These past few weeks have seen me skim the local television stations looking for one political campaign or the other, and I must confess it has been an interesting venture for me; I hope am speaking for a greater number of you too. But in all, I want us to hold on to one of the concepts of realism which is “ thedetermination to face facts and deal with issues practically without being influenced by any sentiments or false ideas; it is the showing of things as they are”.
BTW: I couldn’t submit anything last week as all that came to mind was about that Hotter Big Shop (I hope you can decode), but my preference to yield to the admonition to do no harm to men in cassock made me keep myself away from writing this column altogether.
Without hunger no man will strive for anything; the dearth of qualitative leadership and good governance, for a very long time now in our dear country, has made a good number of the populace clamour for TRUE change in our socio-political life.
There is a school of thought that I strongly believe: the greater the love the greater the hatred that follows any form of betrayal. I remember and I make bold to say anywhere and anytime that GEJ won the 2011 Presidential Election fair and square, as we all thronged our different Polling Stations and thumbed him in because we thought he represented a heave of fresh air, but these past few years have proven all of us wrong. It is never a good thing to make a decision based on sentiments. Never!
Jonathan has proven to us that not everyone who lives with the starving populace really feels their pain. One would have expected a man that fed us withI had no shoes bicky to readily identify the plight of the people and work at fixing the problems, but instead he daily gives credence to a school of thought that says a mind does not work well when the stomach is overfull as a full stomach is conducive only to sleep. This is why a huge number of us are asking this animal Professor to carry all the shoes he has so far bought with our monies and pave way for this change that we so much need in this land. He has proven on many fronts that his person and attitude are Un-Presidential.
I follow how the American billionaire, Donald Trump, daily loads President Obama with criticisms but never for once did POTUS degrade that office by trying to respond to any of those criticisms; rather Obama daily loads the populace with deliveries of his electoral promises and that endears the first black President of the United States the more to his people, regardless of their colour, race or religion. It’s very lazy to set attack dogs to action anytime you are called to give account of your stewardship. These attack dogs have pitched this President and this government against the people they are supposed to preside over with love. They are arrogantly clueless when it comes to managing the affairs of the nation.
On the other hand, GMB has shown to us that he has patterned his life after the giant bamboo whose exterior, though smooth and lovely to touch, is tough and resistant to the swords of the Jonathanians. Buhari has shown that he has space within him for continued growth. His anti-corruption stance is undeniably speaking for him as his report sheet shows neatness, orderliness and is not at all cluttered in anyway, but straight and upward to the sky. Even though he is not the Messiah that will turn our lives around but the people believe he will redeem the nation from the imminent collapse that is seriously hanging over our head if this reckless government is allowed to continue in office.
The people are tired of our seemingly ingrained teachings of corruption and they don’t want to deny themselves the opportunity of saving their dear country, availed by the knowledge of a single person that is appealingly the centerpiece of this social puzzle.
The only thing that is certain is change and to battle change is to waste one’s time, the battle can never be won. To become a willing ally of change is an assurance of life in itself. - Leo Buscaglia
My good people, it is important that we know why we are moving slowly. It’s like village women who are given lectures on birth control. They listen attentively, then go home and imagine that it did not pertain to them, but only concerns their neighbours, and go right on having more and more children. I know this change is not going to be overnight . We have to be patient. We must be willing to offer ourselves for service. We should stop asking why isn’t our society a better place as it will only amount to a total waste of time; rather we should start talking about how we can make our society a better place as I know that question has an answer.
In essence, we all have been accusing the system of being corrupt but habitually fail to realize that we make up the system. The change we need must start with us. Beam the light on yourself. Do not sell your vote!
This is the author's opinion only.
Adebayo Coker is a wordsmith. Societal Fragments, A Man Like Me: Noteography Of A Father To His Son and Wobbled Words are some of his creation. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
