By Rev. Fr. Gerald Nwafor
By the time this publication will be out it is either that you have cast your vote or are getting ready to do the casting, but I want to say one thing about the election here and now: please do not die or do anything that would result in loss of life because this life belongs to God and God alone can take life because it belongs to him. I know that people have said in the past that this election is a do-or-die affair, please I beg you in the name of all the good things it is a do affair, not a die affair. Our families, our friends, and our children need us in the Nigeria of today.
I watch the same television as you, so I see the same annoying and frustrating news with you. We listen to the same radio stations where the politicians would be lying to us in broad daylight, peeing on our backs, and telling us it is raining. We know their antics; this is not the first time they are doing it and it would not be the last time. Following the antecedents of politics and politicians all over the world they are not very sincere people. I go to the same bank as you and they turned us back in the name of no money. Meanwhile, the fuel stations are dry or filled with long queues.
I know that many of us in the line will not get fuel in three days but that is our plight now. But none of these should lead to loss of life.
If you have one billion cash in your house, what is your plan for stashing such a humongous amount of money in your home? What if there is a fire outbreak or armed robber attack? I don’t want to go to the side of political vote-buying, but let us assume that the money was legitimately made. You have no reason to keep such an amount in your home. Now we were told in clear terms that there was a governor who kept 22 billion Naira in his house waiting for election day in the North-East part of Nigeria.
This is a very sad situation, and many common people are perturbed by that. Remember what I said, in the beginning, you do not need to die or kill someone because of the election and the political situation in the country. That money will be there with that Governor and turn into toilet paper. I am sure that the governor may not remember where he kept some of the money because he would be hiding it from some confidants whom he did not trust, and his brain would be kaput.
The only people who would die in this election are the people called by God because they have a bad plan to destroy a beautiful country with the richest natural resources on the planet earth. We shall live to reap our resources.
If I did not grow please allow me to retain my original size (Onye eburo ebu ka ora ka ora). We vote for change in 2015 and we are faced with the consequences now. Many people died to bring the change of 2015 and today who knows what they would be doing in their graves seeing what is happening now in the country. When they were shouting change, the exchange rate was 200 Naira to one Dollar. A bag of rice was seven thousand Naira. One liter of petrol was 80 Naira, and one bag of garri was four thousand Naira. As you can see today that the change promised to us was a fluke and deceit of a gargantuan proportion. Nothing has been going well since 2015 to date, but do not die because of any of this man-made suffering.
If you look at the political class and their trade pattern, almost all of them have jumped from one political ship to another, they are just practicing political prostitution. None of the political dramatic personae has the good of the people at heart. Their main goal is how do I get power? If getting power means going from party A to party C and to party D and back to party A, they do not care.
I urge you my fellow citizens please come out quietly and vote Labor Party on the presidential ticket. About the other candidate on the Labor party ticket, the electorate has to make that choice.
We have expressed our opinion and we have expressed our anger too. We have called on God and we have called on men too. What are we asking for? Something as simple as a free and credible election that will obey the will of the people in the election. We should not worry so much if what the people wanted is against our interest.
Democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people, so if we lose the election fairly, we should accept it in good faith and behave like Mandela who says that if I lose I learn. Another important area in this context and agitation for good governance is the people who did not vote. Silence in the face of the oppressor enables the oppressor. Inaction in the face of injustice supports injustice.
Good people who refuse to act during politics helped to enthrone the bad people. Therefore, if you are not planning to vote in this election, you are part of the problem, not the solution. I do not want to know who you voted for but if in fact you did not fulfill this primary civic responsibility, you are a problem to this democracy and your people. You cannot sit on the fence during this time in the history of Nigeria.
