It’s another election year and the Jingles are everywhere the town crier is up from his sleeping mat, bringing forth the biddings of our Kabiyesi , He cries “Vote for Me”, “Vote for Me”, I am the change you deserve. Once again the drummers and dancers are out with so much enthusiasm, clad in colourful adornments singing the undying praises of our Bourgeoisies, this is the nation I have come to know, one so rich and yet so poor.
It’s another election year and the Jingles are everywhere the town crier is up from his sleeping mat, bringing forth the biddings of our Kabiyesi , He cries “Vote for Me”, “Vote for Me”, I am the change you deserve. Once again the drummers and dancers are out with so much enthusiasm, clad in colourful adornments singing the undying praises of our Bourgeoisies, this is the nation I have come to know, one so rich and yet so poor.
Our people are hungry, our people are suffering, our people are dying, the children have lost hope, our Federal schools have been laid desolate, our General hospitals have become death traps, our roads are blood suckers, but the vultures are still desperate for decay. A wise man once said that foolishness is doing the same thing over and over again; this has become the lot of my country, visiting the same titanic that killed our fore fathers without any answer to the mechanical lapse that sunk the ship in the first place. We wanted independence, we wanted democracy but yet we have become a caricature of the Western world, which we have always struggled to emulate.
The wolves have ripped out their skins and have undergone a plastic surgery and now wear sheep’s clothing and even though we see them for who they really are we are deceived by the white wool which they now adorn themselves with, we are ready to sell our birth rights to people who feed fat on us, who point accusing fingers and defame themselves on newspapers and national TV, people who make our youth thugs and manipulate electoral rules, people who will kill and destroy properties all in a bid to be called Mr. President.
Let us not be quick to forget the chaos in Cote D’Ivoire, the terrorism in Somalia, the pains of genocide in Rwanda, the crying of the children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the bloodshed in Sudan, the hunger in Zimbabwe, the agonies left behind by the apartheid in South Africa, the experience of Liberia. We should not as a nation take for granted the grace that has saved us from the travails of desolation and pain of other war torn zones and failed states in Africa. This goliath that calls itself the giant of Africa should stand still and boast less before it is tamed by a David. My fellow Nigerians it is time to create a reversal in our history and vote wisely, not for leaders who would embezzle funds and throw lavish parties while the poor seek a little less than fifty naira (N50) to feed and while children struggle hard to wash the wind screen of our cars in traffic just to meet ends meet. No more should we vote representatives who desecrate our Upper house while fighting as the “Agbero boys in our motor parks” and earn funds, which will feed 150 million people adequately. The age of ignorance has faded; it is time for the electorates to regain the power which democracy confers on them.
WRITTEN BY: LORI IJEOMA EKPEH
LEKKI, LAGOS
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