by Timothy Nkenu Woma
(@timzy234)
Virtually everyone I have talked about the elections to agrees to a considerable extent that Nigeria needs a change and while majority of the Buhari supporters would vote for him because they believe in change, most of the “Jonathanians” support their candidate because he is to them, the “lesser devil” of the two major contestants.
Before I go any further, I would love to restate my neutrality in this election (refer to my last article; “2015 Elections: Confused At The Middle”). My neutrality is rooted in the constant war of words and my inability to find who is really lying between PDP and the APC.
There are three categories of “Jonathanians” and what they all fear about Buhari winning the elections. I have categorized the three classes of GEJ supporters and what they fear about Buhari. These three categories are: the (PDP) elites, lay supporters and the Asaris.
As regards the (PDP) elites, their major fear is that there would be a change in the modus operandi of the country’s governance. The PDP has built an empire since 1999 (probably way before) that would be prejudiced should Buhari win. Those (PDP elites) who are strongly convinced that Buhari would win have long decided to support Buhari in an attempt to be safe in the eventuality that their fear becomes reality; if the fear they have simply remains in their minds and does not actualize i.e. if Buhari does not win, all of them would come back to the PDP.
The next category is the lay supporter, most of who have been cajoled into believing the increasingly much propaganda against Buhari and have long learnt to embrace Jonathan as the saviour. To them, their fears are deep rooted in their belief of what Buhari would do if he wins; their fears spin around the several allegations made against Buhari i.e. Islamizing Nigeria, taking Nigeria back to the old archaic days of undemocratic leadership, dealing with personal enemies rather than focusing on governance etcetera. To them, as the adage says, “better the devil you know than the angel you don’t”. An additional fear of theirs is the caliber of some core Buhari backers and do not believe that any ‘change’ can occur with their kind as though they fail to see some of Jonathan’s backers.(Since I dey for middle, nothing concern me)
Last but the most ardent category of Jonathan’s supporters are the Asaris (of course you know where the name originates from); those that belief (and fear) that power should be based on region and religion and that Buhari’s would be “unfair” to them. They believe it’s their time and Buhari winning the elections would be robbing them of their “rights”. Being neutral, I must admit that Buhari also has this same set of supporters just that they’re lesser compared to Jonathan’s. I loathe this group of supporters (on both sides).
A very minute set of people support Jonathan because they believe he is the best candidate and please still remember that I remain neutral but realistic. So… see you at the polls.
