Some years back I had the privilege of being in the company of a highly placed individual. It was indeed a pleasure and something that I have ever since relished and cherished.
He wasn’t only a man with deep pocket and wide social network, his versatility on issues was obviously sparkling.
The few hours spent around him wasn’t just fun but a transfer of knowledge, if placed on the scale of time and value wouldn’t be anything less expensive.
“Jarlath, it is on me, take whatever you want”!
I never understood the deep and boundless implication of that sentence he made not until recently when this road to 2023 and need to salvage Nigeria from the grip and squeeze of daredevils became contentious.
He literally gave me a blank cheque to buy, eat and drink anything I so desired.
To have made such a demand on me, he wasn’t having a shaky and peripheral financial depth . He knew his worth and very confident that nothing I would ever buy would red his account.
The road to 2023 is becoming quite interesting, comical , dramatic and ingloriously pedestrian in some areas.
Many roads abound to 2023, just like there are many roads to Wuse markets in FCT. Wuse Market is situated at the centre of FCT, a repository of major house hold wares, wears and edible. Call it a hub of consumables ,one may not be wrong. So it is a destination point, largely all the residents of FCT go there to buy things.
As rowdy as the place can be, people get to buy what they want to buy and move on. Some also get scammed, or cajoled into buying what one never intended to buy.
It takes a street-wise person to know his ways around, buy the correct things at a normal price. However, it is on the buyer to make decisions on what to buy, where to buy and at what price and be ready to bear the consequences if scammed or ripped off by way of exorbitant pricing.
This summarises the very obvious imagery of 2023 Presidential election. IT IS ON YOU the voter! The choice is ON YOU!The road to follow is ON YOU! And the shop to enter is equally ON YOU!!
The Muslim -Muslim ticket, the inglorious and infamous impostering of clegies, the Obi-dient and Atikulated wares are the various options one sees at “2023 SHOP- A- RIGHT” Political Market. Each seller comes with strategies to convince, cajole etc to aid patronage. Some of them with the mastery in selling, could confuse one, making fake look original.
However, it is still on the buyer to make decision to buy and once he buys, whatever consequences that comes thereafter as a result of the transaction becomes his to deal with.
To those who still have vivid image of what happened in 2015, the scenario created above held sway then. We were sold a ware which many thought was good with the specification as advertised.
Sadly, it all turned out to be the most scammed transition. It was on the Masses to make the purchase and they did, the consequences, they all bearing it groaning with tears of hardship rolling down.
IT IS ON YOU! The electorates it is on you to make a choice.
It is on you to decide if what you want is a Muslim- Muslim ticket. Would it also be a popular goods to buy if the reverse were the case?. We are all beings in God’ image, Nigerians, with a common goal and desire to have a better Nigeria. Religion doesn’t necessarily matter here. Sound as this may sound, why the clamor one may ask for a shift from North to South if fairness and balance aren’t necessary? Would it still be rational to have all North- North ticket or all South- South ticket without dissension?
IT IS ON YOU! , no other person, to decide to buy this dummy as the genuine ware that would last.
IT IS ON YOU to decide to buy from the shop that disguises, camouflages, and impersonates. A shop that in its quest for patronage fakes originals to validate its products.
What happened yesterday at the unveiling of Sen. Shettima as the running mate of Tinubu, where sacred and priestly wears were seen in the bodies of impostors as Bishops and clegies is at best comical.
If that is the kind of Shop you would want to buy your sensitive and life related products, good luck then. Whatever choice one makes, the truth is , It is on you to make the choice and possibly live with it as we have been struggling to live through the ordeal and hardship of the choice many made 7 years ago.
IT IS ON YOU! And when I said it is on You I meant every letters of that sentence. With same confidence that man said to me to buy whatever I wanted that it was on him, same confidence I say to you the electorates , it is ON YOU TO SHOP EITHER RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY.
JARLATH OPARA
