Politics
Mission to Nowhere: No Victor, all Vanquished!
In the wake of recent political and sectarian perturbations that now envelopes our populace and even our social and conventional media space, it was only going to be a matter of time before I came up with this piece.
It appears we don’t know we are sitting on a ticking time bomb with our utterances and the renewed agitations in some sections of the country. Let me start this piece by clearly stating the ugly sides to the three major tribes or nemesis of Nigeria and subsequently stating clearly why staging another war can and will never be the way forward;
The Bitter Truth about Nigeria’s Major Tribes
Yorubas: Backstabbing and Pretentious cowards!
Hausas/Fulanis: Distasteful and Vengeful Bigots!
Igbos: Arrogant and Confused Sectarians!
The aforementioned attributes of the three major tribes in Nigeria is just a clue to why the civil war of 1967 was quite difficult to avert. But here is the raw deal;
At the outset of post-colonial Nigeria, the three major tribes were not prepared to let go of their differences, yet they all wanted to wrest power from one another undemocratically whilst they remained in the same federation. They were simply asking for a miracle to happen in a federation that was hurriedly put together to start functioning independent of our colonial watchdogs.
The Igbos knew too well the British had sold us a dummy with the amalgamation and they made it somewhat obvious to the other Nigerians in ways that induced envy rather than an understanding of the deceit the Britons had roped us in.
The average Ibo man doesn’t know how to mince words even in situations where the receiver is broken already; they can be annoyingly blunt. They couldn’t find other means to show their supposed superiority even in the face of strife. You won’t blame them though; they were the most learned and ambitious of the lot. Worse still, they had vastly different ideologies to the Northern end of the Niger River.
The Yorubas on the other hand pretended all was well and quietly plotted on how to cease power from the North through their demi-god, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory. Whilst the Hausas inferiority complex made them bitter tribalists that saw anyone outside their realm trying to grasp power from their reins an enemy of a federation the British handed to them on a platter of gold.
The arrogance and superiority the Igbos displayed sowed seeds of hatred in the Hausa man’s heart like it was the Ibo man’s fault they showed little advancement from their pre-colonial life. As a matter of fact the Ibos were not always like that. If my little knowledge of history serves me right, they were the most primitive tribe in pre-colonial Nigeria just before the advent of the Europeans. But civilization opened their eyes to new realities.
Back to the Hausas/Fulanis (Sometimes I don’t even know the difference), for their mind they are the true Nigerians! Anyways, everything we experience today, including the Hausa man’s unquenchable thirst for power is as a result of the selfish ambitions of the Britons from time immemorial; a strategy that started off with an amalgamation of two disparate protectorate not minding the consequences of such unholy and ill-planned alliance.
Nigeria was not prepared for the amalgamation just like they were not prepared for the reverberations of the independence the British gave us dubiously. I could swear the Britons knew what was to follow. They had it well-planned. They still owned us in a way. Even the name Nigeria was given to us by the wife of a Lord in Great Britain, Flora Shaw (Lady Lugard).
I could go on and on but who am I to talk about events that occurred eons before I was breathed into life. I will let our fathers do that but the problem is they will never tell us the truth and when they do, they only tell us what they want us to know. Between, we are still waiting for General Yakubu Gowon’s account of the civil war.
Albeit I will give my two kobo;
Until we tackle the remote causes and aftermath of the war in 1967, then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, these agitations would continue, and I’m not just talking about the agitations in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Trust me, this time it won’t just be about Biafra. Splinter groups will rise; Niger Delta will wrest themselves from the Ibo man’s grasp, the Igbos will grapple with their own internal politics, the Christians in the North will search for their identity. Benue, Plateau, Adamawa and maybe Bauchi will be worse hit. It will be fatal for them there.
Lagos will prefer to stand alone rather than bond with their neighbours in Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ondo. Kwara, Kogi and Edo will just be mere spectators caught in the middle. It will be a confused bloody cause that will mark an end to the Giant of Africa. At that time only few would be alive to tell the story of how ‘There was once a Country’ to the unborn generation.
Thinking about it…we really don’t want a war, or am I wrong? The Aburi accord was their last chance of preventing a war between Federal forces and Biafra but the over-bloated egos of our elites in the 60’s won’t let peace have its way.
