Election 2015: While We Officially Await The Final Results By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

The voting process in the long awaited Nigerian presidential election has come and has gone except in few places in Yobe state where the presidential election has been postponed indefinitely for security reasons. Our different and various dreams, hopes and aspirations are becoming clearer and more visible to us as we await the official announcement of the final results. There are no doubt that the election was marred with some technical challenges, most especially from the voters Card Readers, and a little violence and terrorist act in some parts of the country which negatively affected the electoral process. Meanwhile, generally speaking, without bias and sentiments, comparing this election to previous elections that had been conducted in the country since the beginning of the 4th republic, one can possibly say, that the country`s electoral process has improved and our democratic system is getting better.

The fact is, although there are still many challenges to be resolved and many more areas where improvements are needed. But, by and large, the 2015 electoral process is commendable as compared to that of the previous years. Also the people have become more tolerant of the system and process, hence, have portrayed themselves peacefully and orderly during the course of the election.

However, while we await the declaration of the final results, I cannot but comment on the following key events that happened during the process.

Goodbye to President Jonathan, Go and Vote him Out! By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

You tricked us once, shame on you. If we let you trick us again, shame on us. President Jonathan is on a slippery slope and he`s sliding down. He must have started burning sensitive documents even though no column of smoke is yet visible from the villa.

Saturday, 28th March, 2015 election is a genuine opportunity to change the depressing direction in which Nigeria is headed. A direction that is not in any way good for the country, because as long as President Jonathan continues to remain in office, we cannot talk about development, we cannot talk about peace and stability and we cannot talk of sustainability and excellence. In his past 4 years in office, President Goodluck Jonathan has so far demonstrated absolute impotence and Nigeria has declined in nearly every conceivable respect.

Under Jonathan, the economy continued to stumble and the currency lost shape completely until it finally became valueless. The security situation went worse than it was only a few years back.  The Boko Haram crisis was disgracefully managed, and many Nigerians lost their lives to insurgents. However, the Nigerian Military has finally claimed to have made appreciable gains in combating the insurgents, but it came a little too late after so many Nigerians have lost their lives, millions have been displaced and so many valuable properties worth billions of naira have been destroyed. His government did not do enough to reduce the high cost of living. He did not do anything tangible to increase the standard of living of the people. Majority of the citizens still live below two dollars ($2) in a day

President Jonathan Scents Defeat, Isn't Democracy Interesting? By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

Regardless of who's heading the government, when they've been doing it for so long and fails to get it right, they must be replaced. The public knows that, and President Jonathan is feeling the replacement coming already. President Goodluck Jonathan seems to have lost touch with the ground rules of democracy and has become a danger to the country. He would be voted out come March 28th 2015, because Nigeria needs to heal.

Out of panic mood, the President embarks on a last-minute blitz ahead of the upcoming election. He visited several places and consulted with many more people within these 6 weeks of postponement than he earlier did before. All in an effort to garner more votes for his re-election bid. He has been to churches and has requested for prayers from pastors. He has visited mosques and has asked for intervention from the “Alfas and Imams”. He has been to the shrine, has consulted with the oracles and has sacrificed to the gods.  He has paid courtesy visits to various “Obas”, requested for the supports of “Emirs” and has persuaded “Igwes”. Even with all that, he is not yet relieved of his panic mood. The truth is President Jonathan has entered the decisive few days of his re-election campaign bid, but he does not have this election in his pocket still.

There Are Two Types Of Eyes: The Jonathan Eyes And The Normal Eyes By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

Let me use this medium to remember the innocent job seeking Nigerians that lost their lives about a year ago during the Nigerian Immigration Exercise that took place on 15th March, 2014 across the country. May their gentle souls rest in Perfect Peace. Their country failed them when it untimely cut their lives short. An incident that could have been averted if we had developed the attitude of doing the right thing at all times. Most painfully, it took the President a year before he fulfilled his promises to their families.

In the same country, governed by the same government, within the same period of time, people see different things differently. Some sing praises while others condemn, some appreciate while others criticize and some want change while others prefer to maintain status quo. The various actions and attitudes displayed by individuals to the President Goodluck Jonathan`s led administration cannot be farfetched from the way they see his administration.

I have wondered endlessly why some see the whole gospel of transformation carefully playing out like a master plan working perfectly for the good of the nation and while others do not see same that way. But rather see it as a kangaroo project and a share shame of mediocrity, complacency and gross cluelessness.

In The Name Of God, Mr. President Please Leave Peacefully And Don`t Cause Further Harm! By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

It is high time to put an end to your sitting in the Villa, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue. You have defiled every legal practice and broken every legal institution to please yourself and the selfish cronies that surround you. You have become the enemy of the government and of the people that sacrifice all for you in 2011.

By your practice of every vice, actions and utterances; you have divided the nation farther along religious lines and ethnic differences. Is there one vice you do not possess?

Like Esau, you have sold the country`s birth right as the giant of Africa for a plate of porridge. Like Judas, you have sold the country for a few pieces of money to the cabals. Like the prodigal son, you have squandered our savings, drained our reserves and destroyed our economy. I doubt if there is a single virtue now remaining in you!

You cannot transform the nation by pampering all sorts of abnormally, corrupt persons and practices.

Fear of Failure: The Reason Behind Fayose`s and Others` Actions By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

The narrative in this piece is not limited to Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State alone, there are many more that would do anything and say anything just to resist change and make sure status quo is maintained under the watch President Goodluck Jonathan.

But for a sitting governor, his, is particularly becoming unbecoming. One wonders why a sitting governor suddenly decided to be the media propagandist of the President, dishing out all sorts of mal-information and diabolic advertorial against the presidential candidate of the opposition party- All Progressives Congress.

The truth is; Governor Ayo Fayose does not wish Buhari well; all he wants is to see him fall ill and crash out. But God forbid, may the Lord our God behind this course of positive change be with Nigeria and the General.

It is no longer news that President Goodluck Jonathan has been alleged to be leading the most corrupt administration in the history of Nigeria. He surrounds himself with men of no or little integrity that are meant to be facing the wrath of the law for different offences they have at one time or the other committed.