RELEASE YOUR VOTE TO RELEASE NIGERIA

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RELEASE YOUR VOTE TO RELEASE NIGERIA

About who we are: we are Nigerians!

Our country is in west-Africa on the African continent. Estimating from when last we had census, that was in 2006, we are about 194 million by population. We achieved independence from British colonial rule on 1^st October, 1960, while we became fully self-governing (as a Republic) in 1963. Ours has been a checkered history: from one crisis to another. And in that, bad leadership has been implicated as the albatross. When Karl Maier wrote about Nigeria, he applied a metaphor: “This House has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria”. The metaphor as applied was an indictment. A fallen house has lost its value of offering shelter. Bad leadership riding on the shoulder of corruption shattered the Nigerian governance structure as far back as 1983 when the book went public. Almost at the same time, Chinua Achebe took another swipe at Nigeria when he wrote: “The Problem with Nigeria”. For him, bad leadership was the problem.

For anybody, whether a Nigerian or anyone interested in the Nigerian case, listening to and reading Nigerian news, and living in Nigeria are enough sources of anger. The angst that goes with that normally implodes, since no one seems to listen, especially the politicians. Today, everyone is scared. If a Nigerian survives the bombing of the Boko Haram terrorist while in the North, s/he may also by whiskers escape the death-dealing specter of the Fulani Herdsmen, and may likely also run away from the bullets from the Niger-Delta militants, and also hide away from the menace of cultism, and also escape being kidnapped, but may likely not be happy being a Nigerian staying in Nigeria. Why? Because s/he goes home to meet no light, there is no food on the table; s/he is unable to afford the unstable fuel bills: one for the car, another for the gen set, and another for what INEC officials doing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) or those that profile citizens for the National Identity Card may use to run their systems. S/he or his/her dependents may fall sick and go to the hospital only to learn that health workers are on strike, or there are no available drugs on the counter. S/he goes home to rue the predicament. Next the child has returned from school to announce that s/he be given school fees, sorting fee, SUG fee and other nameless fees that require cash. The man or the woman of the house checks his/her account only to discover that the bank has removed the last available balance which he/she has tried fortuitously to keep away from the prancing network providers that forcibly subscribe people to unsolicited programs. The child throws tantrums at the parents who cannot fend for their children. The parents may likely run very high temperature that would likely predispose them to imminent onset of stroke. In no time, they die. Thus, to live in Nigeria is to wait for your death anytime due to frustration!

Must we continue this way? No! The time to change the situation is now. How do we judge a country that may likely develop? Dudley Seers provides the answer embedded in his question on what constitutes development in a country:

“What has been happening to poverty? What has been happening to unemployment? What has been happening to inequality? If all three of these have become less severe, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development for the country concerned. If one or two of these central problems have been growing worse, especially if all three have, it would be strange to call the result "development," even if per capita income has soared”.

Going by the above indices, Nigeria is lagging, and will continue to lag until all those issues are properly addressed. Nigeria has a tiny upper-class (made up of the politicians, their cronies and other acolytes along the corridors of power) with no existent middle-class but with a large army of low-class population that live below $1 per day. The situation is both scary and disturbing. To allow this to go on without break will be like placing death sentence on our collective survival. This worsening Nigerian situation led the current American President, Donald Trump to brand Nigeria in league with other highly-poor African countries as Shithole. That is a very bad label!

What do we do to shake off this label and turn a new leaf for onward march along the path of progress and development? We must arm ourselves with our highest civic resource: “Our Vote”. With our vote, we can change the course of our history as a country. Let us all unite today as victims to victimize bad leaders and their bad leadership. If you sell your vote, you have sold the only weapon at your disposal for killing bad leadership. That way you will be among those pulling down the Nigerian House. But when you use it wisely, you will help in rebuilding the fallen house. No fallen house ever offered shelter. No failed state ever made its citizens strong. Bad leadership has enfeebled us for too long. Now, we can RELEASE OUR VOTE TO RELEASE NIGERIA!

Written by Herbert Chimezie Nnadi (IgedenwaAfrika)

Lecturer at Imo State Polytechnic and Social/Political Affairs Analyst