THE 2023 is about loving Nigeria to o free her from all her afflictions. Is it? What does it mean to love Nigeria? What is so important about love of Nigeria that should motivate anyone to act differently?
As the struggle to retrieve whatever is left of Nigeria assumes different, dangerous dimensions we are losing track of the issue. The most dangerous part is the mixing of all manners of emotions to redirect thinking of voters on the choices before them. The assumption is that the election is about patriotism.
Important as patriotism is, the 2023 elections not about patriotism. We are in an emergency and are getting used to it with the ways we explain Nigeria’s circumstances away.
Can we survive further mis-management of Nigeria just to please some whose conducts show their minimal stake in seeing Nigeria improve? Region, religion, relationship are not the solution to the quagmire we have been driven into by years of refusing to cater for the common good.
Everyone should join in saving Nigerians from the deliberate effort at denying them a fuller understanding of the implications of their decisions in 2023.
The elections are about you, me; not as collectives, but as individuals in dedicated searches for solutions to the daily challenges that are squeezing life out of us. Try to digest this point. Personalise the elections.
Nobody should mistaken this for a call to make decisions based on what a candidate gives or does not give. How disheartening it is that we had party primaries where millions of Dollars were reportedly used to buy votes. The temptations are high to vote for reasons of the moment. We should resist the temptations.
Perhaps the following questions will help refocus your position on 2023?
Do you love yourself enough to understand that poor governance is a threat to your existence? Do you love yourself enough to do something for yourself about bad governance? Where did sentiments get you in the past few elections?
Are you willing to ignore the fact that people who should have done these things failed to do them? Are you satisfied with where you are today? Things were bad years ago. Were they this bad?
You are not safe at home, at work, in the farm, on the streets, on the road, in the train, and nobody is accepting responsibility? You really feel good that you know those driving the drivel about how fantastic Nigeria has become. Are you satisfied with the fantasies they are building?
It is time to make serious decisions about your life. Your children have been out of school for months while government carries on about elections as if elections are the entire purpose of governance. Inflation has stripped the Naira of almost its value.
No sector is spared the consequences of poor governance and malfeasance that are not judged by how they punish Nigerians. We rather discuss the good lives of those who have excelled in mismanaging Nigeria and award them high marks for their achievements.
Those spreading those messages about voting out of love for Nigeria massively miss the point. The motivation for how we vote in 2023 would be rooted in decisions to improve our lives by voting for candidates who beyond concerns for our troubles can ameliorate them. A lot of work is involved. The good thing is that we have the numbers to make things possible.
What we still lack is the determination to improve our lives. We have to make the sacrifices. We have to task the politicians on their agenda for Nigeria.
The 2023 elections would not be time to reward candidates for who they are. We should pay attention to what they are, the interests they represent. What is their attitude to the common good? Are they capable of welding Nigeria back into a workable unit?
Still most if the work is ours to do. Whether we mobilise voters, educate them, or set up “structures”, the most important message is that we should vote to fix the ills of Nigeria that ail us.
If our self-love leads us to act along these lines, we would have shown more love for Nigeria than all those mouthing their patriotism. Make 2023 about you.
Read also: How prices of some everyday items will increase in May 2023 – SBM
Finally…
MEDIA trial of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his family on their travails in London are more a coalition of the responses we have for our leaders over the state of Nigeria than points of law. Those who have reached conclusions are discovering that they spoke too soon. The truth, most of it, would soon be known.
THE Senate has quickly waded into the rumble in the Supreme Court where 14 judges have made sundry allegations of corruption, neglect of their welfare, and training against Chief Justice of Nigeria Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad. Should we assume the Senate does not know that universities have been shut for months?
Prof Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, Anambra State Commissioner for Education, has by herself and through proxies been defending the use of words I cannot repeat on an applicant who made a call to her.
Some of the defences – the applicant abused the Governor three times, she was under pressure, she is human, a 68-year retired permanent secretary was caught writing the teacher’s test for his three children – are ad hominem. Were the refinements that lead to attainment of a professorship lost on her?
.Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
