A few days ago, I was in a bar in Abuja
with a few friends to relax for the
evening. Sitting next to us at another
table were a group of men arguing
loudly about Jonathan and Buhari
regarding our choice for President in
2015. It was interesting to watch and
see how animated the people were. Of
the six men at the other table, four of
them were from the South East, one
from Plateau and one from Kogi and all
of them were Christians. On my table
were three people, two gentlemen and
a lady, all of them from the South East. I
am from the South-South. What I found
interesting was that as the argument
raged, support for either candidate was
anchored around personalities and
their antecedents. Religion was never
mentioned. The fellow from Plateau was
the only person under 30. Everyone else
was above 50. From the other table, 4
people there including the two from the
South East supported Buhari while only
one person, the fellow from Kogi
supported Goodluck. The young man
was neutral. After over two hours of
talking during which time I tried to
redirect them to the issues away from
the personalities, I pulled out one of my
handbills and a newspaper interview by
THISDAY on my candidacy titled: The
Alternative President. Immediately,
silence fell upon the crowd as they
passed the handbill around. The
reaction from the crowd was instant as
they looked up at me and looked at the
pictures. From that point on, the
gathering morphed into a Town Hall
meeting.
HOW WOULD YOU FIX EDUCATION: I will
declare a state of emergency on
education in the country with emphasis
on Northern Nigeria. I will create a
Nigerian Emergency Education Fund
(NEEF) to aggressively fish out and
compel young and old to get an
education as the surest and quickest
way out of poverty. I will raise the
example of Qatar and Oman and Dubai
as examples in the Muslim world were
education is anchoring the society. I will
make the argument to the North that
education is not Western. Education
came from Egypt. It is their heritage.
They should embrace it. For tertiary
education, I will establish an Education
Bank which will be a desk in every Bank
to reduce administrative costs. Every
person who passes JAMB and gets
admission to a tertiary institution will be
entitled to an education loan once they
get their admission letter. That is the
only requirement. The loan is on the
student, not the parents. You will have
20 years to pay back after graduation.
Interest rate will be at 5%. The crowd
began to clap. It was electrifying.

HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE THE
ALMAJIRI CLERICS WHO ARE BENT ON
PERPETUATING THE SYSTEM: I will work
with them, not against them. We will
collaborate. It must be a win- win
situation for the cleric, the child and the
nation. I will help the cleric enhance his
infrastructure where he is. I will seek to
make a deal with the cleric. There are so
many hours in a day. You can teach the
kids Islamic studies up till 10 am every
morning and then other teachers will
come and take over to teach.
My challenge would be how to build
human capital across the length and
breadth of Northern Nigeria to
transform the entire landscape in a few
short years. My heart weeps anytime I
see a young northerner pushing a
wheelbarrow or a grown adult man
carrying a tray of Kolanuts with a total
value of N500. Where is his pathway out
of poverty and disease? His IQ may be
higher than those of us sitting at this
bar but we will never find out because
he never got a chance. There was not a
single dry eye in the crowd.
HOW WILL YOU ATTACK
UNEMPLOYMENT: Agriculture provides
the key to tackling unemployment
because of the long value chain
involved. From land preparation to
planting, to nurturing, to harvesting to
milling, packaging, warehousing,
retailing and banking, you can create 15
jobs from one hectare of rice cultivation.
I will embark on Agricultural revolution
on a scale that this country has never
seen. Across 26 rice producing states,
we will begin to build agricultural
communities that are youth friendly
with internet access. We will provide
support systems to make the
communities self sustaining and in one
year, we can become self sufficient in
rice production while creating millions
of jobs for our people. If for example we
cultivate 3 million hectares of land for
rice, we would be creating 45 million
jobs down the value chain. Thailand has
cured unemployment through Rice
cultivation. Unemployment in Thailand
is at 0.062 percent. We can do better
than that. We have two times the land
size of Thailand and we have great
climate. What is wrong with us?
HOW DO YOU PLAN TO STOP
IMPORTATION OF PETROL:
I will start by legalizing all the illegal
refineries in the Niger Delta region. We
will help them to build capacity and
enhance standards. Instead of stealing
the crude, they will be happy to pay for
it and do their work openly. A
gentleman whose illegal refinery was
destroyed by the Joint Task Force said
he invested N11 Million in his refinery
and he had the ability to refine 20
barrels a day. This is home grown
technology. It should be encouraged
and not destroyed. If they are legalized,
safety will be enhanced and their
processes will improve and they will pay
taxes and hire people. I will ensure the
immediate passage of the PIB bill by
giving the North a quick win with the
promise of enhanced exploration of
crude oil in the Chad Basin and
accelerated development of Solid
Minerals in Northern Nigeria. We will
empower young men and women in
Northern Nigeria to form themselves
into bigger companies and we will give
them capital and equipment to exploit
Solid Minerals across the region. The
immediate passage of the PIB bill will
ensure the co-operation of host
communities as they now stand to
benefit. It will also speed up
investments that had been locked up
because of uncertainty.
HOW WILL YOU SOLVE ELECTRICITY:
That is the easiest thing to do. My first
major task as President will be to repeal
the Electricity Act of 2005. You cannot tie
a man’s hands and ask him to go and
box. The law is bad. We will change it
and open up the industry completely.
Total deregulation is the key. When we
deregulate, companies will immediately
take over viable local governments
across the country and begin to
generate power and build local grids in
your local community. The government
would have only two roles in electricity,
first through the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission to ensure that
customers are not exploited. Secondly,
the government can continue to operate
its national grid as a social service to
reach the rural areas to encourage
commerce. If I live in Gwarimpa, I need
a company to come to Gwarimpa,
generate 10MW and run cables to my
house and collect their money through
pre-paid meters. Localisation is the
solution to power. The crowd began to
clap.
By the end of the explanation on the
solution to the electricity problem,
needless to say, no one was still ready
to support Buhari or Goodluck. I had all
their votes.

By the end of the explanation on the
solution to the electricity problem,
needless to say, no one was still ready
to support Buhari or Goodluck. I had all
their votes.
Ladies and gentlemen, I need your
help. Google my name, read my articles,
be my friend on Facebook, send a mail
to a friend today, share this article with
all your friends. Tell them that all the
years of prayers for God to help Nigeria
have an answer already. I am here to
serve you completely and lay down my
life for this country. My country, Nigeria
has given me so much.
Nigeria gave me life and gave me great
opportunities. Our country does not
have to be like this. It does not have to
be like the Ryhme of the Ancient
Mariner where there is ---- Water, water
everywhere but not a drop to drink. We
can drink plenty and we can eat plenty
and we can strive to go to the Moon
literally and conquer hunger and
disease in the land. Go and shout it
from the mountain top and tell
everyone to buy dancing shoes. Tell
them---Happy days are coming with
Michael Ovienmhada.

I know a number of people who have decided not to vote at all rather than vote for either GEJ or Buhari however that dosent help things. Make a choice or go with one if the aspirants from other parties