In the last eight months, Nigeria has been awash with various propaganda from different quarters,all trying to sell their candidates, to dominate the media space and gain the widest reach for their choice of would-be leaders but in all, the goal is to have a better leader in the quest for a new and greater Nigeria.
The established two political parties did not give other parties a chance, even going as far as to call one ‘a party without structure.’ This oversight cost them dearly, as the party without structure, the party they underestimated won major cities in Nigeria. Religious factors played a huge role in this as well, beyond the political and economic factors, and the hardship occasioned by the scarce naira notes.
In the religious aspect, Muslim-dominated areas were mostly won by the politicians who have refused to leave center stage. Many influential Christian leaders mobilized their members to vote along religious lines and this gave structure to the structureless. Forget the social media noise, it has few effects but the Muslim-Muslim ticket infuriated many Christians and they came all out to show they aren’t pushovers.
In all the Muslim-Muslim tickets carriers were announced winners and the other Muslim-Christian/Christian-Muslims approached the court to seek redress in a mandate to which they believed they won. All Good,Nigeria is gradually becoming a country where no one can be taken for granted unlike in the past. Politicians are waking up to their responsibilities that if they don’t perform, they will be voted out. Many big-name politicians were denied t senatorial seats because people didn’t vote for them.
There were many attempts to dismantle the counting process of the presidential election if not for the wisdom deployed by the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the country may have been in crisis. He then asked those not satisfied with the process to seek redress in the court which is the right thing to do. Currently, in the Nigeria senate, APC had 55, PDP has 33, LP has 7, SDP has 1, APGA has 1, and NNPP 1. With this number, gradually a third wave is coming and many should watch out.
The factors that played out during the election on the religious divide should not repeat themselves if we want peaceful control. No matter what it is, competence and capacity should take pre-eminence over the religious tickets or bloodline should in case we want a Nigerian that can be truly called our own.
The matter at hand now is how we achieve the quest for a new Nigeria, this should be the paramount objective of everyone. This can be achieved if we all rally around to support the new President-elect. If anything is found wanting in the court, there will be a ruling but pending that, we have to move on as a country. Enough of washing our dirty linen on social media. Those images being wrongly presented on social media will eventually come back to all of us holding green passports. Nigeria is a common bond and we must all know that the image we project to the world is what they will see.
The New Leaders elect both in the executive and the legislative should know that Nigerians are now awake and whoever does not represent well in the quest for a new Nigeria will be voted out of office.
Written by Tosin Adesile