My two cents… By Kindness Udoh.
Today is the day we choose the path we want to take for the next four years. Over the last four years, our beloved country has faced numerous challenges, including insurgencies, high inflation, a poor healthcare system, a faltering education system, and more, all due to bad governance.
In the previous four years, under the same administration, we endured some difficult times, which we now understand was a prequel to what was to come in the next four years. These difficult times have inspired Nigerians to call for better governance.
Today, we choose the person who we believe will lead us on the right path to progress. It has been a long time coming. We have been pushed to the wall for so long, and we as a people have continuously broken those walls only to be pushed even further.
But today, we say ‘enough!’ I don’t know who your candidate is, but I hope that you have carefully reviewed their merits and demerits and weighed them against the existential crises affecting our nation.
It is my hope that the person or team you have chosen has Nigeria’s best interests at heart. For sixty years, Nigeria has been led by helmsmen who have appreciated her lush beauty, only to exploit her riches and leave nothing for the average Nigerian.
This is not their country alone. It is our home, where our first memories were formed. A country where its title as Africa’s Giant is only a distant dream.
A country where potentials are seen as threats by the powers that be because your success as an average Nigerian depends on whether, or not, you’re holding the hems of these self-characterized demi-gods. At least that is how they make it appear.
Na who know pesin wey know pesin dey waka far.
This is a country where public servants forget that they are just that: Public Servants. Where the citizens forget that they hold the bulk of the power, only to abdicate it to those whom they should put in check.
Of course, this systemic rot precedes many of us. However, today, we say ‘no more’. No more to a system where the protection of lives and properties only mean as much as it benefits the reputation of public servants.
No more to a system where the provision of basic amenities are substituted with political giveaways. This is an election season like we have not experienced before. Their knuckles are turning purple from clutching the rims of power, for they feel it slipping away, slowly and painfully.
We say ‘no more.’
And how do we say ‘no more’? By arming ourselves with our PVCs to choose the candidate that we – as democratically empowered individuals – believe can make sound economic decisions that will positively impact the country’s growth trajectory.
It is a beautiful thing to see that we have woken up to the reality of democracy, which is that YOU have the power. And today, as we use that power to bring the change we want to see; to bring the sanity that has long been missing in this nation, may we find solace and pride, whatever the outcome, in the knowledge that despite the gimmicks and show of force, we stood up and gave a big, neon green middle finger to the establishment. Win or not, we say to them, now we have found our voice.
