Gentlemen,
This was the concluding paragraph of an SLBS essay competition which Sylvester Ekundayo Rowe won (I must have been in the third form in Secondary school and had my hopes, but here are his concluding words (from memory) :
"The tragedy is that whereas a child's dream to become a man is realised, the man's dream, to escape from the wonderful realities of manhood into the exciting innocence of childhood, remains a nightmare!"
When I look back, what is most painful is the nostalgia, how innocent and confident we were about the future, and the kinds of hope that we had at Independence. I regret that I didn't join the military, like JJ Rawlings.
Today, our eyes are wide open and no one has any illusions, especially not the rascals who are doing their best to deceive us and would like everybody to vote for them so that they can control the cash flow, some say, into their own pockets and the pockets of their clients. But if we have any interest in the future of the 180 million plus people of Nigeria – then we have to climb out of the deep dark hole of despair and do something.
At every election time we have always said that it's our democratic right and our duty to choose from the options that are available to us and it's mostly the duty of choosing the lesser of two evils. Right now at this Nigerian Presidential Elections 2015 there's the d-evil that we know and the people must decide whether they want another few more years of the same or whether it's time for a change for the better. Let's wait and see who will represent the APC and who the running mates of both the PDP and the APC will be.
In my opinion, there is a qualitative difference between the front runners, between Goodluck Jonathan whose lackeys say that he is the best leader that Nigeria has ever been blessed with, and my man Muhammadu Buhari, a man who Jonathan can certainly not accuse of corruption. The other leading contenders in the APC are also impressiv and should the APC win - and I hope that they do, then the pressure on them to perform will be enormous – and so might be the resilience of the PDP who might try to sabotage the APC's best efforts at good governance.
I'm still unable to figure out what the incumbent government's arms scandal in connection with the arms purchases in South Africa is all about. President Jonathan has not been clear about this.
Goodluck Jonathan says, "Come follow me, I`m your leader!" as if he's the Pied Piper who is going to drown all the rats. In fact I don't for a moment believe that Goodluck Jonathan believes that he is the best leader that Nigeria has ever been blessed with. What I do believe is that some of the sycophants that surround him are trying to sell him that notion and I'm even more convinced that Goodluck Jonathan would be willing to defend his record in a debate with any for the APC's leading contenders if he believed that, but as you can see, he lacks that kind of confidence. and is afraid to debate and to surprise us all , even if he is slipped the questions in advance.
We are on the brink of the abyss.
I should say that a vote for the APC is a vote for peace, because ( and I'm not superstitious) should it turn out that this coming election is rigged, such will be the outrage that it will be impossible to stop the total and complete disintegration of Nigeria until the wave of violence has run its course.
On Saturday, 29 November 2014 12:51:05 UTC+1, Ikhide wrote:
"Given the deep current of political disaffection I detected in Nigeria, I had expected to see new, outside-the-box thinking about the way forward. Instead, I was confronted with a paralyzing sense of helplessness. I found that Nigerians, including those one expected to know better, were trapped in a conceptual political mindset in which only two parties—and, by extension, two paths to the future—exist in the Nigerian universe. Those two parties—and paths—are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).In conversation after frustrating conversation, one had a hard time nudging Nigerians to release themselves from their binary entrapment in order to see a third way. And yet, to hear them speak was to realize that there was no doubt in their minds that the two parties whose fortunes and prospects alone excite them represent dead-ends. As I argued last week, the PDP and APC are kindred spirits, two parties beset by ideological aridity, and most of their most prominent figures fueled by the same contemptible idea that politics is, above all, a means for accumulating riches. Why else do they hire thugs, kill or maim their opponents, betray all lofty principles, submit themselves to the most diabolical rites? It is certainly not to serve Nigerians.If the two parties jostling to define Nigeria's future are essentially ideologically similar and deeply pathological—and I insist they are—then why don't we unshackle ourselves from their stultifying reins? That was the question and challenge I put to many a friend or fan I met last week in Nigeria."Brilliant analysis, lame option. *shrugs* We are stuck. Democracy is not an option but I don't really know what to do or say about the Nigerian situation anymore. As folks keep reminding me, I no longer live there. I leave the ilo for those who own the problem, those "on the ground." I hereby still my voice box. No more talk about Nigeria, biko. Abeg I will have nothing to do with Nigerian politics any more. I am done with all that, such a time waster.- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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