There came a time in Israel when the people were carried away into captivity as a result of their consistent disobedience to God, just like the situation Nigerians have found themselves in the last few years.
Israel groaned under the oppressive powers of their captors, who destroyed Jerusalem and reduced the city to rubbles. A beautiful city was vulgarised, just like Nigeria which has all the potential and everything that can make her great has been plundered over the years.
But there were some remnants that prayed day and night, asking for divine mercy and forgiveness from the Almighty God.
Then, deliverance came through Nehemiah. Although he was one of the captives, Nehemiah rose to the high-ranking palace position of cup-bearer to King Artaxerxes, the sixth King of the Medio/Persian Empire. The position placed his life on the line every day, but gave Nehemiah authority and high pay. He was held in high esteem by Artaxerxes,
He had a burden to rebuild the broken walls of Jerusalem and to restore the glory of the City of God once again.
He was granted leave to carry out his heart desire.
Then, he came to his kinsmen, the remnants, who were still left behind in Jerusalem and said to them, “Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
“Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work” (Nehemiah Chapter 2 KJV).
As soon as the people began the good work, then came the enemy.
“But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, what is this thing that ye do? Will ye rebel against the king?”
The enemies did not give up easily; they continued to employ all manner of psychological warfare to psyche them down and to weaken their resolve to do the work.
Four times, they attempted to lure him (Nehemiah) to a meeting where they can harm him. They goaded him by accusing him of rebelling against the Persian king.
They were trying to ask Nehemiah if he had any formidable structure to pull through the initiative he had conceptualised. They became jittery by the swelling support the man was getting and how the elders were just buying into the vision. They wanted to abort it, without knowing it was a divine project that no man can frustrate.
The above scenario captured the point where Nigeria is at the moment. Everything has been broken down, and the people are into all manner of captivity- economic, political, educational, social, and even religious- and now there seems to be a Nehemiah trying to rebuild Nigeria’s broken walls, then there are all manner of Sanballats and Tobiahs trying to throw spanner in the works.
Every citizen of Nigeria today acknowledges that things have gone from bad to worse, but the only problem is that there is no consensus opinion on how to change the narrative. It is all about politics.
Since Peter Obi decamped from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and joined the Labour Party (LP) on the platform of which he hopes to contest the presidential election in 2023, the owls had continued to hoot. There have been many Sanballats and Tobiahs who have openly laughed him to scorn, saying what can a “structureless” and “tiny-voiced” politician do?
Read also: Why I accepted to be running mate to Peter Obi – Baba Ahmed
Some say, he is a local champion, who is not known beyond his Anambra politics that crowned him a governor for two consecutive terms, years back. Some say he should go and learn how to play politics.
Sadly, those championing such conversation are the same people who have watched helplessly as those who have all the structures have ruined the country since 1999. It has not occurred to them that it is high time Nigeria tried a “structure-less” politician for whatever it is worth
It must however, be established that in Nigeria and elsewhere political structure is very important to make an impact in elections. Unknown party always winks in the dark.
When structure is mentioned, it means that a party is not nationally spread and does not have the capacity to engage agents that could man all the polling units across the country at a national election.
In Nigeria in particular, structure also means having the war chest to engage in all manner of malfeasance in order to win elections. That is why big parties believe they have the ears of everybody connected with electoral process. They mount large and wasteful campaigns and conventions and engage in a lot of political patronage that the new parties do not have the luxury of.
Since 2015, the two domineering parties have been in charge. They are the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). By virtue of having occupied the Presidency at one time or the other, they became household names. They have empowered some Nigerians who either have held political positions or had affiliations with those who have held some privileged positions since 2019.
Ahead of the 2023 general election, there seems to be a massive campaign on the need to rebuild the broken walls of Nigeria for a fresh start. The wave of what has become known as the “Peter Obi Momentum” is sweeping through the land, and there is also a colony of “Sanballat and Tobiah” that is trying to put a lie to what is obvious.
Despite the increasing number of “Sanballats and Tobiahs” throwing pebbles and denigrating the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, there is also a massive movement swelling his camp.
Although his political foes say the support base is hollow, and seemed to be strong only on social media without tangible presence in many states of the federation, some of his supporters simply advise such people to “wait and see.”
Speaking on Arise Television interview on why he dumped the APC, Kenneth Okonkwo, an actor, lawyer and politician, said those who castigate the Labour Party for being vibrant on social media should remember how they popularised themselves in 2015 through the same platform.
“Do you remember the time APC was campaigning in 2015? They were the originators of internet sensation. So, why are they crying if it is not making any impact? When I read Business Administration, they thought me that the strategy of marketing starts with drawing attention. They call it the Attention, Interest, Desire and Action (the AIDA principle). So, stimulating the attention of the people is the first thing you ought to do when you want to market a product. They are doing it effectively well and that is why those people are rattled,” Okonkwo said.
By the same token, Sarah Omakwu, a pastor with Family Worship Centre, is against the “pull-him-down campaign of the new generation Sanballat and Tobiah, who are spreading the false gospel of “structureless” party and its candidate.
Addressing her congregation recently, Omakwu took the people through some voter education. She sneered at the singsong in some quarters that a good politician without solid political structure should not dream of electoral victory. She said that structure has not helped Nigeria.
According to her, “Structure has taken away power from us. Structure does not have electricity. Structure is killing people. Structure has left us jobless, and structure has killed us. So, we have decided to be ‘structureless’, and we shall waste our votes.”
It appears that many more Nigerians are speaking in tandem with Omakwu that it is high time they took their destiny in their own hands by voting with their conscience.
The singsong in the polity is that Peter Obi of Labour Party has no structure to win a national election. But what we are hearing now is that some people have determined to vote for a “structure-less” party this time around. The renewed wave of interest in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise across the country, some people believe, may have been set off by the determination of Nigerians to do things differently in the presidential election slated for February next year.
However, the advice is, just like in the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC, those who feel strongly against any candidate of party should not heat up the polity. Demarketing parties and their candidates goes against the principle of good sportsmanship.
Like Sanballat and Tobiah tried to divert Nehemiah’s attention from the work, by fixing all manner of meetings to talk him out of the project, a lot of subterfuge and such like, are going on to take Obi’s eyes from the ball.
They are already approaching him for all manner of alliances; they are dangling juicy carrots to him, and they are weaving a lot of lies and propagandas against him- all in a bid to destroy his good ambition.
It would be honourable for everyone to play his or her politics the way he or she understands it, without constituting a stumbling block on other people’s way.
As Chinua Achebe would say: “Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too – If one says no to the other, let his wing break.”
More importantly, make appropriate and wise use of your PVC.
