My duty was to send you to hell...
There is such a thing as a festival of death. I do not insinuate a figurative festival, but a real one where a macabre slaughter of human beings takes place. Persons who have witnessed elections in Nigeria, in their sentient age, can attest to the occurrence of this strange festival.
Election years in Nigeria herald a bright future for the victors of the polls, and gloom for families who lose their loved ones in this bizarre festival. Elections are usually marred by violence which leads to destruction of lives and property. Rather than approach elections with a sincere manifesto and our thumb prints, we have perfected the art of using hate speech, cutlasses, guns and bombs to ensure victory at the polls.
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Since 2003, there has been a steady rise in the number of deaths recorded during elections. I have decided to use 2003 as a milestone, not because the preceding elections have been free from violence, but because it marks the starting point of the consolidation of our nascent democracy.
According to a brief prepared by the United States Institute of Peace, 100 people died from the 2003 elections, 300 people died from the 2007 elections and 800 people died from the 2011 elections. Based on this geometric increase across three consecutive election years, it is consistent to assume that we should expect more deaths from the 2015 elections!
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Every festival has need of masquerades. In this festival of death, the masquerades are usually thugs, cultists and marauders who are usually armed by self serving politicians. These politicians give them a false sense of power and pay them meagre amounts, mostly for drugs and substance abuse, to unleash mayhem. One former cult member interviewed by Human Rights Watch infamously declared; my duty was to send you to hell.
History is like a wise old man who we tolerate when he speaks, but never listen to – until it is too late. And history has proven over and over again that, you cannot inject a dog with rabies and expect to keep it under your leash. Thugs who are armed during elections become like rabid dogs to their masters after elections. They go out of control and haunt their masters and other innocents in their rampaging reign. This has been the origin of the different militant groups in Nigeria.
Yet there is hope. We can end this bizarre festival of death. All we need to do is choose the path of peace. Let our thumbs decide who emerges victorious at the polls and not our fists. Let us approach the forthcoming elections with our brains and not our brawn.
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