The Election started with Presidential Election. Initially it was on the 14th of February 2015, the lovers day but the Federal Government shifted it to 28th March 2015. It was a six weeks shift which did not go down well with a lot of people including the opposition. But the President had the last say on that and pronto it was done.
The main contenders - President Goodluck Jonathan of PDP and General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC
That date eventually came and we all trooped out to perform our civic responsibility.
Prior to the election day, there were political campaigns that were more of war threat than manifesto presentation or pomises. The Presidency came up with this campaign of calumny. The leaders of the opposition were discredited and their image and reputation were tarnished. In fact we had mini nollywood shows. All the lives of the opponents were on display for all to see.
The Presidency had Femi Fani Kayode leading the onslaught followed by Fayose, Okupe, Dokpesi and many others. On the opposition side, they had Lai Mohammed, Amaechi and others.
But the campaign organisation of President Jonathan were more aggressive, audacious and vitriolic in their attacks.
A Governor working for the President by name of Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State took a paid advertisement in the Newspaper to announce the death of the Presidential Candidate of the Opposition party. At every point, he was telling people that General Muhammadu Buhari was going to kick the bucket. I have not seen or heard that type of story before. In our society even when someone is gravely ill, no one dares mention or talk about the person dying. So seeing Fayose daring to proclaim a living person dead, was unbelievable.
Well that was the extend of the campaign this time around.
Infact this election brought out the beast in all NIGERIANS.( Fela)
A Documentary was shown on AIT tittled the Jagaban of Boudillion, Ikoyi. This was Tinubu, the former Governor of Lagos State. This was the last man standing in 2003, when the Former President swept through the South West winning all the States for the ruling PDP party. Bola Tinubu was the only one who survived the hurricane and was re-elected Governor, the second time. It was the same Tinubu who helped Fayemi of Ekiti, Aregbesola of Osun, Oshiomole of Edo and Mimiko of Ondo to reclaim their stolen mandates. He singularly built the qpposition Party in Nigeria to the position of unseating the ruling party.
The All Progressive Congress was not given any chance of survival not to talk about winning election.
Odumbakin and Okupe even predicted that the Party will not last six months from the date of formation. The APC came with the slogan CHANGE and many Nigerians bought into it.
We were ready for CHANGE, were ready to have a say on how we were governed and how our resources were used or squandered in this Country.
Our weapon was and is the PERMANENT VOTERS CARD. So that 28TH March 2015, we trooped out to queue to vote to make that CHANGE.
