Nigeria, Post-Election: Memos To Their Excellencies

Tobi Adetunji Featured 10/04/2023

It is no gainsay that the just concluded general elections which polled Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the declared winner and the 16th President of Nigeria, is unarguably the most controversial elections in recent times.

A theatrical discomfiture putting Nigeria afore atlas, topping charts. Nigeria here…Nigeria there…Nigeria everywhere.

Deafening cacophony and zealotries by opposition parties cut through hard rocks, and the fountain of death which makes still waters of life play, shrivelling crust. A furtherance to the sublime ethnicism, precipitating religious animosity, owing to how some perceived the loss as one not fair and square. To vote: perchance votes should be weighed, not counted.

The wheels that squeak the loudest, might get the grease. Nigeria is now seen from the vantage point of self interest, as ethnics are becoming divided along the fault lines of kin selective altruism, shifting Nigeria towards the Bermuda precipice. Ethnic colouration now stems from political discourse, only to bring living literati into the mix, even resurrecting the late sage, Chinua Achebe, in unhealthy comparison. Puerile bigotry.

Times are beginning to feel different and the once adored monolithic oneness is being lost to perennial politicking. One vice worn out makes us wiser than fifty tutors. Dissidents should read books detailing the genocide in Rwanda and the political upheaval in Sudan, forcing disintegration and dismemberment. Better imagined than experienced. Assassination has never changed the history of the world.

The two major contenders (both the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party) crying foul over the electoral process, while many literati and political heavyweight write insouciant global leaders in the western climes, with the painful eagerness of an unfed hope, in a bid to seek redress and marshall the conscience of our dear nation to mould its laws. Propaganda festers as fray, as herd mentality commune with squalor and hopelessness.

Power tussle should not be fuelled by wanton extremism, it only thwarts sincere efforts, making delicacies of refinement, tastes bile. OBIdients now litter the whole media space with litanies of alliterative abuse and incendiaries, termed “Climate of fear.” Being brutish and nasty, hurling cascades of multisyllabic ballistic vitriols, is doing twice the harm. The first rule of education in all land is never to say anything offensive to anyone- Ode to the Gulaab gangs of Nigeria.

Also, Newspapers now continually enjoy a field day with the robust controversy effortlessly, as individuals churn out reactions of sensational headlines, making mediahouses bestsellers with multiple soldouts. The emolument from cyber bullying by OBIdients is the fascinating advertorial. Young chap takes on the old, sparing no soul; How not to grieve about elections outcome. Howbeit, for every freedom, there is a huge sense of responsibility. The uncensored media is not circumspect enough.

Vituperations by fanatical OBIdients, who are strongly convinced that they are serving a righteous cause and that all means are justified, is another blockbuster and thriller. Today, grabbed age and youth cannot live together, the conquest is now between a sublimal part of the youth age and a large section of old veterans. Words are heavy. Controversies, if not well managed, will open can of worms. Identity politics in the line of divide now marginalize even our closest cousin.

Several open letters and bourgeois media frenzy of polemical political inclinations met with zilch, little to nothing has changed. Millions who are predisposed to seeing voting as a sacrament of democracy, should have known from historical leanings that the Sun will always set out in the East till it returns Westward- “SWEARING-IN” is the next chronicle.

The catcalled ploy of interim government is only a mere full blown farce intended to drive sane polity into warring minds and a detraction from possible imbroglio. Nothing seems foul to those that win, hitherto, oppositions should learn to sheathe their swords of seething resentments. Better be unborn than untaught. No grief is so acute, but time ameliorates it.

In every part of the world, the good desire of men for peace and decency is undermined by the dynamics of jingoism, it only needs a spark set off anywhere by the egomaniac, to end it all up in one final fatal explosion. Leadership is not a tea party. Political effigies and leaders should throw caution to the winds of their acrid followers. Sometimes, quiet is disquieting, and the cruellest lies are told in silence.

Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth. Give the court the space to stretch her full arm of the law, and every sonorous cymbal of war will be fine tuned. After all, it is the theater of justice and the last refuge of competence, proven time and again. Eschew the hubris to rule at all cost, and wait on the law court in their esoteric delivery. The judicial system is Nigerian, not an alien bought from the extra world.

Against all odds and whatever asphyxiating atmosphere from stealthy opposition, the President-elect just has to be great. He needs to work for an ideal to become irresistible, and in the finality, Nigeria shall win. If the roads are good and clear, no one will discriminate against who to ply the road. This is the same happenstance in good governance in such intricate situation.

Everything in nature is a cause from which there flows some effects. In victory, the hero seeks the glory, not the prey. O God that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! That we should, with joy, pleasance, revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! Supporters with stoic logic should know that sentiments are damned lies, statistics is everything.

Let love win, and always remember that you will never have a quiet world till patriotism is knocked out of human race. It is not shameful to have played games, but it is shameful not to have nothing left of playing them. Oppositions should allow Nigeria live beyond 2023, you do not abuse your way to power. 2027 is the next point of call.

Be greatly good, and hate speech will turn to love letters, dissenters into praise singers. The fair die is cast. Nigeria’s unity is non negotiable. Let it be on record that I pleaded. God’s will be done (Amen).