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“I did not go to school (so) that I vote individuals because they come from my ethnic group. Tell me the agenda on health, the agenda on agriculture, so that if I vote for them, it would just be coincidental that we come from the same ethnic extraction. You have been allowed to elect and you elect hyenas to take care of goats and when the goats have been eaten, you wonder why.” – Prof. Patrick Lumumba
This electioneering season is undoubtedly essentially the most thrilling in Nigeria’s trendy period. More thrilling with the unravelling of parts as soon as thought of the vanguards of excellent governance. Thomas Sowell aptly summarised it when he said, “intellectuals may like to think of themselves as people who speak truth to power but too often they are people who speak lies to gain power”. Our very own Nobel Laurette, Prof. Wole Soyinka, corroborates this crucial significantly in his e book, The Beatification Of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope. In a earlier essay cum tribute to his legacy in literature, I referenced how Soyinka, in that e book, calls out the complicity of those fake intellectuals; their unholy alliance with those that flourish on the blood, sweat and tears of the lots. He factors out with finesse the conspiracy of these in power and the way they orchestrate occasions to further their egocentric pursuits.
Trent Kimball, CEO of Texas Armoring Corporation (TAC) gave all of us a masterclass in experiential marketing by displaying us first-hand how assured he was along with his product. He sat in one among his firm’s weaponised autos bullets have been unleashed at its windscreen. Afterwards, he got here out of the car unscathed. Over right here, significantly for political ends, people double down on promoting merchandise (individuals) they don’t even imagine in themselves, wouldn’t need their kids to be mentored by nor would rent to handle their personal pursuits. Isn’t it wild that some people received’t tolerate home helps stealing from them however they don’t thoughts voting in leaders whose legal historical past is well-documented? Do you suppose these guys would rent somebody who sounds like Opie from Family Guy to run their multi-million greenback firms?
These kids of the corn live in a country the place a thin child with a humorous identify can turn into president however for their own country, they don’t suppose essentially the most competent candidate must be elected merely due to non secular and tribal bigotry. This is why many separatist agitators don’t wish to be a part of a country that’s not constructed on justice, fairness and equity as a result of something that’s placed on a essentially flawed basis will probably be a charade. We will discover ourselves having to drive nationwide unity down people’s throats in the identify of ‘one Nigeria’.
We all watched the best World Cup ever in Qatar which has the same oil as ours. Between 2012 and 2022, its GDP grew from $186 billion to $258 billion. During the same interval, ours, from $464 billion continues to be under $500 billion. Good governance na your mate? It’s very clear from the flip of occasions {that a} Nigeria that works is a risk to many people; the thought of a country the place the kid of no person can turn into any person with out understanding anyone scares the hell out of them. Hence, when all propaganda and financial inducements fail, right here comes the kitchen sink – good old bigotry. However, for right-thinking Nigerians, the 2023 elections typify a religion in easy desires and an insistence on small miracles. We stand on the crossroads of historical past and the excellent news is that we have the power to forge a special future. When we get it right this month, we’d simply begin calling ourselves the giant of Africa with out feeling like frauds.
The king of fables, George Orwell, in his basic, Animal Farm, amongst different issues highlighted the hazards of outsourcing your pondering to others who could not have your finest pursuits at coronary heart. Boxer, the farm’s devoted and constant employee who different animals admire for his work ethic, permits his blind loyalty to Napoleon to mislead his fellow comrades. Squealer, who’s Orwell’s metaphor for propaganda equipment, weaponises this ignorance and knowledge hole of governance – making Boxer undertake a naïve mentality reminiscent of “Comrade Napoleon is always right.” Eventually, Boxer collapses from overwork, finally ends up being betrayed and bought off by the very pigs he trusted to the knacker’s yard to be slaughtered, while they buy drinks from the proceeds of his sale. This is how Boxer didn’t get to benefit from the perks of being the strongest and most hardworking animal as a result of he virtually actually put a gold ring in a pig’s snout.
This is what occurs if you take one thing as treasured as your vote and solid it for evidently incompetent candidates; you’ll work very arduous however end up poor as a result of the system will steal your wealth via inflation, financial terrorism and predatory insurance policies. As a teenager, if you solid your vote for an invalid, you’ll put numerous inventive energy into your research however it’s going to take you six years to graduate from a four-year course. As an individual of religion, voting for sons of perdition means your sufferhead’s prayer factors will enhance as a result of you’ll keep disturbing God to do what a severe government ought to deal with. Learn from Boxer; don’t take that gold ring and put it in the snout of a pig. It’s akin to being a good-looking or stunning individual with out discretion.
The cause why a few of us have coconut heads is that we don’t internalise propaganda, we interrogate it. I speak quite a bit about important pondering as a result of anybody that robs you of that has successfully made you subhuman. So at any time when I see a bat transferring humorous, I wish to know whether or not it’s a chook or a rodent. I don’t equivocate or conjecture as a result of figuring out its true identification is important. Otherwise, such an animal will carry me to the place I don’t know. Fela was in his bag when he declared, “animal talk, don start again!” Right-thinking Nigerians can’t be finessed once more with smooth rebranding and packaged leaders; our eyes are on those that suppose it’s a privilege to serve – not those that arrogantly assume that it’s their flip to rule.
Bigotry is nothing however an elite conspiracy to obfuscate the actual points; in case your faith preaches hate, as a substitute of affection, then it’s a cult. These are the problems: N77 trillion nationwide debt, epileptic power supply, a comatose economy, moribund refineries, unholy subsidy funds, monumental crude oil theft, pervasive insecurity, document inflation, document unemployment, ASUU strikes, Twitter ban, crypto ban, over 20 million out-of-school kids, poverty capital of the world, border closure, exorbitant rents, non secular bigotry, devalued naira, unprecedented corruption, bare nepotism, insurgency, kidnapping, rubberstamp nationwide meeting, human rights infringements, ineffective judiciary, meals insecurity, gas shortage, mismanagement of our range and a litany of different horrible indices wey simply put all people for reverse.
You owe it to your legacy to be on the right side of historical past. The thought of institutionalising insensitivity in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society should be frowned upon as a result of our sensibilities have been continually assaulted with reckless abandon in latest years. Recognizing our range and responding to such with intentional inclusion is sacrosanct. It’s tomfoolery to shift the goalpost at any time when it’s politically handy. Nigeria belongs to every one among us; not on our watch will any demography turn into second-class residents in their own country – that day won’t come. Mahatma Gandhi places it succinctly, “whatever you do for me, without me is against me.” You can’t resolve for me when I’m not in the room and declare that it’s in my finest curiosity.
If dem wan to knock your head, na from back. African-American writer and poet, Audre Lorde warns concerning the risks of indifference and the complicity of silence in her e book, Your Silence Will Not Protect You. I described it because the silence of the lambs by those that ought to converse up however selected to bury their heads in the sand at important moments: “…the deafening silence of some of your faves and brands? When it’s convenient for them, they jump on every conceivable trend and try to spin it in their favour, but when it comes to what directly affects you, they are MIA. A great part of communication is listening to what is not being said. Their silence means they don’t rate you as much – they chose their brand over you, you’re only a statistic for their business models and you’re just a prop for their brand expansion.” Just like Avatar Aang, when the world wanted him essentially the most, he vanished. The same angle is rife as we method the elections; I’m conversant in their game.
Don’t let this flop, else, all people go chop breakfast last last.
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