While thinking along that prayer line, my youngest son, who loves Nigerian music so much, decided to play some of his favorites, King Sunny Ade. Coincidentally the first CD that he played was the track composed by some Nigerian Artists led by Chief Sunday Adegeye Aladeniyi, popularly referred to as King Sunny Ade. The track is titled "The Way Forward Parts I and II," probably recorded in 1993.The song is in Yoruba, English, Igbo, Hausa, Pidgin English, among others combining Funky, Fuji, Juju, Rap, Reggae, Jazz, and Afro.

The artists advised the politicians to burry their hatchets reminding them the efforts of Nigerians to obtain Independence, with ethnic and religious uprisings, the negative impact of instability on our economy. What legacy are we going to leave for our children? I believe it is time to replay that track for Nigerians. I have requested Mfom Ufot of the local radio in Atlanta metro, FM 89.3 to play this track over and over for the Nigerian audience this Saturday, April 12, 2003, as Nigerians go to the poll.

The election dates are National Assembly - April 12th, Presidential and Gubernatorial - April 19th, Possible Run-Off - April 26th, Possible Second Run-Off - April 29th, State House of Assembly - May 3rd.

King Sunny Ade sings the lyrics of the song in Yoruba vernacular.

O ya a, Kajo gbe e e
Gbe e, Kemi Gbe
Nijeria yi ti gbogbo wa ni
Koma gbodo baje
Tori kosi ibomiran ti ale lo
A jo ole da bi'le
Eje ka sowopo ka fimo sokan
Gbe e, K'emi gbe

Other artists repeat the lyrics in Hausa, Igbo, and Pidgin English

Come! Make we lift am o
Lift, Make I lift
Come make we lift Nijeria up
Lift Make I lift
This Nigeria na we own
Make e no pafuka
No place bi like our home
Home sweet home
Make we join hand and lift Naija
Lift, Make I lift

Nigerians must join hands together and lift up the country, and make sure that the 2003 elections go without a hitch. The choice we have today is to bring Nigeria together to succeed in this election process. We need leaders that have the fear of God at heart, the men with A FREE RICO PIE to lead the country to the 'promised land' where ethnic rivalry, religious bigotry will be things of the past.

We need individuals with AMBITION to lift Nigeria up, with a FORESIGHT, knowing fully well that Nigeria belongs to all, with good sense of REALISM, and EMPATHY that there is no place like home. Individuals that are EMOTIOANLLY matured in the face of crises, with some RESILIENCE for them to bounce back from inevitable set backs, disappointment, and temporary failure, in the midst of religious and ethnic challenges. Nigeria needs individuals of very high INTEGRITY, honest and truthful, with convincing COURAGE to take bold decisions in fighting the ills of the society, so that our children would be proud of the legacy left behind. They have to be very OPTIMISTIC in approaching issues facing the country, while understanding the meaningful use of their POWER, and not abusing it, with strong INDEPENDENT mind to think for themselves, so that Nigerians can give the gold medal of EXCELLENCE at the end of their services, and we can all enjoy A FREE RICO PIE for the rest of our life.

The moment we have been waiting for is here: the moment of truth, the moment of knowing how much Nigerians have learned their lessons in the hands of some deceitful politicians, the time of testing Nigerians political maturity. Who is the best among the known 21 evils craving for peoples vote in the Nigerian Presidential elections in April 19, 2003? Some of them have good intentions for the country and quite a few are serious candidates, some are on the race for the fun of it, some are there for the title, 'Presidential Candidate', some are in the race with no followers, and some of them are in the race just to get 'their share' from the Federal Government, provided they have 'offices' in all the 36 States of the Federation including one in Abuja. Since we need only one of them to lift up the country in the next four years, the recipe for that is A FREE RICO PIE.

We have some Parties known only by names with no idea what they stand for, or what they are going to offer the country. Such Parties and their candidates include, Emmanuel Osita Okereke of All People's Liberal Party; Chief Yahaya Ezemoo Ndu of African Renaissance Party, and Dr. Ifeanyichukwu Godswill Nnaji of Better Nigeria Progressive Party, Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo of People's Mandate Party, Fred Ahmed Abdul-Baki of New Nigeria People's Party. Chief Olisa Agbakoba of Green Party wants to extend his human rights crusade to Aso Rock. We do have others, such as, the Peoples Salvation Party with no candidate.

Dr. Antonio Abayomi Jorge Ferreira for Democratic Alternative is going to run a transparent government. That is not new to Nigerians. The level of transparency is what we need to know.

Reverend Christopher Okotie of Nigeria Justice Party would teach us how to pray to God to sanitize the public service. We need his prayers for this to happen.

