2019 ELECTIONS: TIME TO GET IT RIGHT!!!

Agada Ikechukwu

It is often said in philosophical parlance that man’s Karma travels with him, like his shadow. If most Nigerian leaders were conscious of this fact, many a leader wouldn’t stand in his own shadow and wonder why it is dark.

Without a doubt, the tide had changed in an intricate political maneuver that threatens to leave some leaders high and dry. There is no gainsaying the troubled and malignant space of Nigerian politics is like a dangerous coast riddled with storms. Despite its turbulent tides, some politicians like sea-hardened sailors navigates through the gales, armed with a strong resolve and unyielding spirit. In the end, the bitter-sweet, cut-throat world of the game throws up champions who emerged unscathed and undaunted in spirit and resolve.

A storm is about to hit the Nigerian political firmament and many leaders will find themselves in political dilemma. The handwriting on the wall explains why some leaders run hither, thither like some sewer rats fleeing the onslaught of an unrelenting charwoman. Some of these serving leaders sensing that their stunted performance has the tendency to cast them in perfidious light and might signal their political eclipse, began to run helter-skelter engaging in obsequious patronages to ensure victory and award venoms from critics as some diatribe concorted  from a place of offence and lies from the pit of hell.

With 2019 elections around the corner, the usual suspects are at it playing scripts to dazzle the gullible electorate. They are sweet-mouthed, convincing and polemical. Some of them are blessed with words and they put them to good use at the slightest prodding, but the potency of such words is only observed in mere expression not fulfillment. They carefully pick their choice of words to avoid public angst.

They wear these borrowed robes as camouflage to manipulate the gullible voting public in order to earn their good graces. Some of them wear new appearances that are so funny that you wouldn’t be wrong to wonder if they are being groomed to play the part of some ascetic monks in a medieval eastern flick.

Hear this! Do not be swayed by the sugar-coated, knee-weakening rhapsodies from some of these leaders who have nothing to offer but to amass wealth and impoverish the citizenry. Do not be deceived by the stage-managed pictures of some these leaders in grocery stores, markets, restaurants, cinemas, etc., making people wonder if they had fired their domestic staff and turned themselves to errand boys. They put it up to gain public sympathy and display themselves as feeling your pains and pulses as citizens while in concrete sense; they are not. Some of them shed crocodile tears to appeal to your emotions just to win elections. Their proximity with the masses begins to dissipate like margarine in the Saharan Sun immediately following the elections. Some of them need to take their primitive political trade in other climes to succeed because Nigerians are wiser.

Some other groups of leaders throw their hats into the ring in order to raise money from some moneybags so as to loosen the grip of asphyxiating debts tightening their nose around their neck. Those with tall religious and ethnic agenda cannot be left out. Many people have their different reasons of joining the murky waters of Nigerian politics. In all, surf for selfless and masses oriented leaders with the spirit of brotherliness devoid of ethnicity and religion that can walk their talk.

We have to be systematic, deliberate and objective in our final resolve to vote our leaders based on ability and not puerile sentiments. Discourage any attempt to coordinate you like sheep because a political or ethnic champion endorsed an aspirant/candidate. It is suicidal to queue behind some aspirants/candidates because some set of notable godfathers endorsed their ambitions. Sometimes they are wrong, endorsing for their selfish interests. This is the cardinal reason why we witness frequent pilgrimages of some of these aspirants/candidates to godfathers for blessings (endorsements) who most times demand written and/or unwritten agreement (embezzlement) from them as prerequisite for their support thereby enslaving the masses in a position of equilibrium for the next cycle of four years.

Do not trade your conscience (birthrights) like Esau because of gift items and financial inducements. These Greek gifts can only last for days and your collective patrimony will be mortgaged for the next four years. In fact, it is larceny and digital witchcraft for some aspirants/candidates to be enticing you with gifts and money during elections to gain your votes.

The real voting starts from the primary elections. Where such greedy leaders have been packaged as consensus candidates, show them the door via the main elections. Vote candidates not party because some good candidates may not be in the frontline parties.

As the 2019 election looms, the stage tickles from the cities to the boondocks. It is worthwhile to note that political slayage and swag (slay candidates) does not amount to electability. Incumbency is not synonymous to invincibility, anybody could be challenged. Leadership comes from God.