The attention of the world media will be drawn to Nigeria in the coming months as the nation goes to the polls.  Nigerian electorates will throng out to elect leaders into different positions of leadership from ward level to the presidency to represent their dreams and aspirations of a better Nigeria.  This civic responsibility is a burden that the electorates are eagerly waiting to off-load in order to reverse the present order of things in the hope of reaping the dividends of democracy.

So, these times are most interesting. They are intriguing. They are frightful too. There are posters and campaigns everywhere. Politicians and office seekers whose faces have not been prominent in the last four to eight years are back on the scene. They are talking again. They are making promises. Their voices can be heard. When they prop up their heads, these politicians wear masks.

It is not yet certain that the electorates understand the agenda of the different political parties and aspirants vying for positions of leaders. Given the controversy that used to trail election results since independence, it is also doubtful in the minds of most electorates that the results of the forthcoming elections will reflect the true choice of the electorates.

What is, however, certain is that over the years the electorates are yet to feel the impact of democracy for the common man on the street. It is also certain that most of individuals parading themselves as political aspirants have not convinced the electorates that they are really credible with the courage to reverse the misfortunes of this country. 

These political aspirants are now wearing masks to mislead the electorates into believing that they are what they are not.  The electorates are learning to distrust the obvious.  The electorates should no longer be deceived as to the true identities of the aspirants. We will know them by their fruits. The era of empty promises and rhetoric is fading away. The electorates must be discerning to unmask all political aspirants and expose their true identities by using the power of their thumb to vote them into oblivion. 

Needless to say, Nigeria is a great country with vast and rich resources.  Ironically, the nation has never had the opportunity of being managed by individuals or group of people who have the interest of the nation at heart. The times of management have been disproportionately shared between tyrants and leaders. Tyrants abound, leaders few. To a large extent, tyrannical individuals and groups have held the nation hostage and recklessly plundered its wealth. They are predatory but parade themselves as leaders. These tyrants mask themselves as messiahs but their true identities reflect predators, maurderders and murderers. They gave Nigeria the locust years of independence to date.

Surprises may await the electorates in the months ahead.  Unfolding events suggest that certain forces are hell-bent on disenfranchising the electorates and rob them of their mandates. If these scenarios are anything to go by, a rocket scientist is not needed to tell us that there will be manipulations and rigging in the coming elections. 

The electorates must be on guard.  Eternal vigilance, they say, is the price of liberty.  We have tyrants among us.  Any political aspirant who has in the recent or distant past being involved in his or her personal capacity or in association with other group of people to oppress the electorates in a malevolent manner is a tyrant.  Such an aspirant is unfit to lead the people and should be voted out of consideration. Any aspirant who pursues personal interests and does not live for any principle in life should not be given a chance.  Those political leaders who masquerade as benefactors of the people and pursue unholy motives looting the treasury, who cheat, who lie under oath, who cross-carpet with impunity and kill to sustain their selfish ambition of ruling (ruining) the nation are clearly unfit for any political office in Nigeria.  The electorates cannot afford to be apathetic.  They cannot be neutral and allow tyrants a free reign in the land. 

Any political aspirant or group who cannot stand opposition is the enemy of democracy and by extension arch-enemy of the electorates.  Such aspirant or group belong to the lineage of Herod the King.  Herod the King could not stand the news of the wise men that a king was born and existed in his kingdom outside his palace and aside from him.  His response was typical of tyrants.  Elimination of the newborn king. This elimination order was scientific and executed with precision leaving no room for error.  All children in the age rang of 3 to 0 boys were eliminated.  And, there was wailing in Ramah. Holocaust!  Imagine the different shades of holocaust that tyrannical politicians have committed against the electorates and people of Nigeria.  Nigeria weeps. But judgment day is fast approaching!

The electorates must exorcize the demon of tyranny from the land.  The time to cleanse Nigeria from tyranny is now.  And, it is the electorates and the people of Nigeria that will rise up in collective action to do it. MEND is a drop of water in the ocean. MEND is fighting a colossus. Theirs is a war against a mirage, the tyrants of Nigeria. Tyrants who have no creed, no doctrine but driven by raw greed and satanic selfishness. Benito Mussolini produced the doctrine of fascism. Adolph Hitler produced the doctrine of National Socialism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels produced the Communist Manifesto. The wars against fascism, socialism and communism by the free world were won because the later confronted an ideology with superior logic of free enterprise, equality and liberty of humanity. The tyrants of Nigeria have not given clues as to their ideology but have continued to steal and steal and steal and steal until one day there will not be anything to steal again or the electorates and the people of Nigeria, the real owners, will rise up in revolt against the tyrants and bring them to justice for the locust years. The driving force is materialism.  They are possessed with raw greed. 

Nigeria needs leaders. Political aspirants who have the desire and willpower to inspire the people from the current state of inertia to wakefulness and carefully guide the nation to assume its rightful place in the international community. Nigeria desires more than it is presently getting from all of us, politicians, technocrats, critics, commentators and fence-sitters, alike. Nigeria deserves leaders with a vision, passion, willpower, drive and courage to lead the country out of its valley of despondency.  Nigeria needs leaders who can influence the electorates to believe in themselves, roll up their sleeves and make the country work again.
 
There are not shortages of this type of individuals at home and abroad.  It is fear that is holding back a lot of people from taking up the challenge. This is why tyrants are having a field day. Fear, this is the demon that the electorates must contend with. Fear of the unknown, fear of the future, fear of failure, fear of defeat, fear of being labeled the opposition, fear of being designated the odd man out.  Numberless fear. Needless fear.  If true and genuine leaders who are supposed to rise up and be counted are crippled by fear, the electorates have no further hope for the future. Tyranny will hold sway.  Pastor Martin Niemoller said, “When Hitler came for the Jews... I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.”  

If you are a Nigerian, at home or in Diaspora reading this essay and yet do not join the march to true democracy and liberty of the common man in Nigeria through all the legitimate means within your power to ensure that leaders and not tyrants are elected in the forthcoming elections, darkness is sure to envelope the country soon beginning from the Niger Delta. A very thick darkness that ….  consequences are better imagined than real.

All Nigerians have the opportunity to act now.  If we fail again, another four years of waste will prolong the locust years. Let every Nigerian go out to cast a vote of conscience. The stains will be on the neck of any INEC or any government official who dare to rig the elections and manipulate the figures to rob the electorates their power to choose. The eternal curse of generations of irreversible order/woes will be upon any mortal who dare to rig the elections or manipulate choice and decisions of the electorates.  Your vote can make a difference. Let us block tyrants from leadership in Nigeria.  Let us all arise and say ‘Never Again’ to tyrants who have hitherto destroyed the nation of our pride called Nigeria. 

Voltarine de Cleyre concludes that “so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”

Nigerian electorates arise! You have nothing to lose but your oppression.

Babatunde Fajimi

Robot  # 1 | 14.02.2007 14:57

The attention of the world media will be drawn to Nigeria in the coming months as the nation goes...Read the full article.