Now that we have voted…

The much anticipated 2023 presidential election has come and gone. Minus some skirmishes here and there, the Armageddon many feared did not happen. Nevertheless, there are a few lessons from the exercise.

The most significant is that Nigerians defied the odds and came out in their numbers to vote. That determination was borne out of loss of confidence in the leadership of this country. It goes far back in history beyond the current tepid and rudderless administration.

Apart from the First Republic that showed a few sparks of greatness before it was brought down by a senseless coup d’etat, subsequent governments, especially the military, frittered away the glory of the ‘giant’ of Africa, turning it into a Lilliput.

That First Republic wasn’t exactly spectacular; far from it. It was because of this that the military stepped in to correct, but, having tasted power, refused to go. 

This reminds one of the former Liberian ‘leader’, Samuel Doe. The gaunt Doe, a very junior officer, mere master sergeant, shot his way to power and, seeing the opulence and grandeur of the presidential palace, told his wife Nancy, ‘we ain’t gonna get outta here’. Indeed, he clung to the office like a monkey to banana until another bestial interloper, Yommie Johnson, slaughtered him like a ram and packed him out in a body bag.

The recollection of the visual horror of that madness could still congeal the blood of even the bravest of hearts. It was a replica of the Nigerian situation when a pogrom was unleashed on the Igbo, an aftermath of that first putsch, which was unjustly and erroneously dubbed Igbo coup.

Well, the Igbo bore the brunt of the consequent civil war during which Nigeria did everything to erase the race from the map but couldn’t. Even after the war, the country’s leaders pretended to ‘go on with one Nigeria’ but foisted harsh economic policies that were principally meant to crush the Igbo forever. Unfortunately for them, they failed because the Igbo, being sires of the Abrahamic covenant, can NEVER be crushed by anything or anyone. So, like a cat with nine lives, the comeback kid bounced from the scorching policies to the commanding heights of commerce, dictating the pace for the seemingly ‘triumphant’ tribes. 

Actually, the Igbo have not helped their matter. Their itinerant lifestyle has made them the truest Nigerians. They forget too easily that they are marked men but spread carelessly into even the remotest parts of Nigeria. They settle wherever catches their fancy and, sometimes, become more Catholic than the Pope. They are overly loquacious, brash and lack circumspection, thereby opening up other flanks for their haters to attack them.

The Igbo success story attracted a lot of envy, which they have lived with. If Nigeria must be fully healed, all the vestiges of tribal hatred must be dismantled.

In the just concluded presidential election, one of the contestants, Peter Obi, is Igbo by tribe but vying to become President of Nigeria. The Igbo seem to have mismanaged the contest and succeeded in scaring away some people that would have supported Obi. 

Obi is by no means the Igbo candidate. That is why he had a throng of supporters across the land.

This piece is coming now before the result of the vote so that everyone gets prepared for it. If Obi wins, it is Nigeria that wins and if he loses, Nigeria too loses, not the Igbo. Whoever wins, whether Atiku or Tinubu is a victory for Nigeria, not any other country and so nobody must die protesting or celebrating the victory.

Nevertheless, it is time the Igbo learned how to manage their passion. It is their inebriated swagger that often attracts opprobrium towards them and targets them for mischief. 

It bleeds my heart seeing what befell the Igbo in Lagos last Saturday when many were prevented from voting. They were told in unmistakable terms that Lagos is not Igboland. Sure, the tribal connotation aside, is Lagos Igboland? Definitely not. Therefore, there is the need for the Igbo to comport themselves civilly, responsibly, respectfully (not servilely though) of their host communities. There is nothing like no man’s land anywhere; someone owns the land. The Yoruba own Lagos, and that is not in dispute.

It is also a call for the Igbo to realise that the music has since changed and the need to change the dance steps. In other words, there is no place like home. You cannot devote your life and resources to developing other people’s lands while your homestead remains desolate and forlorn. It is time to think homewards and invest there; that is your surest and safest abode.

However, Nigeria should grow out of pettiness. Still believing that savagery is cute in this age and time is anomalous to contemporary realities. Nigeria belongs to all of us but where only a few people appropriate it, then those that desire to go their separate ways should be allowed to go, whether they are Biafra, Yoruba Nation, Arewa or whatever. We must learn to  accommodate one another, our weaknesses and strengths.

Whoever wins this election should firstly be grateful to God and recognise that he has a divine assignment to restore the glory of this country. Things look very bleak but not insurmountable, if he factors God into his plans.

Nigeria has never been as polarised as a people. We can no longer tolerate the government of my tribe by my tribe and for my tribe like the outgoing Buhari’s primitive and fulanised administration. Every section of this country must be made to feel belonged. The agitation for rotational presidency emanated from the officially endorsed inequities of the system, even in the states whereby the person in power confiscates everything for his tribe or religion.

We want a government that says no to corruption, nepotism, cronyism, injustice and inequities. We want a government that will revamp our educational sector. We want a government that will address the ills of our comatose healthcare system that has reduced our hospitals to glorified consulting clinics or mortuaries. We want a government that will secure the country by clipping the wings of insurgents and bandits across the country. We need a government that will push the country into new economic heights instead of depending on other economies while pretending to be an independent country.

It is very depressing that some youths have chosen to remain problems unto themselves and the country while people are crying themselves hoarse, supporting power shift to the youths no matter the sacrifice. 

It is sad though that some youths accept to be fodder for politicians. I watched a video clip from Eti-osa in Lagos where soldiers were meting punishment to political thugs. Is it not worth asking where the parents of these ‘mkpurummiri’ crazed youths are.

How do the unconscionable politicians, misusing youths feel, occupying an office soaked in the blood of the innocent? The savour of such an office would be like gravel in the mouth. No matter how much we try to deaden our consciences, it still has a way of getting back at us; if not now, then later in the lives of our progeny.

INEC should not tempt the people and instigate violence. It was unacceptable that INEC messed up big time coming late to many electoral centres. In some places, they came unprepared, without their stamp and ink. Some merely flashed voters without actually capturing the voters with BVAS. Nobody can say if that was deliberate but whatever it was, it was quite shameful. 

So much was expected of INEC, and it also raised people’s hopes through lofty promises but punctured the hopes  of the people.

The compromised staff of INEC should be dealt with. Nobody has the right to operate outside the Electoral Act. Refusing to upload results of the votes as was the case in some centres is not acceptable. Even the security operatives that connived to perpetrate this evil should be fished out and weeded out of the system.

The INEC must take seriously the warning not to plunge the country into avoidable crises by doing only the right thing.

We all may have our individual choices of the person we want the mantle of leadership to fall upon. Whoever that choice of yours may be, my choice is that when all is done

God wins…