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I was one of those people that campaigned vigorously for President Buhari in the build up to the 2015 elections. I had one main reason; I was tired of the ineptitude and corruption that held sway with blatant disregard in the Jonathan administration. I like many Nigerians at the time wanted Buhari to tackle corruption.
I had no delusions of
grandeur that Buhari was going to do wonders for our economy or transform
Nigeria into a land flowing with milk and honey. The man in my mind had just
the one mandate; fight corruption. And then possibly pave way for a younger
more charismatic candidate beaming at the seams with progressive ideas; and one
who would finally be able to settle down to the business of building a Nigeria
of our dreams without the encumbrance and bottle necks of deep seated venality.
The argument about
Buhari’s performance thus far has left Nigerians divided, (not that we were
running out of reasons to be) but irrespective of what side of the divide one belongs to, another opportunity is once again before us to take a stand. As 2019
approaches, posterity beckons on us as Nigerians challenging us to conceive a
better future.
Now, let’s round up
the usual suspects in terms of excuses why so many of us do not get involved:
The results will be
rigged, ‘elections are never free and fair’, ‘my vote won’t count’, ‘why
bother, things will never change’ and particularly for 2019; ‘there’s no one
strong enough to challenge the incumbent’. Any of these sound familiar?
Let’s look at some
fundamental truths: Except you’re planning to relocate yourself and your entire
family to Canada sometime soon, you’re going to live in Nigeria with the
reality of whatever the outcome of the 2019 election is; you might as well have
a say in that outcome.
Abdicating the high
ground because Nigerian politicians are all scum and basically not worth your
time and effort to queue in the sun to affix your thumbprint on some piece of
paper, actually helps the incumbent to win elections more easily. Elections are
won by convincing those who would vote for your opponent not to vote at all.
So, absolving yourself
of complicity in the Nigerian situation by not voting is actually delusional,
because one way or the other you’re helping someone; so what moral
justification do you then have to complain about anything later on?
Consider the 2016 US
elections between Trump and Clinton, where 58% of the electorate actually
voted, leaving out an estimated 90 million who didn’t vote. Imagine the
difference they could have made if they actually picked a side. The younger
voters many of whom did not vote are now making the most noise. Interestingly,
Sanders had a huge young voter following, many of whom did not transfer their
support to Hilary, because they wanted to teach her a lesson for ‘stealing’ the
Democratic Party nomination; well, they sure got her good; sadly they may also
have messed things up for a long time to come.
Inaction has
consequences, a fact that some of us have had to learn the hard way. It’s no
different in an election cycle. We cannot all throw our hands up in the air
singing ‘Que Sera Sera’. No government is perfect, none ever will be;
governance is a continuum. Take a stand, if for nothing else, so you can tell
your kids or grandkids that you made a difference or at the very least, you
tried.
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