When it comes to my dear country, we’ve not really enjoyed much with regards to democracy. Yeah, we have more freedom than we did during the military regime, at least you can be free to be foolish and also be free to make dumb decisions like jumping queues and driving against the traffic. However, when we look at the grand scheme of things, when we go deeper into the matter and scrutinize it, are we still free?
This is 2024 and the things we say are still being censored, you could say the wrong things that will land you in prison, and you could air an opinion that could very well get you in trouble. I just have to say this here, democracy just might be the wrong thing for Nigeria so far. Because right from the get, we’ve never really enjoyed it. We’ve only been plagued by leaders who just don’t seem to have our best interests at heart and who simply don’t want anything good for us.
Our leaders have shown time and again that they don’t care about us, they only come around when it’s time to vote and they’re willing to do anything and everything to secure their power. It’s sickening, especially when they don’t mind pitting one tribe against the other, or one religion against the other. They would do anything just to secure that seat for themselves.
Nigeria is a diverse nation with hundreds of tribes, and people say that for that very reason, it will be difficult to have one mind. But how can that be difficult? At least we’re still the same race. The United States is made up of multiple races, they literally have citizens from just about every country and every tribe in the world, yet, they make it work. They’re usually able to put their differences aside and decide on a candidate.
If they choose a person to vote for, they’ll give you reasons for their choice. The person can do this and do that, it won’t matter if these are things that you relate with, what matters is that they believe that their candidate will make that happen. However, in my corner of paradise, it’s not the same thing. When you ask someone why they want a person to be president, they say it’s because he’s their brother, or it’s his turn. This is the reason why we’ve been sinking. Other countries rise through democracy, e reach our turn and the only way seems to be down.
And funny enough, democracy is the only hope because there’s no way we’ll return to military rule. I will never support that. For now, I’ll just say that it’s the lesser of two evils, and until we as a people can unanimously decide to step up and use our power, this suffering will keep going around. Because this is one palliative that they’ll refuse to hoard. You must collect am!
It’s a scary notion, but we can do better. We can get better leaders, we can keep tribal biases and religious sentiments aside. If things like tribe and religion don’t matter in movies, music, and business, why the hell should it matter when picking leaders? Why do we insist on being used by these guys who do not care about us? The very people who incite the rivalry will be chilling in their villas, being friends and enjoying each other's company. Meanwhile, the grassroots will be fighting each other, fights that make no sense and have no bearing because, in the long run, it will only distract you from the real enemy. As long as you’re fighting amongst yourselves, you’d never be able to fight them. Divide and conquer is their motto.
So, my dear friends, if we really want to start enjoying democracy, we need to learn to look beyond our biases. Both religious and tribal. People should be chosen as leaders by what they can do not by who they are. Because that your brother that you’re clamoring for, when he assumes power, there is a high likelihood that shishi, you no go see inside! Except if it’s shege that he’s sharing, then you’ll collect woto-woto. As in ehn… we really need to do better ooo!
