On Buhari’s second term bid by Ebuka Nwankwo

For some Nigerians, who expected so much from this administration at its inception, this isn’t the best time to talk of 2019 elections.
But 2019 is fast approaching and politicians think more of the next election than anything else.

Last Friday, Buhari Support Organization (BSO) – in readiness for the commencement of Buhari’s 2019 campaigns — had very close associates of the president in attendance duringthe opening of its headquarters in Abuja.

Though the president was not in attendance, he tacitly boosted the morale of the folks who would work in this office. Last Friday, in a meeting with the 189 Support Groups that worked for his 2015 election, the president admonished his supporters that their work required sacrifices, both physically and materially ahead of 2019.

There has also been all kinds of endorsements from politicians for the president to run in 2019. But not from folks like Ahmed Tinubu and Abubakar Atiku, who were prominent figures in the 2015election.

But it is not going to be easy for these support groups.

Probably because many career politicians who worked for Buhari’s 2015 election had not been compensated, the president remarked:  “I do not think anybody will join this organization for material reasons.What you are doing is for the nation and not for me as an individual. Therefore, there is no way you can lose because what you are doing is for posterity’’.

It would be interesting to see where these supporters would get their motivation from if they were not supposed to expect anything in return, in the normal Nigerian tradition.

In the same vain, President Buhari’s close associate, Hamed Ali, during the launch of BSO’s headquarters, blamed the lack of progress in the APC-led government on the members of the PDP who are still in government.

This is not a good campaign slogan for someone asking for support after spending more than 2 years in office. Blaming the last PDP government is likely going to be the focal point of the next election.

Many fundamental issues, which are dear to southern APC governors, have not been addressed by the current administration. Little wonder that just as the northern governors endorsed President Buhari for 2019, southern governors went into a summit where they laid out their own agenda. Surprisingly, southern APC governors seem to need southern PDPgovernors to push their demand at the federal level.

The division in the APC was visible right from 2015, after the president was sworn in.

Buhari’s long absence as a result of ill health and his age might not endear him to the crowd of social media supporters he got in 2015. But he has the power of incumbency.

And the power of incumbency has not always helped African democracies. President Buhari should endeavor to create an equal playing field if he wants to throw his hat into the 2019 election. He has to take our electoral space to a level which is higher than what he met. Currently, there has been no fundamental modification in that space.

This is the more reason the president should consider reports of the Senator Ken Nnammani-led Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee. Many recommendations of that committee, such as the adoption of independent candidacy,have not been given enough attention.