For the past couples of
years, President Muhammad Buhari have been bidding for presidential ambition
but his mandate was denied in April 2007 presidential elections competing with
late Umar Musa Yar’adua of People Democratic Party (PDP) and in April 2011
presidential elections competing with Goodluck Janothan of PDP; PDP was said to
have won the elections respectively. PDP for the last 16 years of leadership
was reported to be found in gross economic misconduct, insecurity, corruption
and poverty.
It takes courage,
confidence and trusts for PMB with almighty merger of some political parties
that form All Progressive Congress (APC) which defeated the PDP in March 2015
presidential elections. Who are the masses? Who are the elites? How did the
both contribute in the victory of PMB in 2015 general elections? Masses are the
ordinary people who form the largest groups in the society, while the elites
are some selected groups that are superior in terms of ability or qualities to
the rest of groups. Karl Marx posit that ‘the history of the society is that of class
struggle between the proletariat and bourgeois’
PMB in 2015 APC
primaries informed the delegate that ‘I don’t have dollar to share to you but I
have Nigeria at heart’ his statement attracted delegate sympathy and
therefore makes him to won the APC primaries elections, defeated kwankwanso,
Atiku and Rochas. PMB bedeviled with financial constraint and incumbency factor
of PDP in 2015. The elites gave their private jets and cars for mobilizations
while some masses donate an amount through a customized recharge cards which
amounted to millions of naira for his campaigns and above all the masses came
out in their mass number to vote out PDP in 2015; I can deduce that PMB in 2015
presidential elections was a product of both the masses and the elites.
Immediately after the
presidential inauguration in may 2015, the led administration started in slow
bureaucratic process and the economy induce with recession and
inflation; the policy of PMB embargo in importation of food items most
especially rice imposed hardship to ordinary Nigerians, find it difficult to
have food on their tables, on other hand some politicians were been chase by
EFCC for an alleged corrupt practice. For the past three years in government,
the led administrations remind faithful in implementing its campaign promises
of improving the economy, securing the country and fighting corruption. But obviously
much have to be done in security, economy and human capital development.
The recent defections
of APC senators, house of representatives members, and governors from APC to
PDP has became a top public agenda in Nigeria, as of today 15 APC senators including the senate
president, 37 reps members and 2 governors were reported to have defected to
PDP. The PDP is now carrying weight in Nigerian politics with members both from
the masses and influential elite like Atiku, Kwankwaso and Tambuwal to write
few but few. One cannot predict the outcome of 2019 general elections because
all parties are really ready and drawing all the strategies for victory in 2019
but the questions is that, did the elite vote? What is percentage of the elite
in Nigeria? The elites are few in number, most of them don’t vote and even
their sons and daughters are not living in Nigeria and do not even have PVC talk
less of voting. PMB in 2019 might be for the masses but the question is that,
are the messes happy with his administration? The answer will be for another
day.
