Love does not win election, except it does

It was Abdulkareem Baba Aminu, editor of the Daily Trust on Saturday, who first told me about Ayisha Osori’s book: “Love Does Not Win Elections.”

Abdulkareem reads a lot of weird books, and some normal ones too. So I didn’t know which category to slot this one. But he told me, “The book is too well-written.” Too well-written? Isn’t “well written” enough? I took a mental note of this hyperbole on account of whose mouth it came from - after all, editors are trained cynics and critical consumers of knowledge. It would take an exceptional book to receive an exceptional praise from a person paid to read and write.

Therefore, I was eager to check out the evidence. Abdulkareem promised me his copy of the book the following week. Next week came, but when I went to the editorial board meeting, I didn’t remind Abdulkareem about the book, rather, I avoided him because I had not finished writing my column. Another week came, the same thing.

It was some weeks later when visiting a friend at NIRSAL that I saw Ayisha’s book in his car. We were driving to another meeting, so I used that time to read a couple of chapters. Interestingly, at that strategy meeting, I referenced insights from

As my sleepy eyes tried to clear the foggy vision, I adjusted to pick up my phone after its endlessly ring. It turned out to be my boss, Alhaji Sagir Hamidu. I sprang to my feet and quickly picked up my mobile phone. “Are you in Abuja already,?” he asked. “Our flight to Monrovia is taking off at 7a.m. the following morning”. Needless to say, I headed straight to the train station at about 5.30p.m.

The following day, we flew the Asky Airline to Monrovia via Lome and Accra. The flight to Lome was 1hr.30mins and we were delayed for two hours before embarking on the flight to Accra. As I made my way through the Airport security in Lome, in my paltry French I said to them, “Bonjour”; they answered in the affirmative response, or so I thought, I just smiled back for lack of what to say.

The flight from Lome to Accra lasted just 25 minutes and soon thereafter, the two and half-hour flight to Monrovia from Accra airport ended. We landed exactly at 5.30p.m. Liberian time, which is 6.30p.m. local time, at the rather bumpy and dilapidated Springsfield Airfield. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I assumed it was their official International airport given its state of disrepair. However, I was told the Ayisha’s book more than once. The book had started yielding benefits!

So when Ayisha exclaimed in Minna during her book reading that “even I don’t know my book the way you do, Dr. Dooba” she didn’t know I had been using and taking benefits from the book for a while.

Later, I received a call from Nurdin, owner of Amab, the most lively bookstore in Minna, informing me that there would be a book reading by Ayisha Osori and that I would be one of the discussants and that I should come and take my copy any time I was available. “Is she coming to Minna?” I was excited!

This was an opportunity to finish the book. And Abdulkareem was right, the book was well-written. The author is a skillful writer and has an uncommon facility with the English language. You could spend five years and you wouldn’t find a book this good written by a Nigerian. It’s a bundle of wits, satire, humour and a how-to guide on contesting elections in Nigeria. It made me laugh (page 31) and it made me cry (page 234).

It also taught me many things including some techniques I can use as a writer. While reading, many times I said “Wow! Howwas she able to express that?” She has this nearnative ease with the language. I know editing of the book contributed to main airport is under renovation by the Chinese.

On ground at the airport were the government’s protocol officials and business mogul, George Haddadd, who was there to receive us. While we were ushered into the Presidential Lounge, we met the veteran Coach who first discovered George Weah as a footballer, Frenchman Claude Le Royseated quietly.

We exchange pleasantries and asked him why he never deemed it fit to take up a coaching appointment with Nigeria. He only smiled back in response. Ostensibly he perhaps didn’t even understand me much. I, however, asked for his autograph, which he gladly obliged.

We were given the option as to whether to follow the protocol officials or be the guest of the businessman, Haddad at his mansion. Considering the fact that Monrovia was filled to capacity with guests, we opted for the latter; and I’m glad we did. Mr. Haddadd, the CEO of Prestige Motors among many other companies, is a Lebanese who has being living in Monrovia since 1974. Widely touted as the richest man in Liberia, he is the president of the business community in Liberia. In other words, he is the ‘Dangote’ equivalent in Liberia.

And what a warm reception he accorded us. The following day, he the polish, but what a writer!

Therefore, during the book reading in Minna on February 3, 2018, I shared nine insights I unpacked from the book.

One, page 239 is the titular page and where the author stated her thesis: “Do not assess your chances based on how much people claim your opponents are disliked or [reviled]: Love is not a currency at the ballot.” During her campaign to get the ticket of the PDP in Abuja, many “supporters” told her that her opponents were not liked by the people on account of their poor performance. But these sentiments didn’t reflect at the ballot because Ayisha lost the primary election.

Two, budgeting is good for the campaign. Ayisha herself budgeted N15, 253, 250 (page 22) to run for AMAC/Bwari House of Representatives seat. Three, you can raise money through donations from friends and family for your campaign, Ayisha raised N9, 471,000 (page 25). Although you may not be as well connected as Ayisha, you can repeatedly remind your potential donors to donate, the way she did.

Four, the author sprinkled her writing with a good deal of vivid analogies that engage the reader’s imagination, nudging me to want to spice up my own writing with offered to drive us round to have a feel of the city. Broad Street, Lagos equivalent of the country. And there we saw a huge Nigerian presence. GTBank and UBA are touted to be two of the biggest financial institutions in the country. On the same street is the Nigerian Embassy (Nigeria House), arguably the second largest after the American Embassy.

