Few weeks ago, it was safe to say that the
winner of the February 14 Presidential election
was anyone’s guess, bearing in mind that the
two frontrunners in the elections were – and still
are – neck-and-neck in terms of the number of
core supporters they have been able to amass.
Both, however, would have – and may still be –
banking on the support of millions of undecided
eligible Nigerian voters whose minds were yet to
be made up on who to support and who not to
support. Unfortunately, it now seems that the
bulk of those erstwhile undecided voters are
moving further away from the Progressives, if
online sentiments and those in the streets are
anything to go by.
I’ve come across several previously undecided
voters, both online and offline, who are now
almost certain that they will camp under the
Umbrella. I went ahead to require of them what
informed their decisions and almost all of them
were united in their rationales for settling for the
PDP. Assuming that I queried 50 persons about
their reasons for shifting to the PDP, 45 of them
told me that the APC and Muhammadu Buhari
have played into the arms of the PDP.
Now, how has the APC and Major-General
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) played into the
hands of the People's Democratic Party?
The PDP in their campaign trails and in their
online push for reelection have never failed to
remind us of how intolerant of any form of
opposition, ideological or otherwise, GMB has
been. They went as far back as his 1983-85
military regime where he put a host of opposing
voices behind bars to buttress their point. One
would have expected that the general, as a
seasoned and elite politician that he is, would in
response guard his utterances and be more
watchful of what he says or does in the public
and to the media, but the reverse has so far
been the case.
In a protest letter recently channeled through the
legal director of the APC Presidential Campaign
Organization, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN),
General Buhari threatened to file a lawsuit
against the federal government-owned Nigerian
Television Authority and the privately owned
African Independent Television for what he
described as “hate documentaries” against him
that were aired in the tail end last month by the
stations, unless they retract them and issue a
formal apology. Such threats and disposition by
an aspiring office holder (or even a serving office
holder) are rather uncalled for in a democratic
setting. The world over, leaders and politicians
are scrutinized and castigated by the media on a
daily basis and it’s seen as part of their
obligations as watchdogs in the society.
If world leaders should file a lawsuit for every
alleged calumny or supposed act of “hate”
they've been subjected to, then the mountain of
lawsuits that would be filed by the likes of
Barack Obama, David Cameron, Vladimir Putin or
even our very own Goodluck Jonathan will take
several generations of humanity to tackle. These
leaders are lampooned on a daily basis yet you
rarely hear them threatening to sue anyone for
it. His own case shouldn't be any different. So
my advice to the General is that the sooner he
develops a thick skin to withstand all the media
"assault," the better for him, because he will be
receiving a truckload of it should he eventually
win.
In like manner, the leadership of the APC is doing
their presidential and vice presidential aspirants
and their image as a whole no good by backing
out of a series of debates organized by different
corporate bodies and organizations within the
country in the run-up to the Valentine’s Day
polls. Their no-show at the Nigerian Elections
Debate Group (NEDG)’s Vice Presidential debates
and their anticipated no-show at the presidential
debates to be organized by the trio of the
Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria
(NPAN), Arise News and ChannelsTV do nothing
to gainsay the allegation leveled against them
by the People’s Democratic Party of being fight
shy of a public face-off in which they will have
to tackle tough questions and defend their
manifestos and party agenda before Nigerians.
Though the APC has come out to deny this
allegation and have done their best to repudiate
the "dodging theory" of the PDP by citing
perceived bias on the part of the organizers of
the debates as their reason for backing out, the
average and neutral Nigerian on the streets is
not buying it. The rebuttal has done very little to
convince neutrals who are beginning to toe the
PDP’s line. My advice to them is that they
should vet their options and come up with a
positive decision in time, before the election sets
in.
For the sake of time and space, I will stop at
these. These and many more PR missteps and
political miscalculations have conspired to put
the party in a precarious position and rob them
of the people's goodwill which they once owned.
In an election that will likely be decided by the
undecided voters, the APC are fast losing speed
and direction. Concerted efforts must be made
to repair what has already been damaged and
put their push for the country's top job back on
track, else they run the risk of losing by a wide
margin at the poll.

Source
http://saharareporters.com/2015/02/02/has-buhari-shot-himself-foot

ok o i don hear but can this be sahara reporters?