This war we now seek by our actions and inactions could erase an entire generation of promising Nigerians. Unlike in 1970 when the then Head of State and Emperor of the Federal Forces that declared a police action turned war on the secessionist state, General Yakubu Gowon declared his famous “no victor, no vanquished” speech after the war, even if he was just saying what needed to be said at that moment in time, this time around a civil war will only be a mission to nowhere where there will be no victor and all will be vanquished!
I stand with a united Nigeria
I stand for dialogue, compromise and resolutions
I stand for peace
I stand for common sense but unfortunately in my country that doesn’t even exist.
Youths don’t be deceived! Our leaders in the North, South, East and West of this country are only after their selfish gains, they really don’t have our interest at heart.
Let’s not be cajoled to fight a war they and their families will never be involved in.
A word they say is enough for the wise but I decided to write a piece of about 1000 words because this trouble brewing is beyond mere wisdom.
Lekan Linkin Lofinji
Member of the Federation
N5000 Stipend For The Unemployed? Shoot Me Please!
Did Buhari win elections because of 5K monthly “alawee” promised to unemployed graduates? Why is there so much fuss about this supposed largesse that should never have been? Find out in this article.
When Buhari made the campaign promise of N5000 stipend to unemployed Nigerians, to me it sounded like child’s play. In fact it was laughable! How on earth will that be possible in a country such as ours where we’ve got no data base and corruption reigns supreme ahead of other vices? I knew from the outset that it was just a campaign gimmick and I also felt majority of my fellow patriots especially the highly educated ones would be of the same school of thought. But to my chagrin, heated arguments and controversies followed suit as soon as feelers went out. People began calling for the head of Buhari and I’m like…hello! Wasn’t it clear that campaign promise was a blatant lie! In fact since I started following elections in Nigeria that seems to be the biggest campaign lie I’ve ever heard.
Any youth that fell for that bait must indeed be gullible.
Abi na so una believe the guy reach?
It only shows he’s human and not some demi gods as some Nigerians believe especially those in our northern plexus. Now the President is giving us another angle to the N5000 largesse stating that he has other priorities, President Buhari would rather use the monies to build more schools, infrastructural developments and empowering the Agricultural and Mining Sectors.
In his exact words:
“This largesse N5,000 for the unemployed, I have got a slightly different priority. I would rather do the infrastructure, the school and correct them and empower agriculture, mining so that every able bodied person can go and get work instead of giving 5,000, N5,000 to those who don’t work.
Also, we shouldn’t fail to recognize the fact that leadership must evaluate its decision and position on matters arising at any point in time regardless of whose ox is gored. Albeit that’s not my bone of contention here.
That promise shouldn’t have been made at the outset! It is simply unrealistic in the present Nigerian society. Even a fool knows that. That is not to say it wasn’t conceived with the best of intentions.
Of a truth, I don’t think campaign promises anywhere in the world are fulfilled to the letter.
Though President Buhari’s alternative his laudable but that’s no excuse for the blatant lie the APC told Nigerians knowing fully well that the masses view President Buhari as a man of integrity. It’s simply unacceptable!
At the moment, I’m not sure everyone who voted him still have faith in his campaign promises. Nonetheless, one can only but hope that the largesse is used for what it’s now intended for. That to me is a much better alternative, a more believable and achievable campaign promise.
That the President rescinded his decision shouldn’t be news, what’s news-worthy is the fact that controversies and heated reactions have trailed the failed N5000 stipend. I am really not disappointed and that’s because I even forgot he made such promise minutes after the promise was made.
In fact, I feel relieved and not betrayed or cheated like some Nigerians out there feel. I am happy that he has been able to make you guys reason holistically by coming out to quell any thought or hope of one loose cash from the coffers of the Federal Government; another opportunity to enrich the already over-bloated Public office holders.
Now the argument is that Buhari won the elections because of the N5000 stipend he promised our unemployed youths. And again I laugh this time in Hausa! That is as ridiculous as the promise itself.
The earlier we accept the fact that the N5000 thingy is officially a failed promise and get our asses to work the better for us
You guys should go get something doing and don’t lose sleep over what was never bound to happen under sane conditions, not even now that the country’s economy has gone berserk!
In Nigeria our leaders’ words are not their bonds let’s stop taking them too seriously. They have shown us over time that campaign promises are only made to secure votes afterwards they expect her citizens to either take a chill pill or go to hell!
