One Nigerian politician I admire most was Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim. He was the founder of the defunct Great Nigerian People Party, GNPP. Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim contested the presidential election in 1979 and 1983 under the platform of the GNPP.
Shortly, after the 1979 general elections while other politicians like Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe have gone to tribunal to challenge the electoral victory of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Late Waziri Ibrahim did not border to do so. He believed that Nigeria must go forward and not backward.
Late Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim was known, called and addressed by his contemporaries as an “Apostle of Politics Without Bitterness”.
Another politician I also love is ex-president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. He is a politician with a different and a man of integrity and self discipline. When Jonathan was defeated in the March 28, 2015 presidential election by Mohammadu Buhari he quietly packed out of the Aso Rock (presidential Villa) without challenging his election in the tribunal, despite a lot of electoral atrocities and manipulation.
But the same Buhari who lost the presidential poll to Jonathan in 2011, caused untold hardship in the North, where so many died including youth corpers. That is a character of a politician with inordinate ambition.
Buhari stirred up crisis in the north that claimed lives and properties that estimated at billions of naira. If Buhari had killed all of us who will he rule as the president of Nigeria?
On Saturday, an election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja nullified the April 11, 2015 gubernatorial election in the state. In my mind the cancellation of the said election will not serve the interest of the state. Those who are seeking for the re-run of the gubernatorial election in the state do not have the interest of Rivers at heart. Rivers needs development at this time. Those who want a total re-run should seek for an admission in Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim School of Politics Without Bitterness so that they can be properly tutored on how to play politics to better the lot of the masses. ###
DAMIETE WEST
08037502931
wdamiete@yahoo.com
