Time for a revolutionary vote

By Tony Osakpamwan Agbons

It is not what you are thinking; but it can also be what you are thinking. Yes! Please be free to think whatever you want to think after all we are in a free world. There is a popular axiom, “drastic situations require drastic measures”.  This axiom sums up precisely what Nigeria needs at this moment in history.  Our Nation’s current level of hardship and hopelessness has reached an alarming proportion. The apathy of the Nigerian people to their freedom and emancipation from the jaws of a few political elite is at an all-time high. No one seems to bother anymore about our collective aspiration. It is now a case of survival of the ‘fittest and elimination of the unfit’. Our faculties have become environmentally manipulated to grab what one can and pursue daily survival either by hook or crook. Another election season – 2023 is on the horizon and the bags of trickery are being delivered out of the warehouses of our political vultures once again.

This writer like many others have been sermonising on some of the core issues bedevilling our politics cum national development. Alarm bells have been ringing and credible solutions proffered in some instances, but the impact of such postulations remains to be seen or palpated. Certainly, we must keep pushing the narrative of our shared humanity and nationhood. Since the concepts of shared humanity and nationhood are a state of mind, it means Nigeria will not change until a greater majority of Nigerians, make a paradigm shift to decide once and for all that we are ready to make it happen. Angels are not going to come down from heaven to do it for us. It is ours to do. We the Nigerian people are the ones to make it happen.

The sight or hearing of the word, revolution elicits instant and varied reactions. For those in Power (the rulers in Government) it is an anathema for citizens to write this word or say this word. Anytime they hear or see this word, we know that their hearts go into a gallop with the thought that it means ‘Treason` until proven otherwise. For those of us on the other side of the divide, it is however not what we mean. Mindset reset is what the word revolution means to us. Talking of early beliefs about revolution, the Encyclopaedia Britannica states inter alia, “Though the idea of revolution was originally related to the Aristotelian notion of cyclical alterations in the forms of government, it now implies a fundamental departure from any previous historical pattern. A revolution constitutes a challenge to the established political order and the eventual establishment of a new order radically different from the preceding one”. Such revolutions change not only the system of government but also the economic system, the social structure, and the cultural values of those societies unquote. Furthermore, revolutions of the type described by Aristotle, begins in the minds and hearts of the people.  It is true that a lot of people will think about violence and the use of force at the mention of revolution, but that is not the advocacy of this writeup. This is about us – the Nigerian people changing our lives and those of our children yet unborn with the magic formula of our mindset reset ab initio. Beneath are some of the fundamental frameworks that will bring this mind set change to fruition. Let`s go!

The first mindset reset Nigerians must make is to have the `supreme belief` that our votes count. Surely it does count! While it is true that in the past, politicians were quick to manipulate election figures, that dark behaviour is waning and almost at a negligible level due to the adoption of new voting technology by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Dear Nigerians, it is time to discard that myopic notion of `our votes don`t matter`. That wrong insinuation is a thought from the pit of hell. Please, let us not be deceived further. `Our mumu` don do` as Charly Boy Oputa would say. If votes don`t matter, how come politicians go the extra mile to induce potential voters with cash and other sundry gifts. Do you think these politicians do not know what they are doing? We the people need to be ahead of some of this demonic lots vying for elective positions.

Dr Agbons is founder of the Institute of Good Governance