Bared knuckles

President Muhammadu Buhari piled on the stakes last week when he pulled the mask off his 2019 ambition, declaring his intention to seek re-election for another term in the forthcoming general election.

The president’s allies have since serenaded that declaration as a monumental concession on his part to the pressure mounted by admirers, who had canvassed his taking another turn in the high office. Laying on the narrative, presidential agents described last week’s declaration as next to a seismic shift – unforeseen and totally unportended. For instance, presidential spokesman Femi Adesina told a Channels Television programme: “If anybody says that they knew it was going to happen, it was just a matter of surmising or conjecture. For those of us who work closely with the president, we didn’t have that feeling. Nobody could say for sure that Mr. President was going to take a second shot.”

Opponents, on the other hand, have been taking random aim at the president for ignoring ‘wise counsel’ to retire after one term considering the clouds over his medical fitness for another full term, not to mention the contested record of his administration’s performance in this first term. To many of them, last week’s declaration was no capitulation at all by the president to his admirers. Rather, he merely dug into a trench that had long been opened and dredged, though not avowed.

Dispassion would readily show that it is entirely within Mr. Buhari’s constitutional right to seek mandate renewal; and as such, criticisms of his declaration of intention to seek a fresh term are tantamount to crying wolf. But it is also classical inexactitude to say the declaration was out of the blues. By all reckoning, the announcement had long been brewed and was noisily heralded by the president’s body language as well as the concert of activities around him. Among others, touted consultations by the president with diverse stakeholder groups, sneak insights into his contemplation by close associates who severally pre-declared that he was likely to run again, and as well the president himself saying to Nigerians during a trip abroad last year that he could return to solicit for votes all added up to the endgame of last week’s declaration.

And by the way, what’s the thing with Nigerian political elite posturing reluctance to appropriate a chance that is lawfully theirs to run for political power? Former President Goodluck Jonathan did not declare his hardly concealed interest in the 2015 election until canvassers purportedly mobilised millions of signatures across the geo-political zones to demand that he run. But just take a look at the United States after which our governance system is modelled. With all the griping about his leadership style, President Donald Trump leaves no one in doubt he would seek a fresh term as constitutionally entitled in 2020, and he has avowedly set his sight on the 2018 mid-term elections as the crucial platform to consolidate his chances towards that objective. So, what’s the thing with the syndrome of reluctant leadership in our country? But we digress…

Mr. Buhari isn’t the first to openly signify interest in seeking the presidential office in next year’s general election – in his particular case, for a second term. Some individuals, mostly entire newcomers to national politics, had indicated their ambition to run for the high office. It isn’t for me to say whether they are pretenders or serious contenders. But we could well say their declaration of intention shows up a heartwarming deposit of interest in political power outside the jaded political class.

The catch, though, is that notable persons among those who have indicated interest to run for the presidential office in 2019 are yet to be linked with political party platforms, barely 300 days away from the general election. Meanwhile, our laws in this country have yet to accommodate Independent candidates, and how they plan to contest the election remains a mystery for now.

‘Electoral contestation between a dominant party and a weak opposition line-up could well foist a no-choice field of candidates on voters in the forthcoming poll’

Besides, although there are 67 other political parties currently registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alongside the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), extremely few of these other than opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have exercised functional presence. Even the PDP has till date mustered only verbal opposition to the ruling APC and shown scant indication of being at grips with the mechanics for throwing up a formidable challenger to whomever the APC would present. To that extent, the opposition party recently tendered an apology to Nigerians for members’ ruinous misdeeds during its 16-year control of political power, whereas all that it really need do is throw up candidates with high integrity and credibility capital to evidence its genuine repentance and desire to regain the trust and confidence of the voting public. Forget now the lively debate on whether or not Nigerians should accept the party’s apology. If the public does accept the apology, for whatever it is worth, what next?  But again, we digress…

There has been the talk about possible emergence of a ‘third force,’ which is quite fanciful as a conceptual proposition. But short of a clear agenda for making this ‘third force’ acquire grassroots relevance and partisan identity – and that, in good time before the 2019 poll as statutorily prescribed, it is difficult to see how the proposed option offers a genuine alternative to the current field of 68 political parties. In effect, electoral contestation between a dominant party and a weak opposition line-up could well foist a no-choice field of candidates on voters in the forthcoming poll. But here again, we digress…

The reality upon us at the moment is that we have a serving president who has declared intention to re-contest the office, and it is up to intending challengers to raise electoral platforms designed to overawe the incumbency factor.

Now that the gloves are off the iron knuckles of political ambition, the onus is on Mr. Buhari to be exemplary in strict adherence to the provisions of the electoral laws. And to be sure, his biggest task in this regard could be to hold in check overzealous (and some, freelance) foot soldiers who would willy-nilly trample on statutory provisions to push his candidature for the 2019 poll. These are the ones that would install campaign billboards all over and openly solicit votes for the candidate outside the timelines prescribed in Section 99 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as Amended), for instance, and they would willy-nilly overrun the spending cap stipulated in Section 91 of the said Act.

Even where the candidate is personally mindful to uphold the statutes, they presume to be keener on serving his political interest by, if necessary, infringing the law. And mind you, agents of this sort are within the government as well as without. Communication Minister Adebayo Shittu, the other day, stormed the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting with souvenirs to canvass Mr. Buhari’s re-election bid, long before the president declared his intention.

Sometimes the foot soldiers butt in on electoral administration to pursue the interest of their candidate, like former Niger Delta Minister Godsday Orubebe who attempted to truncate the collation of the 2015 presidential poll results but for the reserved steadfastness of former INEC Chairman. Professor Attahiru Jega, in carrying through.

There is little doubt the president’s foot soldiers will shortly step up in various ways to canvass his candidature for the 2019 poll. How well he holds them to statutory provisions will be a test of his commitment to electoral sanctity.