And as for the President, suffice to say his haters are now beginning to laugh horrendously at his own comedy show as he continues to globe-trot around the world with reckless abandon.
God bless Nigeria!
Lekan Linkin Lofinji
Member of the Federation
This New Biafra is a confused cause (Part 2)
On May 30, 1967, Biafra also known as the land of the rising sun in South Eastern Nigeria became a secessionist state. Two and the half years after the deaths of more than a million civilians felled in the war by enemy bullets, air strikes and starvation resulting from blockades, Biafra agreed to a cease fire with Nigerian Federal Military Government. Subsequently they were re-integrated into Nigeria. 45 years later, they long for recognition again, only that this time it has nothing to do with the power play in the military or the Northern plot to eliminate Igbos in the mid- 60’s.
Having gained independence in 1960, all seemed well with Nigeria though pretentiously, until 1966 when an Igbo Major who was born and bred in Kaduna and was popularly called Major Kaduna Nzeogwu led an Igbo dominated coup which prompted the killings of Northern elites and Military officers including the then premiere of the western region who was a Yoruba man. That coup won’t have mattered if at least one Igbo man was killed. Though Nzeogwu grew up in the north, he never mistook the northerners for brothers. Young Igbo military officers murdered the first and only Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. No Igbo political leader not even the then premiere of the eastern region nor Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, the then President who were all part of the corruption their administration was accused of, was killed in that coup. Hence, It was widely believed to be an Igbo coup.
Though Nzeogwu and his small group of Igbo officers put a wrong foot forward when a coup designed to rid the country of corrupt leaders in the first republic was targeted at mostly northern senior military officers who had no hand in the ugly situation back then, and worse still a Sarduana, however, the retaliation by the north was demonic. They went too far with their sport. It was a blood bath! It was like they had been waiting for the Igbos to falter.
And I ask; is that what you get for killing a highly respected Sarduana in cold blood and even having ample time on your hands to make a mockery of his death right in his domain?
Read also: This New Biafra is a confused cause (Part 1)
The Igbo military officers were enjoying bloody games and fatal jokes while it lasted. They didn’t know then that a Hausa/Fulani man does not react well to jokes. They don’t even have ears for sarcasm.
If an Igbo man makes the mistake of slaughtering a cow belonging to Fulani herds-men, trust me, they would kill 10,000 Igbos as compensation. Then, how much more a Sarduana, who was the most revered Islamic icon in the North?
The Hausas felt the Igbos played God in the North, however the north went overboard with the massacre that ensued. The ruthless Northerners went on a killing spree! Haba! 10,000-30,000 Igbos were murdered in broad daylight, depending on the account you choose to relate with. No doubt, there was indeed a grand plan to eliminate Igbos, we just can’t conclude if that plan was entirely Northern. Who wouldn’t go to war on that account? Which tribe in Nigeria would suffer that and still want to be under the leadership of such menacing region of the country?
Though they lost the war, the Biafran army was a gallant force and I believe their plan would have been successful if the war had been balanced. But like they say, all is fair in love and war.
The war was forced upon them and it’s sad that till date the Igbos are still held at arm’s length politically. The effects of a war doesn’t last till the end of a war, it lasts many years after and may not even have an end.
You want to know the truth; the problem with Nigeria and Biafra did not start during the civil war. The problem started in 1914 when the British selfishly amalgamated a then Northern region that was backward in every sphere of human endeavour and had no form of inclination towards the South with a more illustrious, vast and economically prosperous Southern region; it was indeed the greatest injustice of colonization.
Later, another problem sprang up in 1956 when oil was discovered in Oloibiri; that set the stage for the British spiral ball to roam recklessly on our fertile green land with no holds barred. If only we had no black gold, ‘boya ife wa ma gbono gidigidi’ (probably we would have been genuinely united)
Back to present day; so, this time what is the last straw that has hit the camel’s back that would warrant calls for another wanton loss of lives and properties; Jonathan’s loss in the April 2015 polls? Buhari’s presidency and his own supposedly unreserved and unmistakable hatred for the Igbos?
Or was it after the ones that didn’t really know what happened then, saw the movie-half of a yellow sun? Though I’m not sure half of a yellow sun told us what really happened before the pogrom, just like Achebe’s book,”There was once a country” only did justice to the part that grossly affected his kinsmen.
