The 2023 general election is the most talked about and galvanized election in the history of Nigeria. People are very conscious of their environment and what is happening, and the reasons are clear. Nigeria bleeds from a very terrible bad leadership, and citizens are in acute pain and horrifying agony – hungry, brutalized and traumatized. Except those living pretentiously, otherwise Nigerian citizens at different levels are battling against evil dominion in their struggle for survival from a country so corruptly and incompetently led by APC under Buhari. So, the much-awaited political uprising in Nigeria is about to start. 

Every policy made by the politicians controls our lives and shapes the future, hence we can no longer afford to leave politics solely into the hands of these people that have blatantly abused every privilege and grossly condoned and supervised corruption that made Nigeria the 154 least corrupt nation out of 180 countries in the world, second in West Africa, and earned her the award as the capital city of poverty, and the second most terrorized in the world only after Iraq. Never again will we allow our destiny to be in the hands of those political buccaneers we have seen without principle shamelessly go back to their vomits and behave like “playboys” – without control and integrity. They have deceptively turned our joy to sorrow. Enough is enough. Every registered voter must go and collect his/her PVC. Registering for the PVC is one thing, collecting the card is an alliance that compliments the registration, and voting is actually the final process that adds value to the other two processes. None of these three processes can be meaningful without the other. According to INEC, millions of voters card are still in their offices nation wide uncollected. I appeal to all political parties to spread this message of card collection during their campaigns at the campaign grounds, and ask their entire supporters group to energize the people and make sure that their group members collect their PVCs before they are used to rig the election.

As the campaign for political offices officially starts, let me advise the good citizens of Nigerian to be reasonable in their choices and actions and ponder on where we are and going to. They should avoid hate speech and violence as they canvass for votes for their preferred candidates. Politicians on their parts should be decent and civil in their campaigns. They should eschew lies and propaganda, show dignity and advise their supporters to embrace peace. Their campaign should be issue based.

Truth should be told at all times, Nigeria is indeed at the verge of anarchy and disintegration. We cannot continue to pretend otherwise. We all have got responsibilities because Nigeria belongs to all of us. This election is very important to the life of Nigeria, and if we get it wrong, we all will pay dearly for it. Therefore, permit me to be unequivocal in stating facts without any consideration to political correctness. We cannot afford to make the same mistake we made in 2015 by wrongly choosing tragedy and incredibly consolidated the same disaster in 2019 against all odds. But today, the signs are everywhere that Nigeria is even in a more precarious situation and on a life support now than she has ever been. And if we are not critical, futuristic and wise, and peradventure fail to elect a president that events have proven not to be corrupt and greedy, someone with good character, mentally and physically able and with the required capacity to pilot the affairs of Nigeria, the consequences this time will be disastrously too fatal.

Sincerely, the tendency that Nigeria may not be lucky again to survive such a silly or avoidable mistake makes any trial by error in our choice of a president an ugly gamble too high a risk to take in a heterogeneous and pluralistic tensed society like ours. To a sane person with a discerning heart, it would be a hazardous error that could be heavily costly and perhaps irreversible when made. Thus be warned Nigerians. Jettison not only your political apathy and enthusiastically participate actively in the 2023 general elections by collecting your PVCs, but also vote wisely by making sure that whosoever that will become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023 must be qualified, competent, visionary and tolerant with unquestionable character and has the required capacity to lead. No reasonable person should vote any candidate based on sentiments of tribe and religion or monetary inducement. Additionally and very importantly too, the commander in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari is legally obliged in making sure that INEC officials are well protected and all necessary logistics and materials they need to execute the uphill task are timely provided too, and conducive atmosphere equally guaranteed. This becomes crucial in view of the accusation that some APC members in an evil union with a few INEC officials manipulated the PVC registration machines in order to rig the election. The allegation is a weighty one that should not be treated with kid gloves. It is not enough for INEC to announce to Nigerians that the evil done has been reversed, but justice will only be seen to have been done when the perpetrators of the evil are made publicly known, sacked from their duty posts and prosecuted before the election. INEC as an electoral umpire must on its part be impartial and respect the rule of law in distributing electoral materials, counting results and declaring winners etc. Anything contrarily will spell doom and more evil for Nigeria. And the collateral damage to us as an entity and its brutal consequences in our individual lives are something no one can accurately predict, but one thing is certain, it will be acidic. Patriotism should be the watchdog. Therefore, 2023 is a litmus test and our collective choice must be a wise one that will not later be full of regrets, tears, pains and sorrow.

Most of the contemporary problems and suffering in our society are decades of build-up from the lukewarm attitude and ignorance of the majority not to participate in politics, vote massively and qualitatively too during elections on flimsy excuses. We want a paradigm shift because the archaic ways of electing our leaders because of ethnicity, religion and the influence of money, bags of rice, tomatoes, onions or packaged garri in sacks with sugar etc. are no longer acceptable. Anyone who must govern us henceforth must have conscience and be competent. He should not be surrounded with allegations of corruption and embezzlements. His capacity, sound health to lead and source of wealth should not be in doubt or shrouded in secrecy.

Who the cap fits, let him where it. Our destiny is in our hands and the choices are starring before us today. We must elect one with the capacity to restore hope in the hopelessness state of the economy, corruption and insecurity in Nigeria or we continue our old ways that will not only keep Nigeria to her status of a crippled giant but also add to it a blind giant of Africa. I would have said let your conscience guide you in your choice, but it would be wrong knowing that your conscience failed at all times when it mattered most. It never guided you well in 2015 and never got prickled in 2019 for the calamity of 2015, therefore, I recommend Peter Obi for you. We all will be beneficiaries of a competent, qualitative and good governance of fairness and justice under his presidency.

Are you ready for the revolution? Please go and collect your PVC. It is your licenced AK47, configured for your use only. When the time of shooting (voting) comes, if you are critical in your viewing, you will aim accurately, and when your aim is accurate, you will shoot wisely, and he/she who shoots wisely misses no target. Peter Obi has rekindled hope of equity, unity, fairness, freedom and liberation for oppressed Nigerians. Vote for Peter Obi.

Stand up, sit down, bend right, bend left or even squat, the buttock will always remain at the back. Truth has no duplicate. Peter Obi is the wisest choice in 2023.

♦ Uzoma Ahamefule, a refined African traditionalist and a patriotic citizen writes from Vienna, Austria. WhatsApp: +436607369050; Email Contact Uzoma >>>>