IF OUR VOTES DON'T COUNT,OUR STONE WILL !

HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES Below is an article I wrote about 5 years ago and I am ever proud of its composition. IF OUR VOTES DON'T COUNT, OUR STONES WILL! BY:: GBENGA OLUMEKUN The political theatre has started and the actors, jesters and all the absurdities are set. We have seen all sorts of comedies, tragedies and tragic- comedies in the recent past and we are not amused that the same scripts are being re-jigged ready to be unleashed on the rest of us. They have begun to mobilise the hidden millions so as to buy our votes. I am sad because they may end up buying our votes but I have vowed that they will not buy my own conscience and therefore I must talk just as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti said, “…I go talk, I go shout!” It will amaze the external observer that 150 million Nigerians can not find a level headed and dedicated leader to marshal our resources so as to uplift the national psyche for greater attainment. Instead, we have adopted a “siddon look” attitude which has not been productive. Leaders are sometimes born, some of them are made and some are self-made but if they must live to the true meaning of the word, they are people who have been given certain talents which when properly harnessed will ginger national development. By a stroke of national catastrophe we have never had leaders; we have had rulers and several pretenders who made us believe they had the solutions to our problems only for us to discover that they themselves are the problems we have been running away from. I have been secretly assessing those who are aspiring to occupy Aso Rock. From the pretenders to the outrightly ridiculous but I have been unable to find a suitable place for the first military president of Nigeria, the honourable Ibrahim Babangida, GCFR, alias Maradona or more appropriately IBB. I find it difficult to understand what motivates him and what makes him believe he has the moral right to foist himself on hapless Nigerians yet again. I wouldn’t have been bothered if we really have true democracy. If all Nigerians rightly vote for him, so be it but we know that in this country our votes don’t count but just as Pastor Tunde Bakare recently said, “Our stones will surely count”. Here am I to cast mine, even if it becomes the Biblical first stone. May the good Lord raise up another figure that will prevent IBB from even daring to contest. Several people may be angry at my stance but I am not deterred as these people will most likely be in the category of the myriads of coordinators that have been appointed and are eagerly awaiting their own portion of the largess that has been assembled for the prosecution of the “great cause”. The question that must be asked is “what has IBB got to offer that we have not seen?” I was discussing with a friend a few days ago and he was of the opinion that IBB will be a better president since he will be able to reverse the damage that he had foisted upon us all. He believed IBB knows all the tricks and has the wisdom to take us back to the path of true nationalism and development which he himself diverted us from during his momentous foray into governance. I was immediately propelled to voice my concern that this was nothing but inverted logic! We might as well go back and ask Tafa Balogun to come and reorganise the Nigeria Police Force for us and the goaled Nwude to chairman the EFCC. In fact it might be better to ask our most successful armed robbers, Anini and Oyenusi to resurrect so as to help us deal with the armed robbery epidemic in Nigeria. And when it comes to the looting of public funds, who is better than the dead Abacha in helping us to recover stolen funds? How I wish I were a Wole Soyinka who can manufacture a befitting word to describe this malady but then why don’t I call it CODSWALLOP all the same? If the perpetrators of national crimes have had their backs tied to stakes lined by sand filled drums and sent to eternal damnation as Jerry Rawlings did in Ghana, they wouldn’t have had the guts to come back into national relevance and insult our collective intelligence as a nation. It is only in a nation like Nigeria where we have endless recycling of leaders. After a man must have served as a minister several times over, he puts his wife, then his son and daughter and we eventually end up having his dog as a minister, as if we are short of people with ideas and vision. Even NAFDAC recognises the need for an expiry date for every product. As an environmental scientist I do understand that even in recycling there is a limit to which the same materials can be reused. The only use will be to consign them to landfill sites away from where they will occupy space meant for useful materials. Let’s dump IBB and his ilk in the political landfill site and go for new blood; otherwise the next four years will be worse than we have ever seen. Already he has demonstrated he is bereft of ideas. A few days ago he declared in his characteristic arrogance that the Nigerian youth are “....not capable of leading this country and so we feel we should help them. May be they are not given the proper education that is why. I have spent 17 years since I left office. Haba! The younger generation is supposed to be in charge by now. But a country like Nigeria cannot be ruled by people without experience.” If I may ask, whose fault is it? Who introduced “egunje”, settlement, cultism etc into our national vocabulary? The real issue is that anyone hoping to better our lives must understand our problems and must be able to proffer solutions to them. Such irresponsible talk as we have heard is not the sort that is expected from an aspiring leader. Everyone knows the reason why the youth have been left out. They do not have the required stolen millions to buy public votes neither will they be able to contest and win elections unless they belong to certain families. Immodesty aside, I for one believe I would have made a good leader but where do I get the requisite funds to buy public opinion or to employ touts to snatch ballot boxes? The political landscape is filled with has-beens, looters and expired politicians who will not step aside properly in order to allow the new generation of leaders to emerge; rather, if they are not occupying space themselves, they play the role of God and seek to ordain whoever must occupy any position of relevance. If our votes count, leaders will emerge. True democracy may not be perfect but if we ever make the mistake of voting in the wrong crowd we will also be in position to shove them the aside with our votes. This is why I wish Jonathan Goodluck all the good luck that he needs to write his name in gold and really make our votes count by ensuring that the right calibre of people are put as election umpires so that our votes will count. If he fails, one day our stones will surely count! This article was written in 2010 and the reader is invited to judge whether we have moved on as a nation.