Only the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) Muhammadu Buhari or the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, have a chance of being elected Nigeria’s next president come February 16.
Yet, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has a long list of other names aspiring to this office, even if the closest they would ever get to becoming president is on their beautifully-designed posters!
These are the latest in the long line of eccentric characters who have added colour to our politics through the years. I speak of the likes of the late lawyer, Tunji Braithwaite, who running on the platform of the defunct Nigeria Advance Party (NAP) threatened to exterminate mosquitoes and cockroaches across the land. Many took him literally, and when they recovered from their fits of mirth, his presidential dreams became the primary casualty.
You had the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti who, had he been improbably elected president, would have had internecine warfare on his hands deciding who amongst his 27 queens would have been First Lady. Mercifully, his political ambitions melted away like the notes one of his less-than-successful songs.
Who can forget the foray of the effervescent Pastor Chris Okotie, founder of the Household of God Church? He plunged into the race confidently assuring Nigerians that he had the assurance of heaven to make the bid. Who are we to query God? But the Lord must have backed out of the project somewhere between the pastor’s declaration and polling day, because he only managed a couple of thousands of votes nationwide.
Still, we are grateful to Okotie whose campaign wasn’t noted for the novelty of his proposals for governance, but for stump speeches laden with earth-shaking English words that would have required a battery of professors to decode for the National Assembly had he ever entered Aso Rock.
This recollection would be incomplete without mentioning the inimitable Gani Fawehinmi who ran on the platform of the National Conscience Party (NCP). He was often referred to as the Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM). Unfortunately, they abandoned him when he needed them most – on polling day. The poor man was then left to carry out his political campaigns in the courts.
The 2019 class of also-rans equally has its own share of interesting characters – although none of them as colourful as any of the aforementioned. They include the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate – and one-time PDP rising star – Donald Duke.
The list has former Central Bank Deputy Governor, Kingsley Moghalu, businessman and one-time activist, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim of Peoples Trust Party, activist and publisher Omoyele Sowore, as well as motivational speaker Fela Durotoye.
One of the most well-known names among the lot is the Bring back Our Girls (BBOG) campaigner and former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili. Even after dramatically throwing in the towel, INEC would not let her go.
I suspect that beyond the soundbites for television cameras and newspapers, these individuals know deep down none of them would be president this year. So what would make an ordinarily rational, well-educated, experienced, accomplished and widely-travelled man or woman, persist in a very expensive race to nowhere?
I can only guess that their running for president, specifically, is a means to some other end. You could also argue that some have outsized egos that need to be caressed by the notion they ran for president – albeit on some rickety political platform.
But then politicians are also some of the most optimistic beings on the planet. They know they can’t get the prize first time out, but keep coming back in the hope of hitting the jackpot along the line. Who remembers today that there was a time when Rochas Okorocha used to entertain us with is presidential bids? But one day he rationalised his ambitions and now is governor of Imo State.
The thing about these fringe candidates is that sometimes they make a difference in a tight race – especially if they are people with grassroots following. In the 1992 US presidential contest, the third party candidate – billionaire businessman Ross Perot – took away enough votes from the Republican George H. W. Bush, allowing the Democrat Bill Clinton to emerge victorious.
The problem for the 2019 bunch is that none of them really has the kind of grassroots following that counts – except on Twitter and Instagram. In the social media age that might mean something, but is not likely to get you anywhere near a local government chairman’s seat.
Some of them are vociferous critics of government and are usually brimming with ideas on how to transform the economy and the nation at large. But you cannot implement your ideas unless to find the right platform and get elected.
If your ideas are to address today’s problems, then you must use the existing vehicles that can get you there. Anything else is just utopian daydreaming. In Nigeria at this point, only the APC or PDP can get you the presidency and it doesn’t matter how badly you think they stink.
But such is our fascination with the presidency that we’ve become seduced with the notion that it is only through that office that you can impact governance and society. Some of those dreaming of becoming president – given their training and exposure – would make excellent representatives or senators.
People forget that Barack Obama was an ambitious community activist who didn’t jump from nowhere to run for US president. He first got into the Senate and used it as a platform to showcase his extraordinary political and oratorical gifts. It worked a charm because just four years after he became a lawmaker, he was elected president.
But that said, I am full of admiration for these men and women who even in the face of ridicule have stuck to their guns and invested resources on what may appear at this point a futile exercise. They chose to get their hands dirty rather than sit idly by cursing our bungling rulers.
We should encourage them to stay the course irrespective of the fate that awaits them on February 16. Perhaps, they could, like Okorocha, rationalise their ambitions and get into positions where they can begin to push their ideas through the system. And who knows, one day we may all be calling today’s ‘joker’ Mr. or Madame President.