Many of us may already have heard the directive from a very senior member of the PDP "team" (for lack of a better word), to press our hand on “h-umbllerra”. “Presidency h-umbllerra” “C-nator h-umbllerra” “House of Assembly h-umbllerra” “From the top to the lower one h-umbllerra, h-umbllerra throughout”
But on a serious note, "where will Nigerians press their hand" come April 9th? I must be honest with myself and with everyone else, the quality of our candidates is exceptionally poor, and the decision on "where to press your hand" is very difficult.
The 2011 elections are my first in Nigeria, and as such I was extremely excited about the prospects of the elections. To me it represented a chance for us to wipe the slate clean and select who we as a Nation believed could lead the country to its glory days, to the things we all dream about for Nigeria, but are yet to see realised. It gave me HOPE, that after all the rubbish we have seen in the 2 and a half years that I have lived here will come to a head in 2011 when we vote in the president that we want. However I neglected to acknowledge the fact that we can only vote in a good president, if a good president presents himself for election.
I make bold to say that though the candidates we have, offer a lot more than the candidates we have had in the past, they are still sub standard. I will give honour where honour is due, but where it is being bestowed unduly I believe we should also be cautioned.
I am not writing to chastise, and moan about our candidates, but rather to encourage the good Nigerians to step up. I personally know a number of people that have great ideas, have in their own spheres been good governors, people that are economically sound, people that have deep industry knowledge in several areas, people that understand policies, policy developments, people of great integrity, men of valour, and women of virtue. But they don’t believe they can help, so they continue doing what they are doing, and election after election the wrong people step out, the wrong people are elected (or selected), and the country continues to rot. The rot has to stop. We are on our last legs as a Nation, and one more term with wrong people governing us has the potential to knock us off our feet. We can no longer ‘dull’ and say “next election I will do my bit”. By next election our excess crude account may be in the red, by next election our universities may be totally destroyed, by next election our healthcare may be nonexistent, by next election our nation may have fallen (deeper / further).
Yes I am saying that our candidates are not exactly Obama’s and Cameron’s, but there are candidates that are a head and shoulders above their peers. Let’s vote for these people, and let us protect our vote. I am not suggesting any violence, but let us go to all lengths to ensure the person that Nigerians elected as president is the person that will hold that position. They may not be the best but they are a start. Once we have made that start let’s work on ourselves, let’s prepare ourselves for 2015. Those of us that have something to give back to our country need to build on those skills, hone them, in the next 4 years there is enough time to do an MPA, an MBA, or whatever you think will be necessary to better your skills to hold political office. Be it even just local government. Let’s get the wrong people out and the right people in.
I’ll end with this quote from Ishola Williams (I believe): “A leader does not come from heaven, he/ she comes from a group of people, If the people are good followers, they will choose the right leaders”
Xoxo.
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