thought by now, we would have become a nation with good roads, electricity, pipe borne water etc. However the PDP led government have ensured we remain a nation without any meaningful development. There is no better time than now to get this government out of power for the next 60 years! This government is an aberration and should be voted out in April 2011.I have asked myself many times, this simple question; what does Nigerians want What is required to govern a country like Nigeria Is our Nation an alien Nation that will require spirits to govern us Should we import white people to come and govern us What does an average Nigerians want in life This question on the face of it appears simple but we have not been able to provide answer to it after so many years after independence. I can however say without fear that the average Nigerian is not interested about animal right, gay rights etc. However our so-call leaders are so daft that they cant solve this life simple problems and thats why people like Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State is always in the news for doing this or that. Come to think of it, this guy is just doing his job. He is doing what we have elected him for, while many in his position are busy stealing money. Its even so sad that we have gotten to a stage where, if for example he is accused tomorrow of having dipped his hand in public funds, some of my compatriot will argue, that at least he did something so lets leave him alone! Anyway, he should be commended for doing a fantastic job in Lagos. We need 36 more of him in all states of the federation and Abuja.Richard Akinjide said recently that Nuhu Ribadu is not good enough to be our president come April 2011.He went further to say he would be a better candidate for the Senate or House of Representative and that he is not even good enough to be a governorship aspirant. I am tempted to ask the mathematician, who then is good enough to be our President in 2011We have had Obasanjo, Abacha and Babangida as president at one time or another. These men dont look intelligent to me to be our president, yet they were. Could it be that they were able to manage materials or people superbly I pity people like Richard. The old man is living in old times. I sincerely dont know if her daughter is good enough to be a senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria knowing that the House was manned by 419s, drug pushers in the not too distant past as we were informed by the former Inspector General of Police.In the run up to the parties primaries a lot was said about giving power to the youths. I dont know the definition of who a youth is but I suspect he might be someone younger than or about the same age as President Jonathan. The 1999 constitution says a person would be eligible to be President of Federal Republic of Nigeria if he is at least 40 years of age. Using the 1999 constitution as a guide we can infer that a youth starts from 40 years of age. The same constitution did not provide an age limit. For me, I dont want a leader in Dimeji Bankole who prefers to run the Nigerian economy on generators. He is forty-two years old. I also dont want a leader in James Ibori who offered a 15million USD bribe to a former EFFCC boss. If someone could offer that kind of money as bribe, we cannot imagine how much he must have stolen. Weve also had a former governor of Balyesa state who was disgraced out of office; all the above men fall in this youthful category. I also suspect that, most of our yahoo- yahoo boys, 419s, armed robbers, our militants especially those who planted the various bombs that rocked our nation recently (not those who sent them) may likely fall into this age category. We have been told repeatedly that age is nothing but numbers. I will prefer Buhari who has not been proven to be a corrupt man at 68 to be my president come 2011 than James Ibori who is younger than Jonathan.After 12 years of PDP government, now is the time for all Nigerians to send them packing. Enough is enough. For 12 years this PDP led government could not fix our roads, they could not repair just four refineries; they could not fix our power supply. The only thing they did for us was that they provided us with GSM. Thank God. I sincerely feel very sorry for this country. Sometimes I feel so ashamed to be a Nigerian because of what our so called leaders has done to this great nation. There is no better time than now to get this PDP out of power. The reason been that their zoning arrangement generated a lot of ill feelings and there is bound to be protest votes. I have taken time to assess Jonathan for the past 8 months and I have come to the painful conclusion that if we give him our vote for the next 4 years ,its going to be a wasted years. At this time when the whole world is moving rapidly up, sadly we are going backward at an alarming rate. Looking at Jonathan on TV, he does not even inspire any confidence. At this time in the history of this nation we dont need luck. What we need is massive hard work and behaviour change. Zero tolerance to corruption. Our life as a nation started going down the drain since Ibrahim Babangida became our president and we have never got it right since. We dont even need divine intervention the way its touted in Nigeria. The PDP governors had had their way by making Jonathan their party flag bearer but they are just 28 people .Whatever went behind the scene would not be known but some report had it that each delegates were paid 10,000 US dollars. I feel so sorry for Madam Sarah Juril who had only one vote. She probably voted for herself.In 2011 the 73 million Nigerian voters should make the real change this country needs. What this PDP government represent is massive corruption on a large scale from 1999 to this very day. According to Tribune newspapers of 27th of January, 2011,we have lost 130 Billion USD to massive fraud in the last 8 years. Imagine what that kind of money would have done in the life of this nation. Is our country doomed Jonathan has been there now for eight months. What has he done The youthful president said if he becomes president in 2011,within four months he would provide us with electricity but we need to remind him he has had eight months already. Why does he have to wait until he wins an election in his name Among his credential is the fact that there is no more queues at the filling stations. For Gods sake oil was discovered in Olowobiri in 1958.Fifty three years after we are still importing fuel. Does this call for celebration or condemnation It appears to me we celebrate mediocrity in this country. A president that can offer 50,000 USD to a pastor and his team as transport allowance stinks terribly. There is something wrong with a country where we have been told that a senator earns about 200millions of naira a year but the same country cannot pay less than 80 pounds a month as minimum wage. Our so rulers should bury their heads in shame. In the United Kingdom where this writer lives for now, twenty pound which is our equivalent of 5,000 naira was enough to send a Minister packing but not in Nigeria. For me, I am not bothered where our president comes from come in April 2011, whether he is an Igbo man or an Hausa woman, he might even be an Ijaw man. Neither do I care if he is a Muslim, a Christian or an atheist. I will not even loss any sleep if he is from the North or South. In Nigeria, the main reason for the clamouring for the president to come from a particular section of the country is mainly for patronage however if Nigeria is a land of equal opportunities for all, there wouldnt be need for this. Come, April 2011 I want a competent hand to be our president. Pat Utomi is good enough for the job but he does not possess the right platform. Nuhu Ribadu is an equally competent man for the job. Everything possible must be done to get the alliance between CPC, ANC, ANPP, and LABOUR to work with Buhari as the president. This I believe will be the beginning of a new nation. The reasons why I believe the alliance is the best option for us as a nation at this critical time is that, it has the capacity of attracting the best brain of this country. A Jonathan president in 2011 will be business as usual. He would not want to rock the boat. Can you imagine Jonathan arresting OBJ This will be unthinkable. An ACN alone presidency is not too good enough for this country. A party that imposes their wives, sons, and girlfriends as candidates in an election should not be allowed to form the presidency alone. I was in a great shock when Bisi Akande, the party chairman opined that that is their style and that if anybody does not like it, he should go for a walk. If this were to happen in a developed country, the voters will punish them dearly for this kind of reckless statement at the poll. The 28 PDP governors will not decide 2011 election, 73 millions Nigeria voters will.*Adepoju is a post graduate student of OF Bickbeck, Univerist of London
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