Obi wants to knock out the big parties but he comes to town hall meetings unprepared. Rather than give spontaneous and illuminating answers.
Obi rehashes tired platitudes. If Obi wants to throw around figures. He must find figures that constitute roadmaps out of our current situation. Not foreign historical figures.
For instance, nobody is interested in the illiteracy rates in China. We want to know how many teachers he will hire to drop the out of school pop by one percentage point.
But there are issues Obi in particular can’t avoid. The North needs to know Obi’s attitude towards the ESN. At the Arewa meeting, he said ESN was formed by Southeast govs. Last night, he said he would dialogue with them. That he didn’t know who was killing policemen in the southeast. Somebody must tell Obi. Folks want to see Obi’s anger against the perpetrators of the rampant violence in his southeast. Obi evades and confabulates. When reminded of the brutal murder of Akunyili’s husband, Obi replied that he travelled from Lagos to Ogidi without police escort to collect the body. A man had been murdered casually. If Obi could travel with such abandon it means he was confident the perpetrators might have spared him if they ran into him.
Obi is not a sponsor or sympathiser of terrorism. I know that. But he must not allow vague sentimental answers leave people with doubts. The northern voter wants to see Obi condemn vigorously the violence in the southeast and its perpetrators even if he won’t name them.
Last night, Obi once again refused to say how he would combat insecurity if elected. He said he would be giving out too much. These childish answers about his security program would have sufficed during the primaries. But a man who lacks security experience must on the eve of an election in which security is the main issue have an explicit security strategy the electorate can interrogate.
He said we should trust him because he would be a proper commander in chief. What does that even mean?
Banditry is shutting farms and dragging down the economy. But Obi won’t say if he will form a Homeland security outfit, a National Guard for that menace. He won’t say if he will use mercenaries. He won’t say if he will balloon the population of the overstretched army. He will just say, “When I make the farms start working, banditry will stop. How? How? How?
When answering the question on electricity, Obi didn’t reference Siemens. He talked about Egypt. Any one discussing electricity in Nigeria without referencing Siemens is out of touch. A good debate on electricity must begin with what Siemens has been contracted to do before spreading to what else needs be done alongside.
Tales by moonlight might work for candidates with a multitude of governors and tons of cash. Two months into the campaigns, Obi should have some clearly outlined road maps with timelines for the electorate.
Written by : Ugo Egbujo
EDITORIAL
This story amongst others are reviewed on Sparkling 92.3FM and FAD 93.1. Again, opinions expressed on NegroidHaven are exclusively the author’s not NH’s.
