..... NOW THAT WE ARE HERE WHAT’S THE WAY OUT.
“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men”.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) U.S President. Speech, Washington DC
“When the righteous is on the throne, the people rejoice” proverbs 29:2.
Few days ago, a group of youths were on a queue in a bank and someone (a woman) tried to jump the queue and an argument ensued. It was a very interesting one such that we decided to make the different issues raised part of the topic for discourse. We may not quote them verbatim but we will try our best to make sure, we do not over paraphrase.
The first person was of the opinion that this is the root of our problems in Nigeria. How can a woman, a mother who is supposed to be a teacher be jumping queue, what then is she teaching her children? He was supported by a man who said, statistics has it that a woman spends more time with her children than a father. His comment did not go without opposition as someone immediately replied him that these days that is not entirely true because we have working class mothers amongst us.
They went ahead to argue that nothing was working in Nigeria that they spent millions of naira doing SIM card registration, and now it’s of update our bank accounts. According to him, it is an exercise in futility, because Nigeria doesn’t even have a data base and the next time, you go to the bank, you will be asked to provide the same information or they will start looking for the file. This youth sounded very upset because of what he was subjected to; he was asked for an ID and he gave them an International passport and then they wanted some utility bill, he did not understand why someone would ask for a utility bill again when an International passport is superior to it, quickly, another guy interrupted, that when they asked him for utility bill, he told them he did not have any because, he has a bore- hole and his generator so he doesn’t need the government’s utility!
The argument took another turn, when one of them asked the other if he had registered to vote? Before the guy could answer, a woman replied, for what? Am I going to get arrested for not registering, is it a crime? The guy replied, it is your right, you are complaining that things aint right, you have the power to change it. she kept arguing and he gave a life example with what is happening in Egypt, that few years back, nobody would have dared challenge the government, but one person started, another joined and before you know it the whole country is revolting and change has no choice than to occur. He further reiterated that he was not advocating for violence but that change is a slow process but someone has to start and as far as he was concerned, registering to vote is the first step.
An aggrieved Corps member on the queue who everyone expected to support change simply said, Nigeria has a long way to go and as far as he was concerned, INEC boss, Prof Jega was quoting figures to Nigerians.’’ How can he say that over 20 million Nigerians have been registered when they do not even have the machines to register?’’ He said that the machines had not been moved from the site and they had not given any report and in fact they didn’t work for the day because the machines packed up, their printer was not working, they had to contribute from their own pockets to buy ink for the printers and INEC has not paid them for the job done and they cant protest because it is against the NYSC rules and regulations.
That is one patriot, disappointed! An elderly man asked him a question thus; ‘’how can one forge 20 million names, including the finger prints and faces?’’ Now that’s reasonable doubt! He advised the young boy to be careful about what he says because he was representing Nigeria by the corps uniform he was putting on and he could command an audience so he shouldn’t berate his country like that.
The argument heated up again when someone asked that when the president went to register,’’ it took close to 30 minutes for him to register, same with the senate president and the former president, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo and none of them said a word or complained, that why would anyone else complain?’’
Another was quick to reply ’’ that they were setting examples to tell you that if your president can be patient enough to register, why can’t you be?’’
This scenario is startling in more ways than one. One particular re-occurrence in such scenarios is our inherent ability to ‘’intelligently’’ complain about a problem bitterly, identify who the culprits are, have an ideal about the solution and then it stops there; it has always stop there.
Today Kuwaiti rulers are offering free food; the Yemeni regime has reduced utility prices by 10%; Prime Minister Samir Rifai of Jordan has sacked his newly constituted cabinet and raised wages; Tunisia is now in its post-Ben Ali era; and Egypt is on the move, who knows what’s to follow.
Truth be told, these would not have surfaced but for the peoples’ display of their will to voice out their bitterness. One is not particularly recommending a replicate of the ongoing uprising that is redefining the Arab political hegemony from Cairo to Beirut, but at least we should let them know that we know what they think we don’t know! And muttering words beneath our breath won’t tell our stories for us.
Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years and Zine el Abedine Ben-Ali was Tunisia’s head of government for 15years.ok. The PDP as we have it today has a pool of recycled rulers still determining government policies year in,year out. Olusegun Obasanjo was Nigeria’s Head of state in 1976, democratically elected (?) in 1999, chose his successor in 2007 and as the party’s life BOT chair, that Janaury 13th Presidential Primaries and many more to come has and will have his decision as a pass stamp, his influence still holding sway in Aso Villa today,35 years later since his first emergence. Are we not caught in the same web?
We can get wages raised and enacted, schools re-opened and renovated, housing and power available, jobs created, lives secured, and our roads tarred. But we don’t act like we need them. We would rather watch others demand for them in international news, while we settle for our inherent tactics: Complaining and Muttering. We can continue with this tactics and wait for doom’s day or we could begin the journey to change the kinds that run our governments -from the Kingmakers to the Footsoldiers- by realizing and accepting that our responsibility to register, speak out, and vote wisely is one tool to rightfully demand for a sustainable standard of living, a responsive government and a realistic achievement of our collective dreams before the inevitable revolution becomes imminent.
We need not go through the Egyptian way, but there are lessons to draw out: That the will of a people is like an idea whose time has come, stronger than the finest of soldiers, potent than the weapons of any warfare. That the governed possesses more powers than those that preside over the affairs of the state.
But can these lessons really draw down home? Will they sink-in, will they?
Concluded….
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