Mohammadu Dikko Yusuf, former Inspector-General of Police, of the Movement for Democracy and Justice, was the only man that challenged Abacha in 1998. He is a former chairperson of the Arewa Consultative Forum, representing northern Nigeria. How far can he go this time?

Mr. Olatunji Braithwaite of the Nigeria Advance Party previous experience of the 1983 presidential campaigns may not take him beyond his domain. He is the leader of the Pentecostal Christian Fellowship of Nigeria.

I doubt if Alhaji Balarabe Musa has the energy and followership to revitalize the fight for the Talikawa of late Mallam Aminu Kano. That is one of the Parties that I wished had the followership and the energy to push for the poor masses. Unfortunately he does not have the courage to push the Peoples Redemptions Party forward.

Chief Pere Ajuwa of the Liberal Democratic Party is going to establish a State Police, downsize unwieldy and expensive protocol, and appoint women to key offices, (forgetting that some States might not have women representatives in his administration). He promise to strengthen the value of Naira, reduce inflation, revamp the agricultural sector, and rehabilitate the country's dilapidated infrastructure.

Women are not left out in this race. Major Mojisola Adekunle Obasanjo, the woman who claimed to be President Obasanjo's estranged wife and a prominent human rights lawyer of Masses Movement of Nigeria, will "transform the country if elected." She would eradicate poverty, (talking like Chief Fawehinmi), provide affordable housing, self-employment to Nigerians (unlike armed robbers), and improve on agriculture, (that's sound better). Her prayer, which will solve all Nigeria problems, is for "God to give us men that money can't buy; men that sex can't lure and Nigerians with big minds, who would think less of what they would reap." We need the prayer.

Mrs. Sarah Nnadwa Jubril, the first woman to run for the Presidency in 1993 is the founder of Progressive Action Congress. She is a Deaconess in the Living Faith Church, Kaduna. Besides being the wife of retired Brigadier Jubril Nupe from Patigi, Kwara State, she promised to "lift up the moral and philosophical standard of the nation" and act as a "parenting institution that would exemplify that politics is about service and good governance." She supports the National Conference; at least Chief Ojukwu has a supporter.

General Ike Nwachukwu of the National Democratic Party, another PDP decampee, was asked to step aside for Chief Dr. Ekwueme. General Nwachukwu with an Igbo father, a Hausa-Fulani princess as a mother and married to a Yoruba woman, calls himself the archetypal Nigerian. He is dancing with the Nigerian women between 35 and 50 years of age by promising them 60% of the jobs in his cabinet. Women empowerment! Because the rising level of poverty, hunger, insecurity, stagnant economy, falling standard of education and dearth of social amenities in the country disturbed him, he declared, "I am not just another general, but an experienced public servant well groomed to lead Nigeria responsibly and patriotically." According to him, what the country needs now to prosper is a more tolerant, responsible, and responsive government.

Senator Jim Nwobodo, the man who decamped from PDP, recalling his experience at the PDP primaries whined of "injustice, double standard, and hypocrisy. There was so much talk about transparency, yet everything was marred with deceit and corruption." Can the cockroach be innocent in the gathering of fowl? He is in the race to "rebuild the Nation." While unveiling his plans for Nigeria, he made a brilliant speech to his supporters and agrees that no single Party could defeat PDP. Unfortunately, he is the flag bearer for the United Nigeria People's Party. We thought Babangida would step forward and pick up the Party's Presidential candidate. Senator Nwobodo's records are public as the Governor of old Anambra State, his 144 years jail by Gen. Buhari's military junta, the Sports Minister and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic experience, and his manifesto based on late Abacha's Vision 2010, are things to consider while casting our votes to elect him to lift Nigeria up.

Chief Chukwuemaka Odumegwu Ojukwu of All Progressive Grand Alliance remarked if his kin liked what he did during the Civil War, they should vote for him. I would vote for him, because all that he yearned for in the 60s are still with us today without any improvement. Nigeria is still very fragile; most do not know what it means to be a Nation. His fear is on the election rigging which has not been done. He advised Independent National Election Commission to adopt the famous Option A4 rule of counting and declaring election results at each polling center nationwide. He enjoined Nigerians to support his candidacy as well as the election of all other APGA candidates, stressing that he had over the years understood the problems of Nigeria and was committed to healing the nation, without going to trenches to heal Nigeria. Unfortunately, his followers are limited within the Igbo group.

A major Party from another confined Yoruba group is Alliance for Democracy. AD is politically smart to support PDP, not fielding any candidate and at the same time expanding its horizon beyond the confines of Yorubaland.

Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu of the New Nigeria Peoples Party is going to show leadership by example. How many examples from the current leaders have we found? Unless his leadership style comes with A FREE RICO PIE, we may not see him as a good leader. Accountability, fairness, and vision are his cardinal goals for his leadership style. Among his programs for Nigeria are: "Enhanced security and safety concerns for sustainable administrative and economic management; Improved management of the Nigerian economy; Management and maintenance of adequate infrastructures: Power. Communication, Transportation, Water Supply, health and educational facilities; Social services, i.e., the evolution of an adequate safety net for the poor, the infirm and the aged; Meeting the challenges of building and sustaining democratic institutions including the basic political structure at federal, state, and local levels; Providing the environment for a proper fractioning of the private sector and non governmental institutions; Voters registration and update of the voters register to ensure enfranchisement of all eligible voters; and Setting appropriate guidelines and measure for Local government by legislation which "has been marked by poor administrative and poor financial and economic management." Very good program!

Chief Gani Fawehinmi of the National Conscience Party would sanitize the Nigerian society and "use these laws" to prosecute "people like Ibrahim Babangida, Akilu Togun, Abdulsalami, Buhari." This revelation is a pointer to the fact that Chief Fawehinmi would spend most of his term chasing shadows at the expense of his lustrous program for Nigeria. Chief Fawehinmi is a veteran human rights campaigner. He is prepared to pursue four fundamental steps: Corruption; Unemployment; Cost of Funds; Exchange Rate Mechanism.

According to Chief Fawehinmi, "there will be no holds barred on corruption, which will be confronted frontally, decisively, courageously, and brutally from the epicenter of the Nigerian society, i.e. the corridors of power. NCP will set up an executive Ministry of Anti-Corruption (MAC), publish, and make available to the Press all the Declarations of assets submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau since the introduction of the agency. Those who cannot explain their earnings and those whose assets are above their legitimate earnings in public offices will be made to forfeit their assets and face criminal prosecution - in addition to the forfeiture. If a public officer had died but found to have corruptly enriched himself while 'serving the nation' in an official capacity, the fruits of the corruption will be taken from his children and children's children." It looks draconian to me.

NCP will also "establish a Ministry of Employment and Social Security to initiate a social security system, which includes unemployment benefits to be paid by government to all ascertained unemployed able-bodied and disabled Nigerians on the list of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security; compel all ministries, parastatals and all fleshy, buoyant and prosperous enterprises, companies, businesses, banks, etc, that have been declaring fat profits to employ a portion of the registered unemployed Nigerians into their establishments; reduce the interest rate within three months to not more than 3%; peg the exchange rate and back it up with hard currency earnings from oil sector and resources from diversified non-oil sources." NCP appellations are Poor People's Party; The Party to Save the Poor; The Party for the Poor; The Caring Party; Abolition of Poverty; For the People; and For the Masses. Go Chief. These are glistening ideas to lift Nigeria up. We need to take the NCP beyond Ajegunle Okada Union to make our dream comes true.

All Nigeria Peoples Party of Buhari has focused on negative campaign against Obasanjo/Atiku's ticket without revealing to Nigerians what it has to offer the country, besides not imposing Sharia on Nigeria so as to avoid many amputees on the streets of our major Nigeria Cities; making Nigeria stable, secure and prosperous; making the Naira strong; allowing foreign capital into the economy by selling privatization shares to foreign investors.

History will 'vindicate' General Buhari of his past records. As the Head of State for only two years, he had Nigerians killed at the slightest offence; sacked the Democratically elected Government of President Shagari in 1983 thereby showing his disdain for the rule of law; banned Nigerians from talking about a timetable to return Nigeria to civilian Democracy, now seeking popular vote; declared that the best system of government for Nigeria is Military Rule; the man often sound like a Muslim fanatic or fundamentalist encouraging Muslims to vote for their likes in faith; would discourage the North to boycott the National Identification exercise; a Champion of sectional interests, an advocate for the things that divide rather than unite us; a party to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Nigeria Presidential election; he saw Nigerians as an enclave, proposed in 1985, that we could better protect ourselves by building a wall along our borders; his dreadful jail terms ever heard of on the political class, Chief Nwobodo and Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, were sentenced to over 400 years in prison. President Shehu Shagari and vice President Alex Ekwueme, spent 20 months in detention without trial and the Venerable Sheikh Abubakar Gumi had his passport seized for criticizing the retroactive execution of four Youths convicted of drug trafficking.

The ANPP candidate, General Buhari, passed the most cruel and despotic decrees enslaving Nigerians; his repugnant Decree 4 of 1984 to suppress the press, which prescribed punishment for journalists if they published whatever amounted to an embarrassment to the government even if the report was true; Alhaji Umaru Dikko's diplomatic crate in London; the clearing of the 53 suitcases during his tenure without proper customs check belonging to his head of protocol, Alhaji Daura.