I respect Achebe; he remains my best Nigerian writer ever. In fact I liked him more than I do like a Soyinka, both in their writings and their deeds. But that doesn’t change the fact that his last book before his death could have been biased(Now, I’m not sure if it was his last); he told us the bitter truth about the war we needed to know; albeit it still didn’t change the fact that it was a one-sided account of what ‘really-entirely’ happened before and during the war.
Albeit, I still give it to the literary genius of the man of blessed memory. It was his personal history of Biafra; his own account of the civil war. Just like this article is my own account of what I think this renewed agitation is about; my own opinion. Probably I would have understood things better if my tribe was at the receiving end of the ‘1967-1970’ madness.
Often times, we choose to believe what we want to believe, not necessarily what our mind tells us; that is what they call sentiments, right? Invariably, I had to find a balance between sentiments and belief, in writing this piece. And this was what I could come up with.
Regardless, is this new clamour for the sovereign state of Biafra borne out of genuine concern, or is it just one plan of an overly ambitious, power thirsty man or group of Biafrans who want the innocent to suffer for their cause?
Kanu says Nigeria is a failed nation where nothing works; I hope Biafra holds more promise so he won’t have to eat his words. Moreover, do the majority of the Igbo people support his cause or is it only a cross section of Igbos in the east?
Though, I vehemently oppose President. Buhari’s alienation of a major ethnic group through his political appointments, albeit is that enough to lose rag?
In my minds’ eye, Nigeria has always being a mere geographical expression but will a civil war do us any good? Will Nigerians and Biafrans alike survive yet another civil war? Or is it that we’ve developed selective amnesia to forget so soon the dark era that lasted some 30 months; an era which still lives in the consciousness of the affected ones still alive; a time when over 1 million Nigerians of eastern descent and another 100,000 from the federal forces lost their lives to a war that could have been averted.
With the many groups/leaders clamouring for Biafra and the divisions even within the Biafrans, will they not face the same problems of wanton power-play, inequality and injustice, Nigeria has consistently been saddled with from time immemorial?
For 8 whooping years, Igbo leaders were unable to settle an intra-party disagreement; I wonder what a Biafra will be like with them at the helm of affairs.
I don’t have a problem with Igbos falling out of Nigeria because I have a problem with the so called country called Nigeria; A country that acts like a toddler who fails to learn from every fall. Yes! We should never have being? But that doesn’t change the fact that the Biafrans need to know and understand well enough what they are fighting for.
They need to first take care of the internal politics inherent in their domain before they face the Nigerian factor or else they would be no better than Nigeria if and when that region secedes.
I did say at the start of the first part of this article that I may lose my numerous Igbo friends to secession if it eventually works. Obviously, I don’t have to wait till the secession before I lose my Igbo friends; I have a feeling I’ve lost them already.
I still love you guys though, even more than my own people, you know yeah? And you know better than to let this piece come between us, right?
What God has joined together, let no article put asunder! Did I hear an Amen!
God bless Nigeria!
Lekan Linkin Lofinji
Member of the Federation (MOF)
This New Biafra is a confused cause (Part 1)
I have a dilemma; I’m a Nigerian yet 90% of my friends are Biafrans, even my girlfriend is a Biafran. So, what does that make me? Does it mean that if and when the secession works, I will no longer have friends and may also lose my girlfriend, if we don’t get married before then?
Now, that is about the least of what will happen to Nigeria and Igbos if their plan of 48 years comes to fruition.
All their numerous investments scattered across the country and the relationships they’ve built for years will be lost to a war that might be more devastating than the one instigated by the people’s general, the Late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Innocent lives will be lost all for political dominance and greed. Some Igbos don’t even know any other home other than Lagos; would they really want to sacrifice that on the altar of a cause that may be lacking in direction.
What led to the secession, and subsequently the civil war in 1967 made the war that lasted for 30 months inevitable.
Albeit, what really is the driving force this time? Is it just about the marginalization, the political wars, sheer hatred for the north or is there a more sinister motive? Does the control of the oil in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria (sorry, it should be Biafra according to Kanu’s map) come in question here?
The only time I have seen the proposed Biafra really united with a common cause was during the presidential election that brought in the incumbent President. The way the Igbos cast their votes with one mind for Jonathan was a class act, it was so…now I can’t remember the word.
