Sen Annie Okonkwo
With the way things are going on in Nigeria, it has become prerequisite for all to work toward getting the country back to track.
It’s no longer time to consider your personal interest or what you stand to benefit, it’s time to do the needful before things get out of control.
To fix this country, religious and tribal sentiment must be buried while we make haste to hand over Nigeria to capable hands that will revive it before it’s too late.
This is not time for “It’s my turn to become the president or the turn of the south to produce the next president but the turn of the capable and competent person.
According to 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
We have witnessed alot in the past few decades. killings and atrocities has almost become an everyday event. As we enter the election season, we must think beyond the gain we make today as the future of our children is at stake.
Andy Andrews once said:
“There are generations yet unborn, whose very lives will be shifted and shaped by the moves you make and the actions you take.”
But for me, this generation and the youths have key roles to play in defending and protecting their future. The first step is to get thier Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC).
As a matter of fact, private firms, churches and leaders also have a role to play to ensure the future of this generation and that of yet unborn is protected and secured by launching operation get your PVC.
They must ensure that people under their watch get their PVCs, and also educate and orientate them about the battle ahead. It’s time to reclaim this country or never.
I read in the news recently where the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) launched Operation Show Your Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) by its members during Sunday worship services across the country.
Other churches and forms must do same to ensure that 90% of Nigerians get their PVC. Your vote is your power.
Nigeria needs a new breed of leaders with vision and mission to build not same people who have been in the political space in the last three decades without making any or much positive impact.
Democracy is supposed to be a form of government that empowers the people to exercise political control, provides for the separation of powers between governmental entities, and ensures the protection of natural rights and civil liberties.
In most democracies, the needs and wishes of the people are represented by elected lawmakers who are charged with writing and voting on laws and setting policy.
But in Nigeria today, the people have gotten the opposite of what democracy represented. And this narrative has to change. The youth must stand fame and say no to election rigging, come out en mass and vote for a visionary leader that can revive this country before it’s too late.
The youths must look beyond the peanut that the desperate politicians will will give to them during the election and montage their future.
Zambia used to be governed by corrupt and clueless leaders but In 2022, Zambian Youths trooped out and launched a well organised massive campaign for Hakainde Hichilema of the UPND.
Youth Movement, successfully removed Edgar Lungu of the LP, a man adjudged as one of the most corrupt leaders.
Since Zambians got Hichilema duly elected as the their President, the country has been transformed. It has also become very peaceful.
If Zambian Youths could successfully launch such a democratic campaign against a repressive government that had held them hostage over the years, and remove Lungu in a landslide victory, what about the more sophisticated Youths of Nigeria?
Today, Nigeria is besieged with similar threat, the youths must rise and ensure the person that will revive the economy of this nation is elected so that the labour of our heroes will not be in vain.
In synopsis, we must fix this country now before it’s late and become unhealthy us to live in. The youths are boiling, insecurity issues in all region, and reports have it that those acts are mostly perpetrated by the youths. And those same youths are yearning for Peter Obi.
*Sen Annie Okonkwo wrote from Bourdillon, Ikoyi, Lagos.
