OpinionOPINION: Lingering Crisis, Rhythm Of COVID-19 And 2023 General Elections

OPINION: Lingering Crisis, Rhythm Of COVID-19 And 2023 General Elections

January 29, (THEWILL) – Elections have come and gone, but the forthcoming polls are going to be exceptional – in the sense that people, having counted tooth with their tongues, would now boldly decide on the right candidates that would change the narratives our nation had been known for.

Security challenges bedevilling the country appear to have opened the eyes of Nigerians; and for this horrible reason, even security men would give chance to the legible voters to responsibly cast their votes unhindered.

Also, the staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should be ready to conduct a credible election in 2023 that would be certified free and fair by the common Nigerians.

Glo

Voices have been raised for the President, Muhammadu Buhari to give a nod to the clarion calls of the citizenry to bring to bear “Electronic Voting”, which has been generally deemed to be acceptable by the people.

The electoral umpire can be said to have never reached up to the expectations of Nigerians since the return of democracy – except for the polls organised by Prof. Humphrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission (NEC). It was adjudged the best excise because of its peculiar encompassibilty of the “Option A-4” Voting system of which every Nigerian attested to its openness and general acceptance.

The electorate participated in the election with a sense of responsibility. They saw it as part of their civic duty to change governance through their vote casts and for that cause, what they expected were results that had never been manipulated and unfortunately, it was annulled by the military Government.

The 1993 Presidential election between Mushud Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Bashir Today who vied under the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC) shall remain evergreen in the memories of many concerned Nigerians.

It is necessary to state here, that the South-east will change the trajectory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if given the long-awaited opportunity to occupy the Presidential seat. When we talk about the South-east, equity and fairness are emphasised. People in authority wilfully exclude others. On rotation, in 1999, democracy returned, and Obasanjo held for 8 years. Ya’adua stepped in, Jonathan came in, and in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari took over.

Fielding questions to Arise Television presenter recently, the former APGA national chairman, Victor Umeh, averred that Igbo have people who are highly competitive for the seat of Presidency. He maintained that the South-east has intellectuals that can pilot the affairs of the country if given the mandate in the next dispensation of the coming election that will be held in 2023.

All eyes are now on President Buhari to use his veto power to conduct the last election before his exit from office in 2023. He should bear in mind that he was a child of circumstance – owing to the polls that were held that favoured him to have emerged as the successor of Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, whereby the outgone President had the resources to impose his preferred candidate on Nigerians.

Nigeria needs an untribalistic leader as a President, who will carry other ethnicities along in the plan of things without sentiments and dichotomy. Contestants of South-East extraction are waxing stronger to be given chance to pilot the affairs of the country since others have occupied the seat in the past.

The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari favoured people in the Southeast that he is familiar with rather than the generality of Igbo. People like the Minister for Education- State, Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba, Minister for Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, who is heading Science & Technology, Former Abia Governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu and other prominent sons and daughters, who never got Federal appointments by neither dint of hard work or familiarity, but by the act of recommendation made by the Buhari men.

Agitation by the majority of Igbo to be sovereign peaked during the political dispensation of President Muhammadu Buhari, unlike the times of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Musa Yar’dua and Goodluck Jonathan.

Even now, the present administration is elapsing, and the entire country is still in topsyturvy, jostling for who takes over as President of Nigeria. It is funny that as big as the country is, there is no clear-cut stipulation of its zoning formula – which guide it.

By now, we are supposed to have outgrown confusion emanating from zoning issues and other related problems which had seemingly drawn the country backwards because no ethnicity is certain of holding the mantle of leadership when to recontest or hand over power to another group.

South-East Governors have been redundant and silent with respect to the need to cede power to the Southeast extraction despite frantic efforts of concerned people in the zone. None speaks out concerning issues affecting Imo, Abia, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi States.

Only minding their respective States is squarely what they are known for. No wonder the presidency had, for so long, taken advantage of their muteness to unleash unwarranted marginalisation on the zone without considering the deep plights of people of the geopolitical district who have contributed to the growth of the country.

People with the least States in the entire Nigerian nation are still not united. Bitterness, rancour, acrimony, backbiting, jealousy, hatred, pull-him-down syndrome, and character assassination had remained cancer in them. They cry out to be marginalised, but there could be a lifting-up only if the region wholeheartedly resolves to make headway and deliver itself from the abyss of disorientation and confusion.

Southeast States are currently battling unprecedented insecurity challenges left, right and centre. Citizens are down with fear and apprehension over the situation. Security agents appear to be helpless with the unfriendly ways things are moving. Governors making frantic efforts to quell the ugly situation. Senator Hope Uzodimma has always described the challenge as the handiwork of foes of his shared prosperity administration. Safety of lives and property has been emphasised not to be left into the hands of the Police alone. It should rather be a collective responsibility.

The unwarranted hard times Nigerians underwent during the novel coronavirus era and problems that have lingered which include hike in fuel pump prices, devaluation of our Naira to US Dollars, Increase in prices of goods and services, continued detention of the Independent People of Biafra, IPOB leader; Nnamdi Kanu and other “wahala” that are supposed to be fixed before the 2023 election begins on February 25, 2023. In less than a month to be held.

But lo and behold, the era of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic that rocked our activities in the year 2020, believe me, was a blessing in disguise. The challenge forced individuals to embark on self-examination, which snowballed into their engagement in skill acquisition and entrepreneurship. Let me pause here and pray to God to repose the souls of those killed by the coronavirus disease.

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