The Next Election and Its Challenges
It is time again for general elections in Nigeria. The only time Nigerian politicians and elite will remember the masses and come calling with all kinds of words and gifts. Of course, you can trust Nigerians to joke about everything with social media awash with images of politicians dining with the least among us. Such is the situation in Nigeria. But let us be serious for one minute, what and how do we propose to select the next president, governors, senators, and other political positions? How do we ensure that we are not fooled once again into voting for these populist candidates, only to find out they do not care whether the nation survives or not? How do we elect leaders with conscience who will be willing to go back to the basics and rebuild this country? A proverb goes like this…that everyday is for the thief, but one day is for the owner. In Nigeria it seems like eternity is for the thief while the owner never catches a break. My question is when will Nigerians be able to choose leaders willing to work for the good of the country and not be indicted by EFCC as soon as they leave office? Well, let’s explore the ways.
Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly but expecting a different result. Does that ring a bell? Look at the history of politics and our past voting record, you could surmise that Einstein was speaking about us, yes…Nigeria when he defined insanity. It appears we continue to do the same things despite how badly we are treated, abused, and pillaged. Can we ever for once, set our differences aside and act in ways that will improve our lives for the better? I know about our tribal, cultural, social, and philosophical difference and fully aware we see the world from different prisms. However, for true change to happen in Nigeria, we must change our approach to selecting our leaders. We must avoid being classified as “insane,” we need to do things a little differently this time to ensure we create real change and paradigm shift! A total pivot from business as usual to a new place.
To put Nigeria on the right trajectory, we first need to rethink our approach to politics both at the national and local levels. We must be clear regarding what government we want and need for ourselves. Often, I hear people speaking about the government as if it is a different entity charges with providing all our needs, but that is not the case, we must as individuals contribute to our own good. The countries from which we borrowed our current governance system understands government does not work without full participation of its citizens. We must acknowledge that we the electorate are the government, and if we fail to participate, then government will never work. What I am saying in essence is that voting in an election is just the beginning of our participation in governance. Once we have cast our votes, we have a collective responsibility to hold elected officials accountable. Such is the nature of human democracy. The people who crafted the concept of democracy knew this and created checks and balances to enable the electorate to check their leaders. Our system has no checks and balances, hence the reason an individual could embezzle millions of naira and get away with it.
Since 1960, we have done nothing but recycle the same people and then blame them for abusing us! Even during the military regime, it was the same group of people passing the leadership baton from one person to the other and we do absolutely nothing. Upon transitioning to democratically elected officials, we continued to honor that same system by tolerating this passing of the touch to the same politicians. When will we learn? Could it be that a fool at 40, in our case 61 is a fool forever? We need to change the narrative here and now! I believe we should classify the year 2023 as the year of the PARADIGM SHIFT! The year of PIVOT! The year of true CHANGE. The year we finally do something different. The year of mapping A New Beginning. Regardless of how much we like our current politicians, we must send them packing! We need to start new and fresh. We must begin with a new crop of individuals who will be willing to work with us to provide us with basic infrastructure to live enjoyable lives. We may think this is not easy…but I am here to tell you that it is as easy as you can read this blog! All we need to do to make this happen is the political will to change our leadership.
While discussing with some of my peers, they talked about the impact of election rigging on the outcome of elections in Nigeria. They may have a point, but someone sent me something recently that intrigued me. In the post that was shared with me, the poster wondered if voter cards are not important, why do politicians come to us year after year? Why do they offer us money to use our votes? If voter cards do not matter, why do politicians give us rice, yams, food of all kinds to get us to vote for them? Then it dawned on me that sometimes we make excuses to justify our own bad behavior or to cover our weaknesses. Because we have failed, we tend to make up excuses to justify our own failure. We often blame the politicians, INEC, or the judiciary - anyone but the true culprits “US!” This behavior has got to stop. We need to look to the country from which we borrowed our system of governance to learn how to operate it. We need to put our big boys’ and girls’ panties and stop believing that we are juveniles who need the guidance and direction of political fathers for things to work better. We must realize we are the government and that if we collectively determine to fix our country, our leaders will have no option but to follow our lead. The presidential system of government may appear new to us, however, if you looked more closely, it no different from the way our forefathers managed to run their villages and did it successfully. So, to create change in Nigeria, we all must commit to exercise the power of our voter cards. This is the one civic duty that only you and your conscience know what action you took in that polling booth – keep it that way and vote your conscience. That conscience includes making sure we do not return any current politicians in any capacity. We must commit to a fresh start!
