In exactly 55 days, millions of Nigerians will bring out their PVCs, match to polling units near them and cast their votes for a President of their choice. January is here and the campaign for the 2023 general elections will be boiling. We have seen the many meetings and consultations in Nigeria, in London and elsewhere. That is the appetizer. In January, the main dish will be unleashed. The streets will be completely defaced with all manner of posters and banners. There will be all kinds of campaign propaganda blaring on radio and television. The social media rats who have since been trained to join issues and post a lot of nonsense will take over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Tik Tok, etc.
Who told you that there is no money in Nigeria? Think of the ease with which the political contestants bought N100 Million forms like puff-puff during the party primaries. My guys, there is a lot of money in Nigeria. It is just that a few people who are not producing anything have cornered, seized and stocked all the money for themselves. At a time when many fear that the Nigerian nation is burning, those who because of the money they have fleeced, believe that they own Nigeria, are busy flexing their muscles. They are buying up everyone and everything to ensure that everybody knows that God has ordained them to rule Nigeria in 2023. Please note that they want to rule Nigeria, not lead Nigerians.
There are two types of campaigns going on - the analogue and the digital. From Obalende in Lagos through Ojuelegba to Ikeja, there are hundreds of thousands of campaign posters all proclaiming, "EMILOKAN!". In the big city of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, I have yet to see one poster of Peter Obi, reputed to be one of the major presidential candidates. The "Batists" are on radio and television blasting away their campaign promos. Their rallies are jammed with thousands of "aso-ebi" wearing Nigerians sufficiently "mobilized" with the best public address system money can buy and party big wigs flown-in on private jets... and the operatives, very well paid. The cost of one of these rallies is humungous and the "Batists" can do them every day of the week.
Oh, how could I have forgotten? The big pastors and prayer warriors have also been commissioned and fully mobilized to cast and bind, speak in tongues and pray ceaselessly. And the juju men? 24 hours of the day, they are throwing cowries into the air and consulting strange spirits. The matter is that serious.
The "OBidients" have practically no posters and no expensive radio or television promos. They cannot flood stadiums with expensive "Aso-ebi". Let's face it, they do not have the money to hire crack operatives. Nearly all the people working for the "OBidient" movement are volunteers driven by passion. They create their posters and skits and post them on WhatsApp and Facebook. Nobody gives them "shishi". Money or no money, they are determined. "
Why are some people desperate to get Godwin Emiefele, the CBN Governor, out of circulation? Emiefele is crazy enough to block the zillions of Naira in cash that has been stashed in Ghana-must-go bags, containers and bullion vans and which are meant to be deployed to buy Aso Rock by any means. So far, Emiefele seems to have got the support of Buhari. Does Buhari have the tenacity and conviction to see Emiefele through? Will Godwin win?
The ongoing campaign is like the biblical battle of David and Goliath. It is like the present war between Ukraine and Russia, Zelensky and Putin. In February 2022, with Russia's hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of tanks, how many people would have predicted that by December 31, Volodymyr Zelensky will still be President of Ukraine and Kyiv will still be Ukraine's capital?
The coming elections in Nigeria are critical. If we are not careful, the elections might spell the end of the Nigerian experiment and at very huge costs. As the big contenders get ready for the mammoth noise-making Nigerians will be subjected to between now and February 25, I wonder whether there are many in Nigeria who have not yet made up their minds who to vote for.
In normal circumstances, we are supposed to simply let our friends, family members and associates vote their "conscience". These are not normal times. The coming elections are not normal elections. Any person who purports to love Nigeria must take a stand this time.
The PDP has been given the chance to lead Nigeria and the party failed Nigerians. It is as a result of that failure that Nigerians went on to seek the unfortunate alternative that APC has shown itself to be, failing Nigerians colossally. I have written here before that it has become very clear that the structures of the PDP and APC will never lead to the emancipation of the Nigerian people. Those structures were built for the private accumulation of wealth, power and the mercantilism of a few. They are terribly infested with the corruption virus. They will only lead to more hunger, more kidnapping, more insecurity, more joblessness, more stealing on a bigger scale and more hopelessness for the Nigerian people and possibly the brake-up of the Nigerian nation.
The entire concept of some persons accumulating bizarre amount of wealth from the Nigerian people without doing any visible work and turning around to use the wealth so accumulated to buy the leadership of the country in order to acquire more wealth, is obscene.
It is clear that the young people of Nigeria, the same age group that drove the
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