Well, you are in Nigeria, not in Biafra,
though I do understand a lingering sentiment for the latter within the region.
Be real! You are in the real world, not in a dream or an imagined land! Make
the most of what you have; make the most of the present moment.
As November 18, 2017 fast approaches, my
heartfelt and sincere message/reminder to Anambrarians is that the right to
vote is the most fundamental citizenship right in any part of the world. Don’t
take it for granted.
In case you don’t know, let me inform you
or remind you, as the case may be, that in some parts of the world, members of
some national constituent communities, at one time or the other, lost some
lives or got maimed, in the course of struggling to have their constitutional
rights to vote enforced and/or respected. For years, prior to its current age
of de jure and substantial spatial de facto racial desegregation, such
minorities’ struggles to have their constitutional rights to vote enforced and
respected, did happen here in the United States.
Yes, we are all aware that all is not well with Nigeria and that Nigeria
is measurably performing much less than its potential for greatness,
primarily due to foundational deeply-ingrained chains of division that
it inherited from colonialism and secondarily due to identifiable cases
and pattern of miss-rule and mammoth mismanagement (against the backdrop
of those foundational chains of division) during its contemporary
post-colonial phase. A question I can’t help asking is this: how many
houses built on the wrong foundation can ultimately with-stand the test
of time? For instance, what would have become the fate of a hypothetical
European country in which the English, the Germans and the French, etc. (all of whom are European ethnic groups), were constituted together as one national entity, in much the same way
that most African countries were initially assembled by their respective
colonial powers, primarily for efficient and consolidated colonial
economic exploitation purposes? So, given their birth histories as
patchworks of ethnic entities primarily constituted, at the onset, for
colonial economic consolidation--in much the same way that corporations
of today expand themselves through a phenomenon known as corporate
merging, nation-building has necessarily not been an easy task for
current African countries. Against this backdrop, only a naive person
would under-estimate the herculean nature of the task of nation-building
and political integration that confronts an average multi-ethnic
African country of today. Perhaps, over time, Nigeria, through
appropriate national visions, national constitutional stipulations,
structural configurations and national leadership, can figure out a way
to turn its inherited foundational disabilities into advantages! For
example, instead of being exploited by today's politicians for transient
and self-centered political advantages derivable from playing politics
of ethnic polarization, the legacy from the economic-efficiency-motivation behind colonialism's bundling together of disparate ethnic
entities onto single countries, can be turned into a
socioeconomic advantage in this post-colonial era through strategic
private and public-sector development and advancement of multi-ethnic
Nigeria of 186 million people as a mega African market with lots of
potentials for elaborate economies of scale. As an age-old saying goes,
what does not kill one can make one stronger!
Yes, there is no perfect nation on earth, and yes, some of us believe that Nigeria’s national issues and challenges are much more containable, given available resources, than what we have seen happen. Yes, even against the backdrop of its inherited disabilities, Nigeria should do better for its inhabitants, at least in terms of basic amenities, than what exists on the ground if its leaders can always--and across the board--find a way to focus upon and emphasize Nigeria’s national interest and their peoples' welfare. A total commitment to the peoples' welfare must be seen as a minimal political cultural qualification for being deemed fit for election or re-election to a political leadership position--across the various layers of governance.
Yes, there is no perfect nation on earth, and yes, some of us believe that Nigeria’s national issues and challenges are much more containable, given available resources, than what we have seen happen. Yes, even against the backdrop of its inherited disabilities, Nigeria should do better for its inhabitants, at least in terms of basic amenities, than what exists on the ground if its leaders can always--and across the board--find a way to focus upon and emphasize Nigeria’s national interest and their peoples' welfare. A total commitment to the peoples' welfare must be seen as a minimal political cultural qualification for being deemed fit for election or re-election to a political leadership position--across the various layers of governance.
What does all this mean for you, the
Anambra state voter? In sum, what it all means and what it all necessitates is
that you should never neglect or forgo your right to use your most sacred
national right, namely your right to vote, to try to correct situations where
correctives are warranted, preserve political situations that deserve to be
preserved or reinforced, or to empower a new set of political representatives
who you think can dependably and realistically speak for you. Don't take that
right to vote for granted! Thus, go ahead and exercise your right to vote. Do
so intelligently and calculatingly on November 18.
