The next few months will be very interesting in the history of our nation. I am hoping that somehow the Almighty God himself will see us through the situation that we have found ourselves and make the next few years truly remarkable. We can already see our politicians jostling and taking positions in this great country of ours towards the elections of 2015.
Nigeria is not anybody’s estate. Nigeria is not the preserve of any individual. Nigeria belongs to all of us. Everybody should be able to aspire to the leadership of Nigeria if they have great ideas on how to rule. I do not think that people who cannot seriously account for their wealth or their flamboyant lifestyle should continue to aspire to the leadership of this nation. Nigeria is no longer for sale to the highest bidder. Being generous to people, taking chieftaincy titles and flashing money around should no longer be the prerequisite for governing Nigeria. As a matter of fact, anyone with innumerable chieftaincy titles is a risk to this nation both in physical and spiritual influences.
If Nigerians really love Nigeria, this is the time for us to search for that man, that woman; that human being who actually loves Nigeria and is willing to do the right thing for Nigeria. We don’t want anybody to hoodwink us anymore. We don’t want anyone to just feed some of the masses for a season and think that by doing so he has a right to their hearts and soul and therefore he should take over the presidency. We need people who would be honest with us in Nigeria and who would really try to lead and govern this nation according to equity, fairness, the rule of law and the fear of God. We need people who would have a plan and a vision for this nation.
There is no way that we can continue like this as a nation. Anybody who is going to lead Nigeria in 2015 must come to Nigerians and tell us his vision, his ideas and where he is taking us to. He should tell us how he is going to achieve those plans for us. This is the time for us to know what our potential leaders have in mind to do for us. A lot of the people jostling for the 2015 presidency are not thinking of what they are going to do. They just want to rule. They want to go about in sirens and live in Aso Rock. They want to command all the power and all the resources and of course make money for themselves and for their generations to come. We don’t want that anymore in Nigeria. We want to listen to people that have researched the issues, the problems and the challenges of this nation. We want that person that understands Nigeria and Nigerians and understand the place and context of Nigeria amongst the nations. We want that person who has a plan, a purpose, a vision, a direction and who has a heart for this nation, someone who will take this nation from where it is to where it should be. We don’t want business as usual anymore in this nation. We have too much at stake and we have too much to lose.
Nigeria is one of the most blessed nations in the world and yet because we have consistently had at the helm of affairs people who have neither plans nor thoughts, we are wallowing in abject poverty. Such a situation cannot persist. I do not see any of these people baring their chests or showing their fangs having any plan for Nigeria. Otherwise they would not be spending all this time advertising themselves all over the place. This is the time to be spent in the backrooms with a think-tank of people planning, researching and having ideas, consulting and thinking of what they would do once they become president of this nation. Nigerians no longer want to be slaves in their own nation. Nigerians want to have a say in where their country is going.
My question to a lot of people is that when your name is called, what would you live for posterity? What are you going to leave for the future? What are you going to leave for generations yet unborn? How are you going to say that you came, you saw, you conquered, you achieved and you were part of the force and covenant of Nigeria? This is the question and the issue that is confronting Nigeria. Therefore I am appealing that the real person that God has chosen to lead this nation should be somewhere and by this time be doing his homework, be planning and be thinking of where Nigeria is heading to. I am also appealing to the generality of Nigerians that when this fellow shows up, we would receive him because we would know that this is the man that God has mandated to take us to where we are going.
We are tired in Nigeria of struggling for light, struggling for water, struggling for jobs, struggling for food, struggling for okada and of dying on a daily basis because of lack of medical care and from road accidents. We are tired of not being able to plan and have a direction and of working so hard and having so little to show for it. We are tired of living in constant fear of armed robbers and fear of even the police with their jungle justice.
We need freshness and we need a new beginning. So whoever will become the president of this nation come 2015 must be somebody who will not bring back old memories, somebody who will not be a part of the old school and somebody who will bring fresh ideas and take us into the future. I believe that God will certainly help us.