Americans will go to the polls on November 8, 2016 to choose whether it is Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump that will succeed President Barack Obama. Those who had hoped for the third party candidate, Garry Johnson had their hopes shattered this week. On live TV, the former New Mexico governor committed political suicide.
Asked on MSNBC's ‘Morning Joe’ what he would do about Aleppo if he was elected president, Governor Johnson was lost. ‘What is Aleppo?’ he asked to the amazement of the TV host and the millions watching the show. It was clear that the man who wants to be president of the United States of America has zero knowledge of one of the most explosive hot button issues in world politics at this time. The wanna-be president had no idea of the horrific massacre going on in Aleppo, the Syrian city where thousands of men, women and children are being wiped out every day by bombs lobbed at them by their own president, Assad, supported by Russian jets. Aleppo is on TV every hour every day. Several times I have written about Aleppo in this column. Uninformed Mr. Johnson effectively ended his campaign this week. Americans do not stand such glaring ignorance in their leaders.
The next presidential election in the United States will take place on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The one after that will take place on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Come rain, come sunshine, come a hurricane, come a Tsunami, the dates will not change. That is how to run a country.
When Sambo Dasuki used ‘security reasons’ to orchestrate and choreograph the postponement of the presidential elections scheduled to hold in Nigeria on February 14, 2015 many well-meaning Nigerians, including this writer, cried foul.
To most of us, the true reason for the ‘galala’ dance that Dasuki was engaged in was because he was afraid that his party, the PDP was about to lose the elections. Despite the postponement, PDP lost anyway.
This morning, the people of Edo State were supposed to be on the queue with their voters’ cards to cast the ballot for the successor to my guy, Adams Oshimhole who has done his eight years and who has earned the right to retire and pay full attention to his beautiful young wife. During the week, we started to hear mumblings about ‘the security situation’ in Edo State. Anyone familiar with Nigerian politics would know immediately that something funny was being hatched. Just like in the Dasuki days, at the last minute, the election scheduled for this weekend was postponed. It is clear that the ruling APC is scared. Let it be said that if it was wrong when the PDP did it, it is very wrong now that the APC is doing it.
The signal we are sending to our children is that if you are playing a game and you are losing, you change the rules. That is a prescription for instability and disaster. The other signal is that Nigerians and their institutions are not bound by their words. These are bad signals in a world where lack of clarity has serious social and economic consequences. There were many security reasons why the last Olympic games in Brazil should have been postponed. The games were not postponed. Before the Olympics, there were many security reasons to cancel the European Football championship in France. The championship went on successfully as scheduled
Recently, I was asked why my dear association, PMAN was stable while I was president and ever since appears incapable of getting it right. My answer is: whether it is a family, a social club, an association, a trade union or a government, if you stay within the rules as agreed, even if the rules run against your immediate interest, you are likely to have stability.
While I was president of PMAN, elections were held every two years in the month of October as provided in the constitution, come rain, come sunshine. The PMAN accounts were audited every year and filed within the stipulated time with the Registrar of Trade Unions as required under the law, come rain, come sunshine. Any decision we had to take had to be consistent with our constitution or we would not take it.
I once read about a president of PMAN after me who publicly proclaimed that he had no interest in following the PMAN constitution and I shuddered. What the guy was ignorant of is that it is the constitution that set up the office of PMAN president which he claimed to hold and spelt out the powers of the office. It is the constitution that spelt out the relationship between the members and the union. I did not understand how my guy could succeed by disobeying the constitution that created his office. I was not surprised when the guy ended with a very fractured PMAN with no rhyme and no rhythm.
In the six years of COSON, the COSON AGM has been held six times in the month of May as required by our rules. The accounts have been audited every year and the reports sent to each of our thousands of members and the different agencies they are required to be sent to. Not once have they been done out of time. These are not the only reasons why an organization succeeds but I verily believe that without these, no organization can succeed.
That is why I worry about our penchant for bending the rules to suit our immediate purpose and mood. That is why I am worried about the signals coming from INEC and Edo state. I thought Nigerians had learnt a good lesson from the Sambo Dasuki brouhaha. Apparently, we learnt the wrong lessons.
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