The day is fast approaching; sliding fast like running water escaping from a wedge and nothing can stop it at its present rush. Anything with a fixed date, as usual, must come to pass as long as there is life and time around it. Anyway, that is by the sideline. I am writing to convey some critical observations and caution my countrymen and women whose lives socially, economically, and politically have been in a traumatic trajectory over the past six years; a frustrating and pathetic journey that hopefully would soon come to an end, come the year 2023. The decisive year Nigerians across all backgrounds are faithfully waiting for.
The 2023 general elections like running water with soundless steps are around the corner with the date already fixed by the Independent National Electoral Commission( INEC) and as often expected from a faulty start the machinery of lies, deceits, and Boju-Boju politicking and maneuvering are already in motion among the political caucus and they, in turn, have set loose their kowtowing agents who are currently running wild across the country, canvassing and deceptively wooing gullible Nigerians to their various camps and masters.
It is time to shine your eyes Nigerians and conscientiously ask yourselves if the life you are currently passing through under the present crops of Nigerian politicians is a true reflection of your dream as citizens of one of the richest oil nations in the world with everything in abundance but still subdued by unemployment, insecurity, and hunger? It is time to look prudently around you and ask yourself what promises have the bunch of elected politicians we gave our vote kept. Where exactly is ‘Ship Nigeria’ heading to and have all the elected men and women been able to steer the rich big ship safely towards the shore? Are the captain and his crew longer trustworthy? The decision would soon be yours on a platter of gold come 2023 elections and so also is your fate for another four or more traumatic life or a pleasant new beginning. The decision is yours with your voter card.
Election 2023 is fast approaching and the aloof politicians who had long abandoned their people and their constituencies are scheming their way back to our homes and our hearts for reelection. Most of them are deceitfully shedding crocodile tears over their failure to patriotically forget party differences and rally around to checkmate the wild spate of killings going on across the country, they consciously knew of their failure to empathetically rise up against the high cost of food items in our markets, including of course their failure to vigorously tackle the web of poverty spreading across many homes in towns and villages, not forgetting their detached posture towards the ethnic and religious flames raging across the land.
Nigerians this is the time to refocus our antennas and review all those past unforgettable depressing and oppressive years in the hands of these politicians and their many promises. It is time to detach ourselves from some of the rusted political elements and mechanisms that have kept our big ship wobbling blindly on the high sea amidst the many treasures around us. This is the right moment to be wary of these politicians, their many tricks and charming words. This is the best time to start scheming politically against our seemingly insatiable elected and selected representatives at the State and National Assemblies who audaciously yearly complain of inadequate funding and brazenly ask us for more money and increase in their yearly budget despite their dismayed performance and all the load of money they showered on themselves annually.
This is the proper and justifiable time to start calculating against those failed politicians elected and selected under various parties and purporting to be representing us, specifically those who shamelessly ferried their children abroad for education in some of the best schools out of the country while they intentionally left our schools back home in shambles and shame. What time better than now to prepare against those elected leaders who hardheartedly left our hospitals to rust away without drugs, adequate manpower, sound infrastructure, or modern equipment to make them functional. It’s time to call to mind their preference to fly abroad for medical checkups, childbirth, stomach pain, purging, and headache, while hundreds of Nigerians are dying daily of more life-threatening diseases virtually in all the mushroom hospitals and healthcare centres across the country.
Nigerians beware and be warned about those callous politicians and elected leaders who locked up their barns against our hunger and fortified their castles against our faces when the Coronovirus pandemic threatened our lives and existence as a nation. Those elected councilors, chairmen, State House of Assembly members, National Assembly members, Senators and Governors who during the voracious Covid – 19 plague uncaringly refused us sensible palliatives across our homes but rather arrogantly siphoned our collective wealth and corruptly donated same Covid-19 palliatives to themselves, wives, mistresses, and cronies. It is the moment of reminiscing and reflecting on the unjustifiable and dehumanized situation they placed most of our homes, villages, and towns and how they kept us under lockup and forceful hunger without care or call as many Nigerians almost died of hunger and frustration instead of the dreaded virus.
Nigerians beware and be warned about those double-speaking and carpet-crossing politicians who are good at swearing with heaven and earth but abandon you by the bridge at the critical time of crossing. Those lily-livered politicians who fortified themselves with police orderlies as bandits, kidnappers, and terrorists ravage our towns and villages. Those men and women we voted for and cater for on our collective wealth but yet still failed to rally their collective background and constitutional power to protect and save the country from the continuous barbaric killings and other violent crimes going on across the country.
I don’t know about you, but I think, it is time to prepare our votes against those siren blaring politicians who after winning election henceforth fortified themselves inside their expensive toys, blare our ears with noisy convoys, and arrogantly push us from our collective roads with siren and guns. This is the moment to seize the opportunity to prepare against those out-of-date politicians who are still blind to the fast revolving Information Technology Age where many youths across other nations are churning out creative and engaging apps and making life easier and the world a better place. Yes, time to send those myopic reasoning politicians parking, those cheap minds who have always used the cheap tricks of divide and rule to break our strength and rule over us. I believe it is logical if we can do away with those elected leaders who are blind to the possibility of a made in Nigeria car, still, awe to the possibility of a made in Nigeria plane, dread a made in Nigeria world-class hospitals, sightless to the reality of a made in Nigeria mobile phone and visionless to a made in Nigeria anything made under the sun.
Nigerians be careful, be warned, and be prepared against those unremorseful politicians who for close to twenty years are still finding it difficult to give us simple electricity in our homes and corruptly obliterated the sector. Those failed elected leaders still finding it difficult to fix our roads and build our bridges. I mean those cheap-minded elected leaders commissioning cheap projects with fanfare as dividends of democracy. Those hung-up representatives globetrotting across the world and excitedly coming back home to boost of the beautiful cities and other man-made amazing things they saw abroad initiated by men and women like them but still failed to reciprocate same back home.
This is the right moment to prepare to hoard our voter cards and guard it zealously away from those pillaging politicians who have looted our collective wealth and kept us confused since their incursion into our democratic setting. This is our moment to chase them back into their visionless political dens and pray never to see their likes again in our democratic sphere forever and ever. Nigerians shine your eyes brighter, let us lock our barns and slam our doors against the faces of those cheap vote-buying politicians who have always enticed our mothers, our wives, and sisters with politics of Maggi, politics of wrappers, and politics of cheap cups of rice and bar of soaps. Let us close our eyes to those visionless candidates now wild on the prowl and shamelessly enticing our youths with cheap naira and kobo to sell their votes and fates for another four years of confusion and oppression.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed as wisely cautioned by a Latin proverb. We are lucky to have knowledge in advance of these failed politicians. I hope we will be wise and prudent this time around to see and defeat their cunnings and scheming as we approach D-Day 2023. This is our moment to outwit these failed men and women we trusted with our votes and entrusted our fates but insensitively betrayed our loyalty and trust with hardship and latency. I believe you know them, if you do not, shine your eyes. Nigerians beware and warned.
