tomorrow is the presidential election in nigeria. many of you already know that. in an earlier post i had set out clearly who the contenders are and my opinion on their chances at the polls. apart from the fact that i am eternally grateful to be part of a process where people at least get a chance to pick and decide who they would rather have lead them (flawed as the process may be), i am even happier about the calibre of persons that now stand to run for these leadership offices.
not so long ago, at the beginning of what we perpetually consider our "nascent" democracy, the best we had in terms of leadership were farmers whose only claim to fame was being a former military president, house of rep leaders who hadnt quite sat down to business before their forged certificates were exposed, governors whose only contribution to national discourse was their penchant for outting their political godfathers out of the nefarious deals that got them to the leadership positions in the first place. and so on and so forth...
to be completely honest, i miss those times. i miss the time when tinubu was almost impeached for forging his university certificate, the time when orji kalu went head to head with obasanjo, the many times when the senate moved to impeach obasanjo, the days when okadigbo ran away with the mase of the senate to stop it from convening to impeach him, when florence ita-giwa was a fiery red head on television almost daily ranting and raving, the days when theophilus danjuma's presence as minister of defence just made you feel safe by just looking at his demeanour, when Bureau for Private Enterprises was selling everything in sight till it almost sold our grandparents, when dora akinyuli was shot from the back of her scarf in a murder attempt when she declared war on her igbo counterfeiting brothers in onitsha...the days, o i miss the days.
nigeria was a running soap opera back then, and i know i sound like i am old and grey but this is what true democracy brings. it brings history, it brings memories, it bring divergent opinions together and clashes egos. but above all, it brings the understanding that we still need the other person and his stupid ideas to move the country forward. it brings forced tolerance for our differences, and it made us stronger. and it killed some of the great men in our midst. it killed the bola ige's and the funsho williams'...it killed the pensioners and it killed the student. but it did not change anything...
i grew up blaming everything on the military rule. i was told that every single goat in our compound that miscarried was due to babangida's fault. that if only civilians were ruling, i would not have to go and fetch water from the next compound, i would not trek to school every morning and i would not have to drink garri and fried fish after school. in short, the civilian rule was paradise. 12 years in, i still don't have water and i now have 6 hours of electricity per day, all the private primary schools have teachers who failed SSCE thrice and moved to teaching the next generation who are expected to pass the SSCE, and children still trek miles to public schools cos their parents still cannot afford private fees. 12 years in, the country is spending more and the people are earning less. i now pay taxes through my nose and all i see are flowers and clean streets with gaping potholes. this is democracy...this is paradise.
for once i really hurt that i did not register. i hurt that i cannot take my pain out on that ballot paper tomorrow and say to myself that i did my part to change the story. but many of you reading this can. in the words of my friends, "do whatever it takes to vote, and vote right". 4 more years of PDP is not the answer to our problems, but neither is buhari or ribadu. i do not know the answer, but need you to use your vote for change.
see y'all around.
not so long ago, at the beginning of what we perpetually consider our "nascent" democracy, the best we had in terms of leadership were farmers whose only claim to fame was being a former military president, house of rep leaders who hadnt quite sat down to business before their forged certificates were exposed, governors whose only contribution to national discourse was their penchant for outting their political godfathers out of the nefarious deals that got them to the leadership positions in the first place. and so on and so forth...
to be completely honest, i miss those times. i miss the time when tinubu was almost impeached for forging his university certificate, the time when orji kalu went head to head with obasanjo, the many times when the senate moved to impeach obasanjo, the days when okadigbo ran away with the mase of the senate to stop it from convening to impeach him, when florence ita-giwa was a fiery red head on television almost daily ranting and raving, the days when theophilus danjuma's presence as minister of defence just made you feel safe by just looking at his demeanour, when Bureau for Private Enterprises was selling everything in sight till it almost sold our grandparents, when dora akinyuli was shot from the back of her scarf in a murder attempt when she declared war on her igbo counterfeiting brothers in onitsha...the days, o i miss the days.
nigeria was a running soap opera back then, and i know i sound like i am old and grey but this is what true democracy brings. it brings history, it brings memories, it bring divergent opinions together and clashes egos. but above all, it brings the understanding that we still need the other person and his stupid ideas to move the country forward. it brings forced tolerance for our differences, and it made us stronger. and it killed some of the great men in our midst. it killed the bola ige's and the funsho williams'...it killed the pensioners and it killed the student. but it did not change anything...
i grew up blaming everything on the military rule. i was told that every single goat in our compound that miscarried was due to babangida's fault. that if only civilians were ruling, i would not have to go and fetch water from the next compound, i would not trek to school every morning and i would not have to drink garri and fried fish after school. in short, the civilian rule was paradise. 12 years in, i still don't have water and i now have 6 hours of electricity per day, all the private primary schools have teachers who failed SSCE thrice and moved to teaching the next generation who are expected to pass the SSCE, and children still trek miles to public schools cos their parents still cannot afford private fees. 12 years in, the country is spending more and the people are earning less. i now pay taxes through my nose and all i see are flowers and clean streets with gaping potholes. this is democracy...this is paradise.
for once i really hurt that i did not register. i hurt that i cannot take my pain out on that ballot paper tomorrow and say to myself that i did my part to change the story. but many of you reading this can. in the words of my friends, "do whatever it takes to vote, and vote right". 4 more years of PDP is not the answer to our problems, but neither is buhari or ribadu. i do not know the answer, but need you to use your vote for change.
see y'all around.
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