Will Nigeria get it right?

Some thousand years ago, a man born of Jewish parents was wickedly dragged to a ‘Place of Skull’ called the Golgotha to be crucified. Although he was innocent, the crowd wanted him killed by all means. They brought all manner of allegations against him. They said he claimed he was the King of the Jews, whereas Caesar was the authentic king. They said he was claiming what he was not.

He was dragged before Pontius Pilate’s seat to be tried for blasphemy. But Pilate knew the man was just being unjustly accused and maligned. He wanted to allow the law take its course, but the Jews railed at him and said he was no longer a friend of Caesar.

Pilate washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” This was to show the crowd he did not want the man dead, but ordered his death because that is what the people wanted. He was washing his hands of the responsibility.

With this, the man was dragged to Golgotha and was vicariously crucified.

Nigerians will be going to the polls on Saturday, February 25, 2023 to elect a new president to succeed Muhammadu Buhari, whose eventful tenure ends on May 29.

For months now, 18 candidates of different political parties have been soliciting votes from the voting masses. Four of the contestants have been more visible than fourteen others.

A lot has been said about the qualities and competencies expected of a new president, particularly giving the precarious socio-economic and political state of the country.

The last seven years have been traumatic for Nigerians. And the wrinkles of misgovernance are all over the body of this country, once touted as the giant of Africa.

Things have moved from bad to worse. Quality of life has depreciated. In the last few years, the country has been the world’s poverty capital with about 133 million poor people, representing about 63 percent of the entire population. This was according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBC).

It is ironic that a country so endowed as Nigeria has so many of its citizens impoverished and many eating from heaps of refuse (scavengers). Corruption level is at its peak. Nigeria is today rubbing shoulders with other terrible and dangerous nations, having been ranked ‘second most terrorised nation” in the world after Afghanistan. Insecurity has killed social life in the country.

Farming is almost destroyed as AK-7 bearing herdsmen kill, rape women and chase away farmers in many communities and states across the country. National debt is rising astronomically; unemployment, inflation is soaring and number of out-of-school is put at 23 million in a country that has seen petro-dollar for several decades since independence in 1960.

Dan Onwukwe, a writer, captured the situation of things in Nigeria since 2015. According to him, everything that used to work has been destroyed or made even worse.

He recalled that Buhari inherited a “national debt of N18.89trn; today Nigeria’s debt stock is over N46trn according to figures from the Debt Management Office (DMO). In 2015, the naira exchanged at N200/$1, today it’s over N750/$1. Foreign reserves stood at $35.25bn in 2016, today, it’s less than $28bn. Nigeria used to have a robust Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that was described in 2014 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as the “preferred FDI in Africa.

“Currently, it has declined sharply. Pump price of petrol was N87/litre in 2015, today it’s over N400 and scarce to see. A litre of kerosene was sold at N100 in 2015, now, it’s N1000/litre. Prices of food items are at record high. A bag of 50kg rice was sold between N8,000 and N10,000 in 2015, it’s now over N45,000.”

Many years ago, Nigeria was the envy of many nations of the world. Foreign businessmen and women found a home in the country. Foreign students were in many higher institutions of learning and lecturers from far nations taught in those universities. Life was grand in Nigeria. The country so flourished at a point that a military leader said that the problem of the country was not money but how to spend it.

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Indeed, Nigeria showed every prospect of being economic world power in many areas with all the natural and human endowments. Even after the civil war that truncated its progress between 1967 and 1970, the country picked up exponentially. The petro-dollar has continued to roll in. Despite the years of maladministration, the country has continued to yield enormous fruit, which unfortunately, is being squandered by a few privileged members of the ruling class and their cronies.

By tomorrow, Saturday, February 25, 2023 this same over-abused and raped Nigeria will be standing before Pontius Pilate to be handed a decisive judgment. Whatever happens and however the ruling goes will determine whether the country will survive or die finally.

Unlike in the case of Christ where the judgment took place inside Pilate’s palace, Nigeria’s judgment tomorrow will take place in all the polling units scattered across the country.

Nigerians have a critical decision to make tomorrow as innocent NIGERIA stands before them, chained, brutalised with blood flowing from every part of its body.

A few citizens there are who are shedding tears of the agony of the country and the taunting of the maddening crowd that scream on top of their voices, “Let’s tear it apart. Let the blood be upon us and upon our children children.”

For them, their immediate gain is their motivation is filthy lucre. But unlike in the case of Christ where Pilate was the decider, Nigeria’s case will be decided by many- over 83 million voters, according to the numbers from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

For Pilate, the reason for the miscarriage of justice was to remain Caesar’s friend and in the good book of the Jewish crowd, but for some Nigerians that may wish to sit on Pilate’s judgment seat tomorrow with their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), their driving force may be a few cups of rice; few tins of tomatoes; few packets of indomie and N5,000 new notes to satisfy their immediate need. For this reason, they will use their index fingers to do exactly what Pilate did on the very day he had all the opportunity to write his own ticket with God. But he lost it.

After he had condemned an innocent fellow to death, he washed his hands, assuring himself he was innocent.

But does the washing of his hand exonerate Pilate from bearing the full weight of his misdeeds?

Why would a king claim ignorance of the happenings in his kingdom and within his jurisdiction? Did he not know the stuff the Jewish thugs and rioters were made of; that they were a bunch of trouble makers?

What Nigerians do tomorrow or fail to do will determine what would happen to dear fatherland.