By Dul Johnson
With the primaries over, the die is cast and you are now the ones in the eye of the ‘perfect’ storm, so to speak. You are the anointed candidates of your parties or card-carrying members that produced the flagbearers for each party. At the end of the primary elections, many of you may have left the venues disappointed, just as the rest of us were. However, I do not want you to be disappointed after the 2023 general elections. As Nigerians, we have all been disappointed with what your previous anointed ones have done, or, indeed, what they have not done while in office. From 1999 till date, we have not positively and significantly felt the impact of any government in office. What we have experienced, sadly, is the absence of government or the presence of one in a negative way, and a deafening silence or empty noise that has bred the hydra-headed evil of corruption in the form of senseless looting of the public treasury, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, killings, ethno-religious conflicts, harassment of citizens by uniformed (in)security agents and a general sense of anomy; a state of affairs we do not wish to continue into 2023.
We need a turnaround in 2023, and you can help us achieve this. After all, you, too, need the change. Is politics not a sport? Don’t we refer to it as a race for those who aspire to the (in our context) “lucrative” offices? In every sporting tournament, the competitions are stiff, ending with one winner, or, as it is in in some cases, with runners-up. Politics, to me, is that kind of sport, in which the runners-up are rewarded. With such an understanding, the kind of acrimony that attends our electioneering campaigns and the elections themselves, would not be necessary. The degree of desperation for power that we see on display in the period leading up to elections and the spate of litigations that follow can only point to one thing: greed and lust for power. With all the efforts and resources deployed and spent in the election war, the winner gets into the demanding office with no energy and a scattered brain, but as someone who has won a big business bid. Little wonder they get into office and are lost as to what to do or who to work with! And since for us, it is a winner takes all game, they abandon the runners-up who may have excellent ideas, in favour of their cronies who would see nothing wrong with every action or inaction by their Supremo. This is a major reason why we are where we are as a nation today. You all can see where our actions or inactions, as well as those of the ruler we have elected, have led us.
We are on the brink, on the precipice, and the slightest wrong step would send us tumbling down the canyon. Anyone that survives such a fall would require a team of orthopedics, and may never fully recover. Typically, you would say: “God forbid bad thing”, and I would say amen to that. But I can tell you that God will not prevent from falling those who go to wrestle at the mouth of a cave knowing the danger. We must therefore strive to have free, fair and credible elections, and the plan for that must be put in place now. But it also requires your keying into every good plan being put in place. INEC is working very hard to give us just that. So are the leaders of the country’s security agencies, and we trust, as the leaders have assured as, that their men and women will live up to our expectations. All the chiefs as well as INEC have been open and loud about the steps and strategies they are adopting and you, the politicians, must key into those plans.
Beyond keying into the plans, it is important that you resist putting your personal interests or those of your party before every other thing. As you all know, the times are not normal. The survival of the country as a nation must be everyone’s priority. In fact, in the present circumstance, I dare to ask you, against your wont, to think about individuals and their ability to solve the country’s problems rather than think about parties. You do not only need to be alive, you also need the populations, safe in their geopolitical locations for you to successfully engage in the political game. I’m not asking you to do any anti-party activities. I am only asking you to put your country first, and vote for a person (for this once) and not necessarily your party. It is people that give leadership, not parties, especially when the parties have no ideologies.
It is said that those who do the same thing over and over and expect a different result are mad. Should we get it wrong in 2023, the rest of the world would declare us mad, and you will be the ones to blame. This is because you are the main players in this game, along with your goalkeepers, reserves, captains, coaches and managers. Fortunately, you are not mad. So, with your cooperation and support, we can bring about a change. But that can happen only if you THINK NIGERIA rather than “my party, right or wrong’’. Aspirants should have the spirit of compromise and cooperation. Our politicians must know that there is no political office that is anybody’s birthright. You should also remember that as long as there is life, there will always be another opportunity.
True, you control populations; you may be a political or opinion leader and may even have held political leadership positions. This position of power is conferred on you by God as well as by the people you control. Therefore, you must always listen to the voice of God (who hates injustices in all forms) and of the people who, in today’s Nigeria, constantly groan in poverty and pain. Remember, too, that the voice of the people is the voice of God. This is why you must fear God and think Nigeria. Let it be our collective desire and commitment, that together we shall make 2023 a beautiful reality.
Finally, let us have campaigns, when they start, on the real issues that are important to Nigerians and our country. Any campaigns not grounded on a sound ideological base to let the voters grasp and weigh their messages so that the voters can make a wise choice should be dismissed outright.
- Prof Johnson is of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Bingham University, Karu
