THIS “OBEDIENT” IS GOOD FOR US

THIS “OBEDIENT” IS GOOD FOR US

Just a few days from now, the 2023 Nigeria’s presidential election will be over, the winner would have emerged also the losers.

 

MY TAKE;

As a close observer of the Nigerian electorate, elections and electoral processes over the years, I dear to say that the 2023 election will not be decided by the social medial presence and or influence, neither will the result follow the directions pointed to by social medial polls.

My above postulation is not to say that the social medial is not relevant in the electoral process or that it is not potent enough to influence electoral outcomes. Rather, it is because the bulk of the population of our electorates (actual voters, people that will stand in the sun for a whole day just to vote) are not so educated or have a huge presence on social medial, at least not yet, maybe in the next four to eight (4 - 8) year.

THE NIGERIAN CITIZEN’S VOICES ARE GRADUALLY BECOMING LOUDER AND MORE RELEVANT

One good thing about the 2023 election is that the citizen will be the winner irrespective of the party in government after the election, because;

THIS OBEDIENT MOVEMENT WILL CONSTANTLY BE A REMINDER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DAY THAT THINGS ARE NO LONGER THE SAME AND THAT THEY HAVE ONLY FOUR YEARS BEFORE RETURNING TO FACE THE FIERY FIRE OF THE PEOPLE’S VITUPERATIONS ……. THAT IS, IF THEY ARE ABLE TO AVOID IT EVERY DAY OF THAT FOUR YEARS BEFORE NEXT ELECTION.

Therefore, for all intents and purposes, this “obedient” movement is a good development in the annals of Nigeria Political history.

It clearly shows that the Nigerian people especially the Youths are gradually coming out of their cocoon, they have started to show good interest in our body polity.  This is a sign that THERE IS HOPE FOR NIGERIA AFTER ALL.

REVOLUTION IS A POSSIBLE IN NIGERIA

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." (John F. Kennedy)

The 2012 “SAFE / OCCUPY NIGERIA PROTEST”, the “END SARS” imbroglios and the current “OBEDIENT” movement should teach our political elite a lesson and hopefully push them to think the citizen and serve the people, these events are a proof that revolution is possible and imminent in Nigeria, it the status quo persists.

The popular slogan “if you push the Nigerians to the wall, they will bore hole through it rather than to fight back” may not be totally true after all.

Nigerians actually possess the will power to be VERY DISOBEDIENT AND VIOLENT towards bad leadership, they can choose never to follow sheepishly when things are falling apart with a center that is no longer holding up in their responsibilities to the people.

It is becoming very clearer now that the fear of death and being afraid for our lives while our beloved Nation is being ruined by a few Cabals is an eventual invitation for doom, after all; “the man dies, in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny”.  Isn’t it?

THE YOUTHS SHOULD KEEP UP THIS MOMENTUM

As aforesaid, the obedient may not see their candidate on the presidential seat of power with the February 2023 election, but that is not to say they have lost, in reality they are the winner, because they have changed the political narratives, they have put the youths back on the political engagement and consideration table and they have made the emergence of a youthful, vibrant and very cerebral president possible for Nigeria in a few years from now.

However, we must be prepared to keep the fire burning for the next sixteen (16) years from now and this is true regardless of the winning party. Even if Peter Obi is the winner of the 2023 election the youth must need to sustain this change movement, else the political cabals will hijack the government unless they fear that it will be too risky for them to so do.

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT A RETURN TO STATUS QUO AND SEE THE NIGERIA OF OUR DREAMS

THE IGBO PRECEDENCY IS POSSIBLE

It is a fact that since the Biafra war, the highest political office held by an Igbo person in Nigeria is the Vice Presidency and the Senate Presidency.

There is this general feeling that the non-emergence of a Nigerian President of Ibo ethnicity is deliberately masterminded by some sections of the Country.

Whether the above believe is true or not is yet to be scientifically proven.

However, one thing is very clear to me, the Ibos have not presented a widely acceptable candidate of a major political party at the center in a while, until Mr. Peter Obi.

The fact of Peter Obi’s popularity, acceptance and endorsements from across all geo-political divide and a wide spectrum of the Nigerian electorate, regardless of his late and crash entrance into the 2023 presidential race seems to proof that no one can or is preventing the emergence of a Nigerian President of Ibo tribe from emerging. I think, with adequate preparation, negotiations and relationship building across the Country the Ibos and any ethnic nationality in Nigeria can produce the president, do not forget that every political party’s first priority is to win the election and to look away from a candidate which can win the election for the party based on his or her ethnic background is very improbable in my view.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT FACT IS THAT THERE ARE OVER TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY (250) ETHNIC NATIONALITIES IN NIGERIA, GROUPED INTO SIX (6) GEO-POLITICAL ZONES.

