I cannot think of any other election that Nigerians looked forward to, after the still-born 1993 election midwived by Ibrahim Babangida, like this coming election on Saturday, February 25. In many ways, the 1993 election shares several similarities with the election of Saturday.
Like the 1993 which came after a long time of military rule, this election is coming at a time when Nigerians have become weary as a result of the very poor sequence or streak of misgovernance and retrogression.
It has never been this bad. The total state of despondence of the people can be seen and felt everywhere you turn. The Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government’s failure in eight years is monumental and total.
For Nigerians, Saturday affords us another opportunity to right the wrongs of the past. The presidential election, more than anything else, must be given all the attention and seriousness it deserves. This is so because the only reason we have remained the laughing stock of Africa and the rest of the world is because we have failed to make the right choice when it comes to picking the right candidate for that office.
I recall how prior to the 2015 election, it was a futile attempt getting some friends to look beyond tribe, religion and other mundane considerations in deciding who becomes president. Sadly, a vast majority of Nigerian voters opted for the lies packaged by the APC, believing that indeed, Buhari was the messiah that was to come. Now, eight years later, we all know better and have learnt the hard way.
It is critical that our brain and not our heart, is given the mandate to lead us to the right choice. We cannot be led by emotions and sentiments that may again see us rue another lost opportunity.
I have heard arguments about people saying that the President alone cannot turn things around. I have also heard people also trying to exonerate Buhari from the failure of his government. True, the president alone cannot do it, but it requires only one person, that has the vision, to lead the way and make the right call when it is required. Somebody must take responsibility for the actions of the government and that person is the president who presented himself to take up that office. If the government succeeds he takes the kudos and when the reverse becomes the case he takes the knocks, the blame cannot be shared.
As we go to the poll, the critical question to ask is: is our preferred candidate the best for the job? Where he or she is from or what religion he or she professes or what language he speaks, should be of no importance. What all of these have succeeded in doing for us in the past, is that because we have allowed emotion to rule our heads, we have elected candidates who were not the right choice for the job.
The result being that the suffering and lack we experience today is what we have to show for it. Poverty and hunger does not discriminate along ethnic and religious lines. We all feel the spasms of hunger and the general spread of insecurity.
Today, all those who voted Buhari because of where he is from or because of the possibility that that union offers their ethnic stock are today denying him and swearing that they never voted for him. So, the question is, since everybody is denying him, how did he become our president?
Buhari had the best opportunity to unite this nation but he failed to take the opportunity. He had the opportunity to place this nation on the path of growth and economic prosperity, but because he failed to rise above ethnic and clannish interests, he has instead left us on the verge of extinction as a nation. Ethnic agitations and cries of self-determination have left us on the precipice.
In societies where things are right, all forms of crime and infractions are treated as such and dealt with according to the law. But under Buhari, what constitutes an insurrection in one part of the country will be a petty crime in another part of the country. That is why Sunday Adeyemo, aka Igboho, can be hunted and prosecuted for asking that the federal government either provide security for his people of the south west or they will take it upon themselves to defend themselves. Today, Igboho is cooling his heels in Benin Republic, yet not one killer herdsman has been arrested let alone prosecuted for wanton killings of defenceless Nigerians for stupid reasons.
Instead under Buhari, the federal government has often put up defence for these marauders for their heinous crime just because they are from the same ethnic stock as him. Today, IPOB is a terrorist group and Nnamdi Kanu is wasting away in custody, even after the courts have freed him, yet it took the Buhari regime almost forever to classify the murderous bandits as terrorists. That is how we got to these crossroads of confusion, lack of direction and total insecurity and economic downturn.
What’s more, when a nation cannot feed itself with all the natural endowment and opportunities available to us, just because we have allowed bandits to sack our farmers and not as a result to natural disaster, or anything beyond our control, is that not enough reason for us to realize that our collective destiny lies in our hands?
I look forward to Nigeria when a Yoruba can be governor of Anambra or an Igbo become a governor of Borno, just because he or she has been considered to be best of the lot not just because he is from that state. Afterall, Kemi Badenoch almost became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Rishi Sunak, an Indian descent is today British Prime Minister. Why can’t that happen in Nigeria? Why should the life of any Nigerian be threatened in any part of the country just because he holds a contrary political view? Why should elections be a war when in other countries it is taken as a simple exercise of civic responsibility?
For me, this election is a referendum in many ways. It is a referendum because we simply have the choice of choosing between good and bad governance. It should be that day when we will decide what kind of future we want to bequeath our children. One thing for sure, nobody is expecting Eldorado in four years. But what we desire is an election that reflects the aspiration of the people and the outcome of which we shall launch ourselves on the path of greatness. Afterall, Rome was not built in a day. We know that the task before the incoming president will be gargantuan given the lackluster performances of previous leaders, but we can as well make a choice to do the right thing for the first time and let the rest of the world know that we have made a statement.
Like the Chinese would say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. Are we ready to take the right step to economic prosperity, shared brotherhood, peaceful co-existence where merit would always trump ethnic and religious considerations? A nation where the life of every Nigerian would be sacred and everybody will be under the rule of law. A nation where hard work pays and not crime. That bold step and journey to our shared dreams might as well just begin on Saturday. Are we ready to rise above ethnic, tribal and religious sentiments on that day?