Though their candidate lost, that united front in the east, spoke volumes. But of course there was only one explanation to that unifying stance; Jonathan’s opponent was a core Northerner and a Hausa-Fulani at that- an enemy of the Igbos! An Igbo man would piss or even Pooh on an Hausa/Fulani man rather than do it in the convenience. There is no love lost between the Northerners and the Igbos. The average Igbo man would take a dig at an unsuspecting Hausa/Fulani man at the slightest chance, and if they dare complain, they could also shove a chill pill down their throats.
During the April 2015 polls, the Igbos voted for solidarity sake, they voted sentiments; they never did look beyond the candidates. Who Jonathan was up against was far from been the problem, the challenge was the tribe of his opponent. The moment they realized Jonathan’s opponent was going to be a Fulani man, nothing else mattered.
If you brought a renowned saint or messiah from the north, as long as he’s Hausa or Fulani, an Igbo man would care less; he would still cast his vote for an assassin even if the assassin is a Yoruba man. That’s how much they hate the North. The animosity between Igbos and Hausas/Fulani stinks. If today the North decides to break away from Nigeria, be sure to see the Igbos in seventh heaven. I’m not sure what the relationship between the Igbos and the Yorubas is though, it’s something both tribes would rather not talk about.
Trust me, I don’t like the typical Fulani man, I even feel we should never have being in the same country; my 3-year stint in the North lays credence to that. However, I admire and love anyone with a good heart regardless of where he/she is from, even if the person is Fulani. In fact, I have a close Fulani friend called Binta, whom I met on a trip from Jos to Bauchi some four years back. Though I once pointed out my biased feelings towards her tribe, but definitely not the way I’m stating it in this piece. So, when she gets to read this, I’m not sure we will still be friends. (lol)
Now, when I say I don’t like Fulanis, I mean the Fulani race which cuts across the whole of West Africa. I am not talking about pure Hausas or other Northerners; those ones may just be the nicest Nigerians to be with when you don’t get on their nerves, but I guess inferiority complex may just be responsible for the ease at which they become loose cannons when you least expect. The problem with the non-Northerners that have never left their comfort zone (I’m not just talking about Igbos here) is that, they think every Northerner is the same; be it Hausa, Fulani, Nupe, Birom, Kanuri e.t.c. Far from it, the attitude of a Fulani man is entirely different from a pure Hausa man or even a Kanuri man, so is their culture too. Hope we know that some Hausas are actually Christians? I’ll bet you didn’t know that.
But I digress.
Back to my take on the new agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra;
Do those youths (or would it be proper to call them children?) who now put their trust in a Kanu whose real ambition is unclear know what led to the secession in 1967? Do they realize how many years it took the Igbos to recover from the monumental loss they suffered from, during and after the war?
How will they even know any of these when history has been left out in the cold? Whoever came up with the idea to shut out history from our school curriculum definitely has some real explaining to do.
Worse still, the youths no longer sit down with elders to learn from them? Of what use will that kind of education even be? The youths say the elders are all corrupt yet they don’t fare any better with the small political positions they are handed. How well did you fare in that SUG position or departmental/faculty hotspot? No be money una dey steal there too?
Again I digress.
Nonetheless, for the sake of this discussion, I’ll tell us what led to the Biafran war of 1967:
The pogrom that was perpetrated by Northerners against Igbos in many parts of Northern Nigeria as illustrated in Chimanada Adichie’s half of a yellow sun was the last straw that broke the Igbo man’s camel’s back. Though the Igbos drew first blood in an ill-planned coup, the Northerners were only too grateful, because what the whole world saw afterwards was blood and guts.
Eastern Nigeria no longer felt secured in a north-dominated republic. They didn’t feel safe anymore in Nigeria asides their own land, so they needed to leave. I still don’t understand why it was so hard for the Yakubu Gowon led Federal Military Government of Nigeria to let go. The Biafrans had every right to secede from a hurriedly put together country. It was just six years after independence; the political situation in the country was in complete disarray. It became obvious that the area the British carved out and named Nigeria was a complete sham. If I lived in that era maybe I would have supported them. But of course, that the secession did not happen without a fight was not just about the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. Our selfish and devious British watchdogs would never have allowed that to happen. If the Igbos were gonna walk away without the oil in the Niger-Delta or the present day South-South region of the country, probably no one would have cried blue murder or given a hoot. Good riddance to bad rubbish; that’s what the Yorubas and Hausas would most likely say. They would still make the same statements to one another if the tables were turned though.
