northNigeria has endured, fought and survived the forecast of disaster for a long time, as evidenced in the aftermath of the merger of the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914, violent electoral, ethnic and religious conflicts and the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970. He The 2015 presidential election seemed like the end of the road for Nigeria as a country. As usual, we survived as a nation, but how we survived for many is cryptic and for the political elite in Nigeria, it was their political acumen and resourcefulness. Far from the truth, we resisted the stipulated ruin of Nigeria in 2015, not as crazy as the political elite think, but through hard work, patriotism and resistance.
However, it is insulting that after the 2015 and 2019 general elections, the desired positive change that the government requested of the Nigerian people was not enforced. Rather, the political elite continues to divide the nation’s largesse among friends, ethnic groups, and family. The most pathetic thing is that after eight years of breaking promises, these same people are telling us the same old story and acting the same way, forgetting so quickly that we almost ceased to exist as a nation in 2015, or learning some lesson from the end. of the SARS protests.
Mine is therefore a patriotic reminder to the political elite that the factors that nearly divided Nigeria in 2015 may assume more power after the result of the 2023 general election is declared, especially when it is not seen that justice is served or competition is ridiculed over mediocrity. Also, I would recommend what Nigeria needs to weather the anticipated dangers of its dancing on the brink in two personas: one from Nelson Mandela and one from Martin Luther King Jr.
Why do Nigerians need a Nelson Mandela? You would ask, is Nigeria’s problem so simple that a Nelson Mandela could solve it? Yes, because the existing and relevant literature on Nigerian politics says that leadership is the main problem of the nation. The situation in Nigeria today needs a personified Nelson Mandela who sees political power as a tool to give freedom to the oppressed and the oppressor. Nigeria now does not need a power monger or a chauvinist, but a man who will share the dividends of democracy among the country’s large and small tribes as a united nation.
In justification of the above position, it is common knowledge that one of the main arguments associated with contending party candidates is their ethnicity, with religion coming second. This means that Nigeria needs a leader who speaks a human language instead of a tribal language. A leader who refers to the past not to victimize or shame a group of people, but to draw lessons from history so as not to make the mistakes of the past, but rather to avoid future occurrences.
The aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War is fueling ethnic intolerance in the country, so a leader like Nelson Mandela is needed to put to rest the pent-up resentment and historical trauma in Nigeria over the damage of the civil war. through a truth and reconciliation commission.
The attitudes that previous Nigerian presidents, both civilian and military, have displayed towards the civil war are by no means restorative, but rather the self-exhortation, victor-victim bias that has sustained the inherited division in unity of the early 1990s. . Justice cannot be done without fairness, and fairness is the birth of truth. Nigeria, as it tries to navigate the dangers of its dance on the brink on February 25, 2023, needs a president who likes the truth, tells the truth and promotes the truth, not a man with the Nigerian style of leadership. outdated. This is because the chaos Nigeria finds itself in as a country is incubated with lies and deceit, evident in its formation as a federation.
Following the search and finding of a Nelson Mandela in Nigeria, until the polls in 2023, a Martin Luther King Jr is needed to serve as watchdog for Nigerian Nelson Mandela. However, it is not sacrosanct that Martin Luther should come after the Nigerian Mandela, because the Nigerian Luther should be the forerunner of the Nigerian Mandela, especially during this season of political campaigns and elections. Nigeria, in its history as a nation, has sadly been vilified by anti-nationalist and anti-patriotic freedom fighters, who focus on money in thought and action.
Nigeria, during and after the 2023 general election, needs freedom fighters and agitators who are humane and nationalist and not fanatics. Freedom fighters and rioters who will tackle universal national issues in Nigeria through a humane and communal prism and not through a fanatical or ethnic lens.
As many academics and some of the 2023 presidential hopefuls have observed, Nigeria’s current problem is more national than ethnic. Although marginalization might have been the lot of a particular region in the past, but no longer today, as evident in the G5 PDP rallies.
Therefore, for Nigeria to survive and survive the catastrophe that is supposed to be upon her in her dance on the brink, she needs freedom fighters and agitators who are in the mind of Luther King, who see both the victims and the perpetrators. perpetrators of evil as victims. Nigeria needs this man; he or she could come from any region and religion. We need freedom fighters who agitate for the freedom of human beings, who attack evil and not the criminal, who say that a man is bad not because he is from one or another geopolitical area but because that person is bad and represented a threat for the livelihood and well-being of the people of Nigeria. On the other hand, we need freedom fighters who praise good works and good men not because of their religious affiliation but because they did good for the community of human beings.
Rev. Uzu is a student at Boston University, United States of America
