PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
Related Articles
By Young Erhiurhoro
Nigeria’s political journey since 1999 when the current democratic experiment began has been heavily tortuous on the citizenry and electorates, while being very robust and rosy for elected and appointed government officials in the legislature, executive and the judiciary. In summary, government officials feed fat, while the citizenry is left with no option than to feed the crumbs from the master’s table.
Sadly, as a political analyst said, “The poor are divided by tribe and religion during elections and come together after elections to continue to live in abject poverty.”
This has been the usual political culture of the people during and after every general election in the country.
The political odyssey of this nation is like a ship in the ocean whose crew has no perceived destination or plan of where to anchor at the end of the journey.
Without mincing words, all the sectors of the Nigerian government are polluted. And till this very moment, there are no probable remedies available to right the wrong. The populace is subjected to perpetual and continuous political subjugation and total economic hardship by these government officials without considering the plight and suffering of the people. Today, the Nigerian citizenry especially the youths are mere mechanical tools at the hands of our politicians. After using them to loose and tight bolts and nuts, they usually dump them to where they belong in the political space. They can easily go there to pick them whenever the need arise. What a country!
In fact, Nigerian politicians have so used the power of government to seal the mouths of the populace by engaging influential ones amongst them with peels, crumbs and leftovers like empowerment programmes, giving of contracts, making of appointments etc. These groups of people are the ones being used as political thugs, terrorists, armed bandits, religious fanatics and others to destroy the security apparatus and network of the country in order for them to have their evil ways. They so cajoled and mulled them to become ordinary toothless bull dogs. They can bark, but cannot bite. These are the groups of people our politicians used in every electoral year to achieve their political dreams and aspirations. No doubt, Nigeria is a polluted land where virtually nothing good works. What works in other countries in terms of advancement in the use of technology and internet always fail once they landed in Nigeria.
Just few months from now, another general election would hit the people on the faces. And the country at the moment is standing on a tripod that is too small to bear the broth and the big pot of soup. The tripod the country is standing on now is the APC, PDP and the Labour Party. The presidential candidates of these three political parties as we know them are birds of the same feathers, but residing in different nests. This is because the political drama in Nigeria since 1999 is always cyclical and revolving amongst the same old folks, drinking from the same pot of water and eating from the same pot of soup. Now, the politicians are again ready to prepare the 2023 pot of soup for Nigerians with the same type of ingredients as of old; but the big challenge now is that, the available tripod is never strong enough to bear the weight of the pot of soup. This is where Nigerians are getting confused on daily basis.
Obviously if the tripod of APC, PDP and the Labour Party can no longer carry the political changes Nigerians are clamouring for, then we should allow the 2023 pot of soup to sit on one legged cooking stand. However, we must know that a journey of over twenty-three years is not an easy journey. Yet, we are still locating or envisaging the right destination. If we are sure of anchoring in a safe shore by the virtue of the 2023 general elections, then we must decide now to sit on a one legged cooking stand. In this case, the three presidential candidates we have in the three most popular political parties at the moment, we must look at them with an electron microscope to pick the best amongst the three.
To achieve this in the 2023 general elections, we must therefore remove from our minds political sentiments which can breed amongst ourselves divisive tendencies through tribal and religious fallacies. As I said earlier, these are the political weapons the politicians are using to tear us apart in order to easily have their ways. We shouldn’t forget that, the electorates in every election in a country are at the giving and the receiving ends. We may be divided now through party lines, religion and tribe, and later come together after the election into poverty as in years past. This is why we are advocating that, if we really need the political changes we are clamouring for, then we should put aside, religion and tribal affiliations and vote our conscience in the 2023 general elections.
More importantly, whenever different things are placed on the ground to be selected, I believe people will always go for the best. Now, among the three presidential candidates of the three political parties, without much research and findings, the best has already shown himself in all ramifications. From their personal profiles and biographies to their political records and history since 1999 they have been in government in their various states as governors and also at the federal level, we can easily pick the best and make sure the best is voted into power to bring about the new order that can fast track and attract the needed political changes across the country. Except we think towards this direction, Nigeria will continue to remain a polluted nation before the eyes of the world. If we, the electorates refused to take the bull by the horn in this 2023 general elections in the country by voting the right candidate, what we are presently passing through in the areas of insecurity, infrastructural decay, unemployment, economic meltdown, electoral fraud, failed judicial system, poor educational system etc, that we always cry foul that we are suffering, would be the beginning of our political woes in the country.
On a more serious note, if we get it wrong this time by voting the wrong candidate as president of this country, we will definitely cry to have become the citizens of this country. Then, the deed has been done. The song would later be chanted, “had I known…”. But my major fear in the 2023 general elections is not the voting of the electorates. My fear is the proficiency and prudence of the electoral umpire, the INEC. Yes, they have been preaching their usual gospel of conducting free, fair and credible elections. However, to convince the thoughts of many Nigerians and international observers, INEC have promised to use the bio verification machines to conduct the 2023 general elections to avoid electoral rigging and other electoral frauds. This is a welcome development in our electoral process. It shows we are learning and advancing as a country in a global world. But how efficient these machines are to effectively stop electoral fraud, nobody can tell. Like what I said at the opening paragraphs of this piece that, whatever that works in other countries, once they landed in Nigeria, they become malfunctioned or manipulated. Will it not happen to these so-called machines? I want to leave this answer for INEC to provide for Nigerians now.
Conclusively, as a cultural and political analyst, I’m not here today to preach about a particular candidate that he’s the best among the three, but to present them to all Nigerians irrespective of our political affiliations, tribe and religion to select the best with our conscience being the judge and the guidance spirit. The general situation of this country today is not being suffered by only the poor in the society, but also by the rich. That political division between the poor and the rich in this country is gradually being reduced to normal, considering the heights of insecurity that everybody is suffering from at the moment. For us to guarantee equality and freedom of our fundamental rights as citizens of this country, then we must vote right and vote our conscience. Don’t allow those political touts to buy your votes just because of hunger and starvation. Selling your votes as a result of poverty is to add salt to your wounds and pepper to your eyes and to make yourselves perpetual political slaves in the country of your birth and origin. We have suffered long enough in the hands of these wicked politicians, to redirect our political footsteps to the right direction in the 2023 general elections.
Young Erhiurhoro; Kjc is a reporter and a member of the Urhobo Historical Society