The Igbos are the major stake holders in present day Nigeria in terms of commerce, so I wonder where Nnamdi Kanu is going with this. Go ask the Igbos in other parts of the country asides Eastern Nigeria if they are in support of this ‘New Biafra’ in the pipeline. The Igbos will rather lose political power and recognition, than the wealth and investments that took years to amass. Please give it to them, they are the most industrious Nigerians that ever lived, whether by hook or crook.
Also, do the minorities within the proposed Biafra genuinely like the Igbos self? Can they cope with the sheer arrogance and domineering nature of a typical Igbo man? The only reason why an Igbo man would call someone from the South-South a brother is because of the Black Gold in that region. Even Niger-Delta clamours for her own federation; they want to control their own resources too.
So, how united are these Biafrans, really? Will a Biafra be better than Nigeria in terms of political differences and marginalization? What difference will the division make? What good would it bring for Biafra and Biafrans alike?
Biafra! I still wait for a clearer and more genuine motive for this new agitation because the one you put forward is lopsided and lacks bearing. Kanu should go ask those close to the camp of the late Ikemba 1 of Nnewi, how much weight his plans for a separate republic carried. Odumegwu’s cause was almost a done deal even before the war started; he was a warlord. Abeg, who be Kanu?
Ojukwu fled to Ivory Coast towards the end of the war, leaving his Vice, General Phillip Effiong of blessed memory, to surrender to Gowon. I’m sure Kanu would do worse if he gets an opportunity to lead the Biafran forces. It’s easy to spit fire and brimstone when you are yet to experience war. They say when the going gets tough, the tough gets going, but, they never told us where the tough goes. Ojukwu fled to Abidjan when the going got tough, I don’t know where Kanu would go when this new cause of his takes a deadly twist; that depends on how tough he is though.
I may never have supported this pretentious convergence of distinct ethnic groups called Nigeria, albeit this is not the way to go.
Let’s do this again tomorrow…
God bless Nigeria!
Lekan Linkin Lofinji
Member of the Federation(MOF)
The call that stemmed the tide
From time immemorial, the build up to the General Elections in Africa’s most populous Nation incites a lot of shenanigans-a thought provoking jamboree that keeps everyone on his or her toes and that includes fetuses that are allotted that period of time for their grand entry into Mother Earth. During the electioneering process in my country, every aspect of human activity is impacted one way or the other and even our personal lives may suffer harm. Relationships are severed due to disparate political beliefs; families are torn apart, fathers disown sons, sons deny their fathers, landlords evict tenants, lecturers fail students for supporting opposition parties, twitter goes out of kilter with hate tweets as friends become sworn enemies while a Yoruba youth suddenly discovers that his long standing Igbo hommie is a nincompoop for supporting Goodluck
During the run-off to the elections that brought President Jonathan into power, one of my niccurs had a spat with his pretty fulani girlfriend for been an ardent supporter of President Elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and that was how they sacrificed their seven years relationship on the altar of politics for men that know them not. These off-the-records events are some of the anomalies that have characterized elections in Nigeria since inception and 2015 has been no different
After the elections were pushed forward by six weeks, it set the stage for what I will want to term a campaign of ‘money flow and intense bickering’. The polity went agog with different sanity disrupting hate campaigns like as never been seen or heard before. It was like the two strongest political gladiators in Nigeria had been thrown into an arena of blood and sand in the most bizarre circumstances while the gate keeper went ‘AWOL’ with the arena’s key. A dark cloud fell on the horizon that had hovered on our sovereignty since the end of the civil war where millions died in 1970. The predictions of an imminent doom stood tall and proud, even the citizens knew there was no going back this time cause it seemed Lucifer had begun to intensify his renewed interest in Nigeria.
All of the happenings around the heated build up to the Presidential election transited the fragile minds of many Nigerians as her citizens watched on with bemused interest even Boko haram had to go on recess. The spirit of Naija travelled through several nebulas while her being was meshed in a colony of fear as her brain projected dire consequences in the event that Lucifer went too far with his sport. A lot of us fled the country for safe havens.