Most of these ethnic nationality and political zones are not as fortunate as the Ibos, as they are yet to produce any vice president, senate president or president and it is their fundamental human right to so do.

I will therefore enjoin the Ibo ethnic nationality and any tribe desirous of producing the President of the Nation in four to eight (4 - 8) years’ time and beyond to start preparing their candidate beginning from now and not wait until the party primaries.

You mat like Bola Ahmed Tinubu or not, he is an example of such preparations, negotiations and doggedness. Here is a man who resigned from a lucrative job to foray into politics. He immediately aligned himself with the Progressives and remain so till date, by which it means he remains in the opposition for over thirty (30) years, defiling each military and conservative government of the day, building political alliances across the zones until now. Loose or win he has made himself a potent political force of repute and THE JAGABAN OF AFRICA.

IT IS ALSO INSTRUCTIVE TO STATE HERE THAT, WE SHOULD BEGIN TO JETTISON THIS “TURN-BY-TURN”, ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS, ZONING FORMULA AND QUOTA SYSTEM OF THINGS, AND START PRIORITIZING COMPETENCE, EXPOSURES, EXPERIENCE AND TRACK RECORDS OVER OTHER CRITERIA, ELSE IN THE LONG RUN, WE STAND THE RISK OF ENTRUSTING THE MANAGEMENT OF OUR NATIONAL RESOURCES INTO THE HAND OF MEDIOCRE.

Summary:

The polling result of February 2023 presidential election in Nigeria may run contrary to social medial polls. We should prepare our minds to accept the outcome, whichever way it swings, knowing that we only have one country and that the political class and their families hardly suffers in the event of any civil disturbances.

The “safe / occupy Nigeria protest”, the “end SARS” and the “obedient” movement have achieved so many things for the nation, win or not, they have shown that the rich also cry and no one is untouchable. They have help amplify the voice of the masses, especially the youths.

They have re-introduced the youths back to the political discussion table of all the political party now and henceforth. The fact that Nigeria is not totally immune to uprising and revolution as witnessed in other nation is now very clear to our political class.

However, this vibrant political involvement on social medial must not only be sustained, it must graduate for mere social medial presence to physical presence at each ward and local governments of Nigeria, to a point where youths are becoming the ward, Council and local government chair persons.

The Ibo presidency will come naturally with adequate preparation and bridge building across the geo political zones. Mr. Peter Obi’s acceptance and popularity across the country is a testimony to the fact that no tribe or geo political zone can prevent any others from producing the president of the country. Any sellable candidate will receive massive endorsement, support and wining votes from anywhere in Nigeria regardless of his or her ethnic nationality. In the same spirit, no tribe should think they can arm-twist and harass others under any guise to vote a particular candidate of their choice into elective post.

After all each of the over two hundred and fifty (250) ethnic nationalities across the six (6) geo political zones have the constitutionally guaranteed and fundamental human right to aspire to any elective office in the land at any given time. The “turn-by-turn” politics is never enshrined in our constitution, it is just an internal political party arraignment.

Moreover, our best bet as a civilized society, is to start prioritizing skill, merit, capacity and wider acceptance over the quota system and zoning formula, else, our best resources may never be deployed for national benefit.

That being said, anybody and or ethnic nationality wising to be the President of Nigeria in the next Four (4), eight (8). Twelve (12), sixteen (16), Twenty (20), etc years from today, should start preparations now, do not wait till the party primaries.

GIVE US THE BEST CANDIDATE EARLY AND WE WILL MASSIVELY SUPPORT HIM OR HER REGARDLESS OF AGE, GENDER, RELIGION, ETHINICITY OR PARTY AFFILIATIONS.

A great example of adequate preparation, bridge building and networking across the six (6) geo political zones of the country is Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu the Jagaban of Africa.

Years ago, he purposely resigned from a secure and promising career in the oil and gas sub sector of the economy to foray into the very risky and mucky Nigeria political ecosystem.

He chooses to remain a progressive by which choice he remains in opposition until when APC, the party he helps midwife gained ascendancy eight years ago, even at that, he chooses again not to hold any political office, though he would have gotten one if he desired it.

This year it would make over thirty years that he has been building the political base for his emergence as APC flag bearer and a major contender in the 2023 presidential election.

It takes a purposeful leader and an audacious strategist to survive those days of brutal dictatorship, power drunk political gladiator and cabals and still be relevant till date.

No man should try to take that from him, sentiment apart. I will even recommend that the new political schools should start to understudy him.

God Bless Nigeria.