A proverb goes like this, “by observing how children pick bread fruit, you could decipher which among them would be greedy.” From our antecedents, we all are conditioned to believe that government is something for others to handle. We wrongly believe that our role in governance is limited to casting our votes and that’s it. My people, that ideology is wrong, wrong, wrong and needs to change. According to Barak Obama, “change will never come if you wait for some other people or other times” “We are the change that we’ve been waiting for.” “We are the change that we seek.” My people if we expect anything to change in Nigeria, we will be the ones to make that change. No one, especially no politician will bring about change in Nigeria until Nigerians decide it is time to change. We can no longer sit on the sidelines and believe that manner will fall from heaven, remember that God only helps those that help themselves. Nigerians must realize that governance is everybody’s business and not that of elected officials. If we want good roads, steady light, security, water, and other good stuff, we must be willing to fight for it because it cannot be handed to us on a special platter.
I am still of the firm belief that for us to get the attention of our elected officials we need to send a clear and strong message. That message is simple, “enough is enough!” One way to do this is to vote out any current elected official. If any elected official has been unable to achieve anything in the last 8 to 12 years, what do we expect for them to achieve in 2023? And if any Nigerian believes that any of these current elected officials will ever achieve anything, then we are the problem and not our leaders. We have one of the most powerful tools to help change our lives, “our vote” and we have refused to use it to our advantage. We have been the ones to shelter our corrupt officials from prosecution. We have been the ones to scream marginalization when they are indicted by EFCC. We know fully well that governors who embezzle money want to go to the senate to prevent being prosecuted by EFCC and we oblige them by electing them. We then scream to high heavens how much money they have diverted while in office. The current senate is full of past governors who have cases outstanding with EFCC but are protected by the immunity clause. What a shame!
My fellow Nigerians, when are we going to stop being spectators in our own game of life? When will we realize that our homeland is waiting for us to rescue it from the grip of these politicians who have no interest in making things better for the country? if these current crops of elected officials have not been able to give us steady electricity since 1960, what makes you think they will do it now? If they have been unable to build good roads, what make us think they will pave the roads this time? If they have not been able to stop all these killings, how would they do it this time around? It is the same people, same faces just different political party platform. It is the same mentality, same survival instincts, same knowledge base – nothing good will ever come out of any of these elected officials in power. So, my suggestion is simple…Vote the Bums Out Please!
I think we all have had enough insanity. I think we have been used enough. I think it is time to walked away from these elected officials and find fresh new faces that could effectively manage the affairs of Nigeria. I think we have deluded ourselves enough thinking that these politicians, who we continue to recycle, will ever do anything to help us out. If they have not given us steady light, when will they give it? When we all die? If we do not have good roads, how will they be able to give us good roads tomorrow? By magic? I know I am repeating myself, but it is for a reason. Why are we so scared of taking a gamble when we have been gambling with our lives all these whiles? Why are we so afraid of investing our vote in someone new, or chat a new direction for ourselves? I wonder why we have such bad attitude regarding governance in Nigeria.
My people please it is time we made up our minds about Nigeria and what we want from Nigeria. I believe that if we continue to behave the way we are behaving today, we only have ourselves to blame regarding the condition of our nation. We have recycled enough of these politicians, and it is about time we try something new, something fresh, something different and see if salvation will be ours finally. My fellow Nigerians do not be fooled this time around. I am appealing to all of you to put your collective minds together and Vote these Bums Out In 2023!!
Comments