The political terrain was just beginning to get exciting, I even envisioned myself running for some office, for the fun and/or to make a mark. That was about 3 years ago.
The last political run however brought brought my doubts to the surface. We used to be a nation brought together by our differences and bonded by our diversity. All that came to an end. The entity called Nigeria was divided through and through. The dividing lines stood out, obvious and thick.
A particular instance stands out in my subconscious. I remember how we totted back and forth, from our house to theirs and back to ours as a child. During the religious crisis in Kaduna in the 80's we would huddle together and pray for respite. We would share whatever food we had when the supply went down. Yakubu was like a brother. he was like a member of our family. Towards the end of the last administration however everything changed. It started when Boko Haram was at the peak of strikes and activity. For every church that was burnt down he had a jubilant and scalding threat to Christians scrawled on all his pages on social media. He went on and on in his verbal fight against everything not Islamic. The insults transferred to the Office of the President of Nigeria. Everyone not in the same 'political camp' as he degenerated to insulting the person and the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Most of us engaged in this war of words, war of hate and profanity and we felt nothing wrong. We all took it in stride. We paid no mind to the fact that the last election was conducted and based on our differences rather than our unity. The results showed ethnic division, religious division, further division.
The social media was a war zone. Northerners insulting the southerners and being insulted in return. Verbal religious wars were fought without end, hate and enmity grew to unbelievable levels, and we felt nothing.
Today however the electorate is singing a new song. Elections are over and the office holders are back behind their tight security and their contact numbers unreachable. Some members of the electorate are still campaigning and some complaining. We have to wind down our tastes because of the waste and carelessness of our leaders, the same people that lead today, and rather than pick the bone with they that have robbed us, we continue to fight ourselves.
Our leaders can afford to send their children to school in Ivy league Universities because our own schools are rundown with gross mismanagement and we do not care. We would rather fight ourselves. The Central Bank Of Nigeria recently employed the children of the political class to fill positions meant for Nigerian graduates and Nigerians (opposition) cried foul.
Why cry? These children of the political class are also Nigerians. They have been to the best Universities in the world and have the best results you can imagine. While we had to deal with the lack of power supply in our school days, they were plagued with what chef to order lunch from. Does it matter if the money used to pay their school fees is from the accumulation of the wages owed your parents? Owed you?
No. What matters is that we tear ouselves down and the one with the vilest team wins. The one who can churn up the most insults in the shortest time is the winner that takes all. The children of the people that robbed our parents are coming to rob us and we, rather than fight for the future and destiny of our children divide ourselves along the lines of acronyms and kill each other.
At the end of the day, we are not PDP or APC, not SDP or NRC, not Catholic or Lutheran, Not Sunnis or Shi'ite. We are all children of God. We are Nigerians. We have only one home. We can decide what we want. To forever remain unpaid or underpaid slaves of the political class or to be a unit that faces and overcomes whatever challenges we face. We can decide.
-Ojonugwa Sappjire Abu