Would you blame them? The hand writings were inscribed on every wall in the six Geo-political zones of the country, even if you pretended not to see it had a way of reflecting on your path. They were too conspicuous to feign ignorance; letting off your guard will be at your peril!
The seemingly unending campaigns threatened the noble cause that was borne out of the labour of our heroes past. The tension in the air was one that had never been witnessed before in the course of a general election. It somewhat caused a lot of ripples and uncertainties in the sovereignty, the die was cast for what will turn out to be the most keenly contested elections in our history.
The presidential elections came but some fragments of it refused to go, all thanks to one of the best election umpires the nation has ever had; Professor Attahiru Jega whose last name has become the latest addition to the Merriam Webster’s Deluxe Dictionary, “Did I hear an Amen!” The Prof and his other cohorts ensured that the masses were subjected to the most grueling and thought-provoking wait-one that had never been seen before as the season finale of our presidential elections sashayed on a path whose end was not in sight. For the first time in my youthful life, I saw election results travel via road, air, rail and sea en route the International conference centre in Abuja. It was even rumoured that the results from Sokoto was brought in on helicopters with at least seven escorts while the collation officer of Edo state flew into Abuja with election results from Benin on broom sticks. For three days non-stop, Prof. Jega who neither attended a film school nor had prior experience in filming, single handedly wrote, directed and produced what was initially a feature film but turned out to be a TV series, not even the final day drama by that area boy from Niger-delta could stop the premiere of “the chronicles of an election”. And when all Nigerians thought the disruption of the announcement of the results of the Presidential elections by the PDP crusader was a sign of trouble, then came the unexpected.
Who would have thought that the most criticized President in the world would end up a victor of some sort in the circle of those who criticized him most? The icon from a previously relatively unknown Otuoke community stemmed the tide by pulling off an extraordinary feat, one that rarely occurs in this part of the world where power is synonymous to making heaven. Any doom that had loomed before, during and moments after the Almighty elections was quelled by the miracle of the call that brought sanity to a process that could have been besieged by lunatics spearheaded by the now infamous Elder Peter Godsday Orubebe.
Since that historic call was made a little past 5P.M on tuesday the 31st day of March 2015, when it was obvious the PDP had lost the elections, the heroics of the nation’s number one citizen has unabatedly crept into every discussion surrounding the Presidential elections with temerity. Its effect on our co-existence has been a silent player in such discussions. It took only one phone call and a divine speech to cleanse and renew the minds of millions of Nigerians even those that fled the country in fear trooped back in awe as a new reality dawned. It was hard to believe that the powers that had put the country on red alert were the same powers that touched off the green light with an olive branch. In fact, my sister chose to visit the country with her kids some hours after the winner was declared after spending 8 years in the United Kingdom; a proof that the presidential election which is the father of all elections was as tranquil as the word itself contrary to the expectations of all and sundry.
History and the experts had suggested that the political events of the first quarter of 2015 will shake the nation to its foundation, albeit all of that has gone down the drain just like the US predictions that an imminent break- up loomed; deducing that the country called ‘NIGERIA’ would cease to exist, did not see the light of day. Once again the country has proven that she is immune to a break up and allergic to the eruption of a full scale war across the region. Again, Nigeria has disappointed all her enemies and yet again her citizens have assayed that they are the happiest people on earth; the intrigues, controversies, filming, documentaries, funny memes, drama, glitz and glam that trailed the elections are enough testament. These have made it the most interesting elections ever (correct me if I’m wrong, I’m poor with history)
So, if you’ve been handling the issue of a united Nigeria with kid gloves since the runoff to the elections began; In case you are still asleep, I will like to announce to you that the veil has been lifted.
Rise and shine, our out-going President has forged the path for a new Nigeria. A wind of change is holding sway along our shores. We’ve watched our country thrown into turmoil severally yet remained united, blood has flowed in our waters and thousands of bodies buried in the north-east earth, still the nation is not at war.
Though GEJ lost the 2015 presidential elections he will remain a winner for years to come. Though his name was mentioned for all the wrong reasons, this singular act of his has right his numerous wrongs that were the hallmark of his tenure. By saving the best for the last, he’s indeed a true hero of democracy.
We’ve come a long way as a federation, we’ve seen it all and on May 29, 2015, In šāʾ Allāh, We will conquer!
God bless Nigeria!
Lekan Linkin Olofinji
Member of the Federation (MOF)
3L MEDIA 