In the name of Jonathan, by the grace of Jagaban, Amen.

Sayo Aluko

Jona, Naija, and Jaga

Politics, they say is a dirty game, but after considering the spurious and entirely ridiculous events that have speckled the fabric of my dear Nigeria particularly of late, I rather choose to say that this politics of ours is the dirtiest game ever and also the truest root of all evils.
It is quite noticeable that this fervent politicking venture of our crop of elected “mistakes” has made Nigeria bereft of the benefits of value-full governance. And it simply leaves the mind embittered that while the country grapples with survival at all fronts, having recently moved up into the top 20 from a 54th position in the world's Failed States Index, all its leaders can scheme and think about is just how to secure the "next tenure". Enter Jonathan, enter Jagaban, the two crown-princes and grand-schemers of this perfidious politicking gaming console.

One needs neither Assange, Manning nor Snowden to orchestrate a breach or leak to know that this present Jonathanic PDP administration is a failed one which is just bullishly trying to lay hold on another term at all costs; but, because they too have spent most of their time in unnecessary politicking, it has remained a bit of a conundrum to a bystander as to what Jagaban's APC is set to offer on the platter of Change that is earnestly desired in 2015. Thoughts and expectations of the minds of true Nigerians have changed for the better, and if there's one good thing that these jagajaga PDP - APC politicking has triggered in such true minds, it is useful paranoia. It is he who quits this gaming that will douse this paranoia and consequently earn Nigerians' trust.

Ebora-Owu, our "retiree" PDP president, recently claimed that he made successful "mistakes" during his own tenure, and in Jonathan, I agree with him that he successfully installed a mammoth mistake on Nigerians. The Jonathanic PDP by 2015 would have spent 16 years of do-or-die-ism, demo-crazy, constant committee-brokering without commensurate impacts, mace-breaking instead of law-making (I've actually lost count of the maces broken in this our democracy.....well, good for goldsmiths), and such politicking likes, all at the expense of veritable governance. Without having to deceive one's self, this PDP quagmire makes Jagaban's APC a potent challenger for 2015's change at the federal level, but, it remains unclear if they too could be truly trusted because of the their many bouts with politicking.

A system which is politicking-free and truly intended for growth and development need not shout-out its supposed accomplishments, because by their fruits, they shall truly be known; it's a simple thing of talking less and achieving much. But contrarily, our dear Jonathan and Jagaban have unsurprisingly shown their worth in this regard too; they both possess vuvuzelas through which they blow out cacophonous embellishments of true lies and half-truths, all in their zest for power. While Jonathan has at least five of these vuvuzelas (Labaran, Reuben, Doyin, Patience and Asari), Jagaban manages with one (Lai). Oh! How I detest this politicking! Quite so painful that these two men expend their arduous time and great influence on a dystopian crave for political self-actualization instead of nation's building. It's just too clear.

Dear Jagaban, it's politicking when all we hear from your coffers is how you've captured your latest governor, or how you've ran to Sokoto to declare feigned support for boko haram's amnesty partly for the intent of selling yourself to Northerners as a "good" bride, or how you're getting accustomed to selection in your party at the expense of democratic processes, or even how you are already basking in the God-fatherism infamy. 

Sir Jaga, all of these are PDP-like, clearly Jonathanic and now also simply nauseating to most of us elites when you feast on the shallow-mindedness and poverty of Nigerians, (mostly unsuspecting artisans); this you do when in company of your fellow Jagabanians, go round the south-west to commission slightly above 1km flyovers and make a political mole-hill out of it as if you were commissioning a “4th mainland bridge” (Cc: Mokola flyover commissioning, Ibadan). Sir, wake up if you are truly bent on sustainable change, the youths and elites of now are ready to invest their conscience in their votes. That, I assure you.

True Nigerians, who now think well about Nigeria, their futures, and also their children's futures, are totally fed up with all these gaming. The system they need to believe will truly work for this much needed Change is that system which engages them in practical talk about HOW things will be better, they don't want to just hear more "WHATs" and similar propagandist talk from one party telling them what the other party is doing wrong.

Jagaban sir, I'm sure you must have taken some good cues from your attendance of the Democratic Party’s National Congress that preceded the USA's 2012 general elections, I'm just still surprised that you aren’t using such cues yet. I wasn't there, but I saw even from here that what those guys over there do is a pragmatic engagement of their to-be voters in practical stakeholder-like discussions. Their campaign groups move from college to college and corporations all across the country, taking their voters seriously, thrashing out issues that affect them thoroughly, examining the pros and cons together, dissecting new ideas with sincerity and without vagueness, and while shunning politicking, they get to answer questions from these stakeholders and play their cards openly; in short, they engage their polity in cerebral discuss ahead of elections instead of bamboozling them with spurious and dubious political innuendos. I don't know why something of the same shade can't be done here in Nigeria by the supposed change-evangelist APC.

For example, as touching Nigeria's lingering power logjam, I believe that if Jagaban's APC are truly serious about offering change, an empirical blueprint of HOW they can solve the logjam is what they should be wielding as they go from south to east and to the north, instead of brandishing brooms. I believe all they should be doing now is regular intimation of all Nigerians (elites and professionals alike) with their copy-righted and plausible blueprints of "HOW-to-SOLVEs", for all aspects of life where the country has been affected since democratic inception, from education to economy, from health to job creation, security, etc. Please, the HOWs and not the usual "What I Will Do" manifestos. 
I'm quite sure that if Jagaban and his APC spend more time now in synthesizing and expounding truly installable blueprints with excellent exactitude, Nigerians themselves would gladly and eagerly look forward to the moment to install such blueprints through their votes without much fuss. And if there would be a best time to kick-start this, that time is NOW. (By copy-righted above, I mean, a seal to prevent plagiarism of their ideas).

The era of dirty and stupid politicking is over my dear two Js (Jona and Jaga). The era of wearing your party uniforms to podiums while dancing to frenzied tunes and praise jingles sang by your paid sycophants is over. The era of giving uniforms, face-caps, 6-yard ankaras and 2,000 naira to your deliberately impoverished crowd-fillers that you call party-members during many of your fun-fared project commissioning, is over. The era of telling us that 16 is greater than 19 (GovernorsForumGate) or 5 greater than 27 (River's state HOA-gate) is over. The era of mace-breakers is over (sorry for the goldsmiths). 
Fortunately, Nigerians now know that your uniformity does not mean unity, those "beggar-has-no-choice" crowd-fillers now know the greater harm done by that ankara and 2,000 naira when after always collecting them, they still have their wards at home due to incessant ASUU/ASUP strikes while your own wards "play" Ivy league; we now know that it's actually your obligation and within your job-description to build infrastructure and develop physical projects while you need little or no high-praise for doing such. Oh!, we now know that we have the right faculty within our brains and reins to do better in voting law-makers that still understand the role of ordinary decorum and diplomacy even while in discord instead of throwing jabs.

The list goes on and on.....point is, our eyes don clear wella now, and the elites are rising for Nigeria's utmost good!

Nigeria has surely worked before and she can definitely work again.

As 2015 approaches, I pray God to grant some spartan non-partisan wit to Attahiru or whoever is going man INEC, I pray for more resilience for the right-thinking Nigerian as this rising against egocentric politicking gathers more momentum, I pray for peace and violent-less atmospheres nation-wide.

In Jesus' name, Insha Allah, Amen.