How can we trust the General with no chutzpah who thinks he is above the law by refusing to appear before the Oputa Commission? How can Nigerians deal with his excessive temperament if elected in April 2003? He pledges "that if elected, I will lead a government that is consultative, responsive, prudent, transparent, accountable, dedicated to service, law abiding, and above all democratic." We need some teachers to match his pledge with his records.

His running mate has nothing good to wish Nigeria in this coming election except to be the Prophet of doom predicting that "The ANPP has the ability to return fire for fire. The ANPP's victory is already written in heaven, no quantum of luciferic elements can thwart the will of God," Na Big Grammar we go chop?

To o o! Here we come, Chief General Olusegun Aremu "Akinlawon" Obasanjo of Peoples Democratic Party. "Akinlawon" is what I would add to President Obasanjo's names for the purpose of this piece. In as much as I dislike that Party for all the pains it took Nigeria and Nigerians through over the past four years, especially at the National Assembly, unfortunately Nigeria is stuck with it for another four years. I had wished the other parties could have a credible candidate to challenge PDP. Where are those with A FREE RICO PIE? Gluttony, smugness, and egotism would not allow that to happen. Every monkey wants to be at the Kings dinner table. What is new to Nigerians about Obasanjo that have not been said? You be the judge. His latest trouble, about his snappy personality, was with the 50 local Chiefs from Southeastern Nigeria. This is what he said to the local Chiefs while discussing their plights in the hands of the exploiters, depriving them of their rights from their natural recourses that they housed. "If you say the major resource you produce is oil, then you are lazy." If it were in those days, we would ask him to lie on the floor, while the head Chief gave him some bulala for addressing a traditional ruler that way, especially where we have Effiong Eberefiak of Uyo. That notwithstanding Obasanjo promised to restore rule of law, we need one on how to respect the traditional rulers. Other things promised by PDP are to institutionalize the principles of equality; justice and peaceful coexistence; enshrine on ethics of transparency and accountability and responsibility in leadership (that almost cost him his Presidency); install an efficient economic regime that would help reduce poverty and bring about a visible improvement in the quality of the lives of our citizens.

Trailing his campaign trips and the publicity of campaigns, PDP is more serious than all the other Parties combined together. Obasanjo's records show, "on October 1, 1979, he handed over power to the democratically elected Government of President Shehu Shagari, becoming the First Nigerian (Civilian or Military) to voluntarily hand over power; throughout the 1980s and 1990s Obasanjo became a major voice recognized worldwide in the advocacy of Democracy and Good Governance; Obasanjo, both as Military Head of State and as Civilian President since 1999, has always emphasized teamwork, with his harmonious working relationship with his Deputies, the Late General Musa Yar'Adua and Vice President Atiku Ababakar; Obasanjo as Military Head of State and Civilian President, has always seen hope: hope of a Greater Nigeria, a people united and prosperous and a country taking it's rightful place among the leading countries of the World; As President, Obasanjo has helped to deepen the practice of multi-party Democracy, by allowing free Speech and enduring even unmerited criticism. No one has been jailed because of his views and the President himself actively defends the rights of citizens to hold contrary opinions; Obasanjo so obviously enjoys the give-and-take of civilian Democratic politics, and as President has met in the State House, with more ordinary Nigerians than all previous Heads of State put together; Obasanjo in or out of office has always been committed to the unity of Nigeria, has always seen our diversity as a source of strength and has always preached tolerance and peaceful co-existence."

On a very serious note I do not find any of these men that have all the ingredients of A FREE RICO PIE. Nonetheless, we have some of them that score the pass mark. Some of them are handicapped by their areas of coverage, being localized, like NCP of Gani, APGA of Ojukwu, and ANPP with wrong candidates, Buhari and Okadigbo, to lead the Party. The best of the evils is PDP, which I think Nigeria has trapped with for another four years. We pray for a smooth transition.

I like the trading of banters between Obasanjo and Buhari at the recent Council of States meeting, April 8, 2003, which brought general laughter from the members of the National Council at the meeting. Buhari cleared his throat, let out a short cough reminiscent of President Obasanjo's popular trademark of clearing his throat; Obasanjo threw the first 'jab', when he told Buhari "I hope you have not caught the Hong-Kong flu (SARS)" Buhari responded by saying "I have not been globe-trotting sir." Obasanjo responded back "But you have been campaigning all over the country..." We need such a civilized rapport among the candidates. It is not a do or die thing. After the game we continue our good relationship.

Nigeria belongs to us. Come make we lift Nijeria up, Lift Make I Lift. Play your part. Let us forget about the ethnic and religious cards that we play. Cast aside the "I don't care" attitude, so that our children would have better tomorrow. Nigeria must not PAFUKA.

God Bless Nigeria.

Thanks.