Well, the die is cast as the much awaited 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections hold tomorrow. The political parties held their grand finale rallies with huge crowds.
So now people hope for a peaceful election and hope the outcome would usher in a ‘new’ era of development. It is sad that after almost eight years of the Buhari administration, there is still no regular electricity in spite of the astronomical increase in tariff.
Even though the boko haram insurgents in the northeast have been curtailed where there is no longer bomb blasts that happened even in Abuja, the federal capital, another terror of insecurity reared its ugly head in the northwest where bandits raid, rape, kidnap and kill people in their scores for years now. Many communities are displaced through this.
While the campaigns are basically the same, people yearn for someone who is true to his words; someone who will see it as a duty to serve Nigerians, not the other way round where he is expected to be served by the people he pledges to serve. The very people he traversed the country begging and pleading with them to vote for him in order to bring infrastructure, improve the economy, bring security and on and on.
People will however vote based on sentiments such as religion, region and ethnicity regardless of the competency of the candidate. That is why some say people have already known whom they wanted to vote for, so the campaigns might not have changed their minds.
Still you see endorsements here and there that may influence some voters. There are however endorsements from religious leaders that some find disconcerting as religious leaders are expected to be fathers to all, therefore should only advise their followers on those to vote for based on what they are offering to the nation or their constituencies.
In any case, the ideal in a plural country is not what is usually obtains and we have to live with it, only that those elements that divide us should be less emphasised for the country to move forward, because as long as we insist on pointing out those differences we may be stuck in one place.
Youth are touted to be the decisive factor in this election apparently judging by their activities in the social media; hopefully they would not disappoint and would come out to vote to influence the choice of a president.
As for women, they are the ones that politicians always say they would better their lives and use them to campaign from house to house as ‘women leaders’, if the election is won some would however be abandoned and never be allowed to see the politicians.
The annoying thing is that the politicians know they could always count on women to come out and vote for them, particularly with small incentives of food items, soap, salt and so on.
This time around I hope that whoever wins the presidency would do a lot to help women in terms of empowerment, adult education, fight for the dignity of women against rape and other forms of abuse, be it at home or at the work place.
Their children both girls and boys, should get quality education and the youth should be engaged by being provided opportunities to be educated and get jobs or be self- employed.
While there are eighteen candidates contesting for the presidency, some call it a three- horse race while others call it a four- horse race between Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the ruling party, former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State of the Labour Party (LP) and Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso , former governor of Kano State and also a former minister of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
In this regard whoever emerges we hope would be a blessing to the country and would not derail from his constitutional duties as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
