SAI BABA IN LONDON, JONATHAN IN BAGA! Femi Ojo

Our politicians are not leaving no stone unturned as far as the coming elections are concerned. They are taking their political games around the country and interestingly they  have also understood the nexus between national politics and  international relations. There was an international relations dimension added to the coming elections last week when the flag bearer of the opposition and his strategists went to our former colonial master’s land for the purpose of one thing called “politics”.

Sai baba was in London last week, not for anything but for politics and our incumbent President was also in Baga with an unannounced but in my opinion belated visit to Mubi not for anything but also for politics. Our politicians should know that not all Nigerians are gullible and thus not all can fall for their sudden humanitarian gestures in the name of winning the coming elections.

The organized visit of Sai baba to London at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House was a good political move for the opposition especially for its flag bearer whose international title has been that of a ‘dictator’ over the years. But having said that, it is also a confirmation that the neo-colonialism mentality of our politicians is still active or how else can one explain the search for approval of Sai baba’s candidacy when actually the coming elections will not be decided in the United Kingdom but by Nigerians?  Added to this international political event were the pro and anti-Buhari protests believed to have been sponsored by both leading two political parties.

The noise of Sai baba in London might be a good one but beyond the praises of baba Oyoyo, we must understand that in as much as both leading presidential candidates need the endorsement of international community, not all Nigerians are fooled by such political move.  Our leaders must fight the neo-colonialism mentality within themselves before leading the vast majority of Nigerians out of  bondage of international patronage that has badly affected our collective independence. Our Politicians have over the time demonstrated neo-colonialism in plethora of ways… when they are sick, they run to foreign hospitals, they send their wards to the best schools abroad, even when they loot our treasuries, they wire such illicit funds to their foreign accounts. The neo-colonialism behavior still lives with us!

The President’s Baga visit at a belated period was a right move done for politics. One would have expected the President to have taken this action long time ago which would have convinced many Nigerians especially people of these affected areas that this action was inspired by  altruism and deep understanding of the enormous responsibilities of leading a country so sophisticated like ours by Mr. President. Sadly, it was only a show of Mr. President’s macho’s look in Nigerian Army’s uniform not for anything else! We may praise him though for such visit to boost the morale of our committed gentlemen in uniform but if the President had visited Baga or any other affected area at the wake of so many ugly Boko Haram attacks, it would have been more commendable. Our President in my premise, has demonstrated absence of strong leadership and hitherto had been un-perturbed by the urgency of the need to act as at when due until now that elections are here.

As the elections approach, I think Nigerians should also ponder on what’s next after March 28, when we  hope the new winner, maybe Sai baba or GEJ would have been announced? Beyond the politics of Sai baba in London and GEJ in Baga, how  prepared are the two leading candidates for any post-election crisis that our polity is known for recently?  Ours is a country in constant tragedy associated with elections, where winners are losers and losers are winners thus creating tragic political contradictions in post elections period. Going by the way both leading political parties display their desperations for power, one can say that proper mechanism should be put in place to avert possible post-election political crisis.

The task before Nigerians as we approach March 28 Presidential Elections therefore is to identify the correct configuration that will sustain a strong political country and its diversity along linguistics, ethnic, religious lines which are major divisive elements and  major weakness of  our leadership. Like Agbakoba would rant, “if APC and PDP are not addressing how they intend to handle Nigeria’s diversity, then I think that is a major failure”. Therefore, Nigerians should vote wisely in the coming elections and ponder deeply  before choosing between Sai baba and the Otuoke’ son of a fisherman.