There is a strong Chinese presence in Monrovia. They are rebuilding and re-modelling a modern airport, a state-of-theart massive Secretariat under construction. They built the Samuel Kanyon Doe stadium, where the presidential inauguration took place and, wait for it: The Chinese didn’t charge a dime for it; it was handed over to the Liberian government free of charge - talk of Chinese benevolence.

The people of Liberia, estimated to be around 4 million, are very poor people, but happy. The market located in Painsville consists majorly of second-hand goods from Europe and America. There are lots of shanty towns around Painsville, but the hope and expectation on the faces Liberians, especially young people, was unprecedented. They all seemed to love the president-elect and seem to believe he has the magic wand to turn around the fortunes of the state of Liberia.

Part of our itinerary was a visit to such poignant comparisons. For example, while describing how the Abuja office of the DSS was built in the middle of a large compound on page 200 she wrote: “like a drop of stew on a plate of rice.”

Five, still on language, the author was so creative with it that she seasoned the book with her own unique coinages. For instance, on page 206 we read: “it was getting harder to differentiate the scammers and the scammees and the screwers and the screwed.” I so much love the “screwers and the screwed” that I’m already thinking of using it as a title of a book I’m writing.

Six, and this is the part of the book that made me sad. On page 234 Ayisha Osori expressed her frustration on the failure of Buhari to use his leadership “to mold the party into something different from the norm…” Tears welled up in my eyes when I was reading these pages because I share the frustrations of the author. Since the president also complained about it before the 2015 elections, we the supporters of Buhari felt that the first thing he was going to do was to tweak the leadership recruitment process - at least that of his party - making it easy for the people to choose good leaders.

But in a situation where you have to spend millions - billions even - for good people to access power, voters don’t get to answer “who is going to be a good leader?’ rather, they answer “who’s the smaller devil?” after the degenerate delegates from the parties have chosen bad candidates for them through dubious processes.

But can you imagine that even the former interim leader of Liberia, Prof. Amos Sawyer. A great leader who knew my boss from way back, called out: “Sagir, it’s good to see you” as they shook hands. His level of the mastery of international politics and economy didn’t amaze me, that’s why he is a professor. Unlike in Nigeria, ex-leaders of Liberia are not entitled to emoluments after leaving office. From the modest life the prof. is living one needs not be told that he would make do with some financial rehabilitation.

Monday 22nd January was the Inauguration Day. As early as 7am men and women set out to the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium to witness the swearing-in ceremony of arguably the most popular president Liberia ever produced. One thing struck me though, the level of orderliness exhibited by the citizens, which was noteworthy. Also worth mentioning is the civility of their security agencies. They love their people and their country.

Inside the stadium, various Heads of State and dignitaries started trooping in. I waited endlessly for the announcement that the representative of President Buhari had arrived, having had a privileged information that the president was not coming. However, it turned out to be an endless wait.

The stadium came alive when the Cameroonian soccer sensation, the amendment of the Electoral Act wasn’t an initiative of the Presidency but that of the National Assembly? When attorney general should be consolidating the place of card readers in our elections so that the Supreme Court doesn’t defecate on it again, he was facilitating the return of Maina.

Seven, I agree with the sentiment of the author that we need a critical mass of good people who think they have nothing to do with politics to join politics. Perchance, in doing so, we can crowd out the bad guys.

Eight, anyone who doesn’t have the time to read Ayisha’s 250-page book, would do well to read four pages beginning from 238 to 242. On those pages, she documents “survival tips… for those considering contesting elections.”

Nine, the author sought a math model to draw the relationship of our development, quality of representation and the election process (page 234). On Saturday in Minna, I told her that as a data scientist, I’m willing to accept this challenge.

In sum, I agree with the author’s claim that love does not win elections in the context of how we choose leaders in Nigeria. Some people use Buhari to debunk this thesis. Buhari however, is the exception that proves the rule. Like Aisha said in Minna, “Buhari is an outlier.”

Yet, if we remove the deliberately planted bottlenecks and allow the people to choose freely, love can win elections. If you doubt me, please go to the city of Sokoto (Sokoto North LGA) and ask people to tell you the story of my friend, Abdullahi Samuel Eto, entered the stadium. Shouts of ‘Eto!’chanted across the stadium. Minutes later, our very own Jay-Jay Okocha got his fair share of acknowledgement from the 35,000 crowd, as his name was also chanted across the arena.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo arrived, even though the crowd tried to acknowledge and chant his name, his arrival was not acknowledged because he broke protocol by coming in at the same time as the vice president-elect, Taylor.

Interestingly, locals told me OBJ has one of the biggest farms in Liberia. Thereafter, the outgoing president, Ellen Johnson Sirleef arrived the stadium to a rousing welcome from the crowd. Then came the big fish himself, the 24th president of Liberia, George Manneh Weah. The stadium went wild. Indeed, the ex-soccer star is very popular.

At noon, he mounted the stage to take his oath of office. Just then the Nigerian Vice President walked in, of course, no mention of him or the Nigerian delegation was made. To say that I was disappointed was an understatement. Having spent close to $12 billion in Liberia, I thought Nigeria would dictate the pace in that country.

President George Weah finally took the oath of office at exactly noon, to the loud ovation in the stadium and beyond. There was hope and expectation among Liberians as a new dawn was born. My prayer and hope is for him to succeed as he brings succour and home to the awar-ravaged country.

Abubakar wrote in from Asokoro, Abuja.