As we vote in February, it should be for a President who will give us new songs, not songs of sorrow, not songs of despair, but songs of joy, songs of a country, which experiences orgasm at old age and hold on to it forever! That is the way to love Nigeria
By Olukorede Yishau
In two days, the curtain will fall on 2022 and we will welcome 2023 with all our hearts. For some, dreams have been realised. For others, dreams have been dashed and all hope is on the New Year.
For Nigeria, the fast-approaching year is not ordinary. It is the year we choose a new president to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari. We have been presented with multitude of choices, many of them jokers who know they can’t win even their polling units. The frontrunners are no secret to the discerning.
As we approach the election year and month, we are all clear on one thing: Our country really needs a leader who will both inspire hope and deliver results. I doubt if there is anyone who honestly can say he or she is not troubled by the state of our nation. To the best of my knowledge, there is discontentment in the land. Some have even predicted a bleaker future if something drastic is not done. The economy is struggling, and security challenges are refusing to give way.
No time but now that we are preparing for another presidential election is appropriate for us to search our souls. I have searched mine and I believe, instead of lamentation and whining about our circumstances, we should let those seeking to lead our nation know the kind of nation we want.
I worry for our nation when ethnicity rears its head; I cry inward when the issue of who is an indigene insists on taking the front row; and I wonder why I cannot be an indigene of anywhere I choose to live in Nigeria. I also believe I should be able to change my indigene status when I move elsewhere in the country.
The dreaded Boko Haram sect is still on the rampage. Many out there are looking for jobs that are not available. Not a few have died this week all because what we call medical centres are consulting rooms that they have been since the military era. Even the private clinics where we pay through our noses cannot compete outside of our shores.
Our leaders have been callous in the management of our resources. Past error is no excuse for the current government not to change our fortunes like it promised.
Another development that scares me is the migration of Nigerians through the Sahara desert, a development which is akin to walking with eyes open into enslavement. The exodus is to escape the ‘Animal Farm’ we currently inhabit. Most of the men and women who take this root are educated but hopeless.
The way to help Nigeria this year is to work towards getting a President who can right the wrongs of the past, a President who will make nepotism a thing of the past, a President who will ensure no Nigerian feels left out because of which part of the country he or she comes from, and a President who will end this era of epileptic supply of electricity. I will be glad that day when our electricity generating sets will only be useful for picnics at beaches and such places where temporary source of power is required.
We should work for a President who will provide enough direction for members of the National Assembly to truly legislate in the interest of the people and not out of any pecuniary interest. I am sick and tired of the current situation where everything but national interest seems to take the first position.
We should work for a President who will give us a Nigeria where our schools can compete with others in the advanced world. We should elect a President who will take Nigeria out of the Third World. What is wrong with being a First World?
We should elect a President who will deliver a Nigeria where we can reap from medical tourism instead of the current situation where we are the major loser to this trend.
We should elect a President who will make our economy so robust that we can hold our head high anywhere in the world and our green passport will command respect and not scorn.
We deserve a President who will give us a Nigeria where oil takes the back seat and agriculture and tourism take the front seat and contribute more to our foreign exchange earnings and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
We are overripe for a president who will develop our tourism sector, permanently solve the power challenge, defeat the terrorists and make the country a no-go-area for bandits.
My final take: As we vote in February, it should be for a President who will give us new songs, not songs of sorrow, not songs of despair, but songs of joy, songs of a country which experiences orgasm at old age and hold on to it forever! That is the way to love Nigeria.
Happy New Year
To you for following me all through 2022, thank you. Let’s do it again in 2023. May God bless you and cause His favours to rain on you. Have fun this season!
▪︎Yishau is a newspaper columnist and author.