Editor’s observe: A public affairs commentator, Oluremi Kosoko writes on the massive variety of presidential aspirants underneath the APC and PDP, angling to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari because the primary citizen of Nigeria after the 2023 presidential election.
As Nigeria’s two gladiatorial events – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – put together to topic the nation to a different spherical of their phony conflict, the hazard indicators are flashing but once more. Unless we heed them, now we have little hope of redemption. Falsehood has turn out to be the inventory in commerce of our political carpetbaggers.
The variety of presidential aspirants angling to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari are over 40 throughout varied events.
Photo credit score: Aso Rock Villa
Source: Facebook
The phrase a stalking horse has its origins in sixteenth-century searching follow:
“In order to get close to fowl, hunters employed trained stalking horses. These horses could walk up on game birds without alarming them. The hunters hid behind these stalking horses until they were in a position to shoot at the birds.”
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So, within the context of the approaching presidential primaries, stalking horses disguise true intent; to wit, false candidates are run up the flagpole to divert and divide, briefly concealing the true object of their intent.
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In searching for to know the proliferation of political pygmies passing themselves off as potential presidential candidates, I’m left with no alternative however to conclude that almost all of them are stalking horses. Are we actually anticipated to imagine that each one these pseudo-candidates are something however cannon fodder, ready to waste, no less than, N100,000,000.00 on a flight of fancy? I believe not.
We usually are not solely besieged by marauding murderers and kidnappers; we’re additionally on the mercy of politicians so self-centered that they’re completely immersed in a no-holds-barred contest for energy relatively than the best to serve. The vary of these presenting for president, notably within the APC however not solely in that gaggle, suggests there may be extra to this than meets the attention.
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Like the propriety of shifting a bullion van into one’s residence on the eve of an election, since there are not any legal guidelines or guidelines proscribing the mass deployment of stalking horses, we will solely look to self-imposed moral boundaries as a bulwark in opposition to the near-total depravity threatening to submerge us.
The hurdle of N100million clearly means nothing to our glad band of legalized looters. We are readily assured that the mandatory funds are supplied by “supporters” who, presumably, have in flip obtained assurances of wealthy returns.
It is true that politicians are irredeemable optimists however absolutely even they’ve their limits. Does Senator Ibikunle Amosun actually imagine that Nigerians see in him our hope for renewal? Does Adams Oshiomhole’s fertile and febrile creativeness actually conjure up a Nigeria reimagined in his picture? Do Dimeji Bankole’s delusions embody a triumphant return to Abuja, like an all-conquering normal?
What I discover most disconcerting is how little dialog now we have had on this glut of unviable candidates, and the way little opprobrium has connected to the techniques of utilizing stalking horses. We have turn out to be so complicit in a political system mired in reprobate behaviour that the denigration of requirements has turn out to be normative.
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Let us for a second return to the sooner definition of a stalking horse. Amongst Nigeria’s never-ending crop of aspirants within the presidential primaries, the educated stalking horses are the phony spineless politicians keen to play the function of pretenders to the throne. The recreation birds are the social gathering delegates which have the vote within the presidential primaries. The hunters are these directing and positioning the stalking horses. We can solely speculate as to the precise people however in doing so, we’re in a position to make affordable suppositions.
The possible means this state of affairs is primed to play out is telling. It is protected to imagine that the hidden hunter is somebody in a position to deploy copious quantities of cash. The stalking horses need to buy the mandatory presidential kinds from social gathering HQ, within the case of the APC, at a N100million a pop. None of those latter candidates, with little or no hope of successful in their very own constituencies, are prone to put down such a big guess with such lengthy odds.
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So, assuming these keen dancing primates will do their grasp’s bidding, what may the organ grinder keep in mind? I can properly think about a scenario the place, within the closing run-in to the primaries, the puppets drop out of the race, declare their help for the organ grinder, and assist in giving their grasp the all-important momentum on the primaries.
Is this unlawful? No. Does it communicate to the type of propriety we sorely want in our politics and from our legislators? Not within the least. Should we be stunned? Given the type of individuals now we have enabled up and down the spectrum of politics, we can’t be heard to declare ourselves stunned.
In calling out the skullduggery clearly afoot, we’re taking away the chance for delegates on the primaries to be simply swayed by such subterranean techniques. Indeed, these that don’t want to take part being the cat’s paw will know what to do.
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This is a part of a sample of cash being the important thing metric in figuring out who guidelines us. If the delegates permit that, they’ll as soon as once more be complicit within the degradation of politics and the denial to the nation of one other probability. It might be that the delegates don’t care; we should allow them to know that we care and anticipate them to rise above pecuniary politics.
As we method one more inflection level, we can’t afford to undergo despair; despair shouldn’t be an choice. We should rid ourselves of the carpetbaggers that obsess about state seize. We are in an enormous gap and except we cease digging, we’ll bury Hope.
In selecting a president (which the primaries type a crucial a part of), we should frequently draw on the excellence between those who wish to do a job and those who wish to maintain a place.
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