By Charles Anike
As we approach the flag-off of the 2023 political campaigns, Nigerians, especially youths, should think beyond 2023 before making choices of who becomes our next president and other elective political office-holders.
There are basic questions we must ask ourselves before taking positions and throwing weights behind any candidate. One of such partinent questions is: after 2023 elections, what next for the country and what next for our personal future? And again before God and within our consciences, can we beat our chest and really justify the choices we made after the elections are over?
Have we consciously helped to further endanger the destinies of the present and future generations by voting on religious and tribal sentiments? Therefore, we must think of Nigeria beyond 2023.
This warning is vital considering the antecedents of the Nigerian political class, who always relied on deception and believes that the people will always be deceived with all kinds of accursed gift items. The truth is that most of the gift items from our politicians, especially during campaign seasons, are usually taken to their occult kingdoms, where they cast spells on the items before distribution to the masses.
This time we must be careful and be wise on how we collect salt, cups of rice, rappers, etc, from politicians. Nigerians, especially those who really love the peace, unity and progress of the country, must think twice and beyond 2023. Otherwise we will unconsciously exchange our birthrights with the satanic gifts from the politicians.
The present precarious socio-political and economic mess we found ourselves is caused by the same crop of politicians in APC and PDP most especially. There are no clear cut distinctions between those politicians in both parties requesting our votes. Recall that in 2014/2015, the present PDP presidential candidate (Alhaji Atiku Abubakar) misled some of his cohorts out of the then ruling PDP to join forces with the Buhari’s CPC and Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ACN to form this ill-fated APC that is currently reducing Nigerians to less humans since 2015.
Politically these elements have made a mess of our hard earned democracy by their lack of democratic culture and inordinate ambitions. Deceit cum born-to-rule-mentality is their regular trade marks since this Fourth Republic. They believe that Nigerians are both ignorant and gullible, and that they can easily be manipulated and deceived with propaganda. As far as they are concerned, everything for them is negotiable, so long as it suits their selfish interests and ambitions.
Another very important reason we must think beyond 2023 general elections is that our present helpless state of insecurity can be linked with the present political class. We must, therefore, either make up our minds and tell ourselves the bitter ugly truth, otherwise we wait the worst days ahead of us after 2023.
Nobody in Nigeria above the age of 18 needs a prophet to preach to him/her to know who to chose between the only light and many darknesses on the race. We also do not need eye glasses to see who represent the light and those darknesses in the political parties. We have seen the best and the worse of PDP and also their APC associates in the past 23 years, therefore, it is only very natural and normal that we look forward and not backward.
ANIKE is the National President of
Eastern Union
