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Verdict 2023: The Road To The Promised Land Or The Golgotha -By Richard Odusanya
Clive posited: “The road to the promised land runs past Sinai. The moral law may exist to be transcended: but there is no transcending it for those who have not first admitted its claims up on them, and then tried with all their strength to meet that claim, and fairly and squarely faced the fact of their failure.”
Permit me to begin with the golden words of Albert Pike, an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate general who served as an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in exile from 1864 to 1865. He had profoundly posited: “what we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, but what we have done for others, and for the world remains and is immortal.”
Expanding this assertion, another American writer who was a statesman and a scientist, Benjamin Franklin averred that “if you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, you either write things worth reading or do things worth writing about.” Therefore, the huge responsibility to protect the sanctity of our electoral system becomes inevitable.
Flowing from the above, I am somehow despondent. Our children and younger ones ( The youths who are mostly complicit in the rot in the society) are behaving like those in my generation and before us. They say that they want change. In my opinion, what is happening now should be an opportunity for them to really break with the past. But, what do we see: desperation, cyber-bullying, threats and name-calling.
Instead, I had argued that our vibrant citizens particularly the restive youths should get on social media and tell themselves and the whole world that they are breaking with the past and are accepting, without rancor, the results of our elections. If they do this, the whole world would respect and give them more support while the older ones would be completely disarmed forever. Strategy is required, and this should be one of their political strategies towards success.
Election is not a game of entitlement. This is where I completely disagree with many of our faith-based leaders. You either win or lose. And once the results are announced, the winners or losers should take a position of a good sportsman. It’s like a football match. You may have complains about the game or the referee, but the result remains the end game. If you disagree, the only option available is the court!
In conclusion, I like to dedicate this article “The Road To The Promised Land Or The Golgotha” to all our compatriots home and abroad: it must be the promised land not the Golgotha; you are the heroes of our democracy, it is your victory; to the President-elect and his deputy, history beckons as you shepherd and navigate us through the dark cloud with the ‘Renewed Hope’. NIGERIA WILL BE PEACEFUL.
Finally, I will leave us with the profound words of Clive Staples Lewis, a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. Clive posited: “The road to the promised land runs past Sinai. The moral law may exist to be transcended: but there is no transcending it for those who have not first admitted its claims up on them, and then tried with all their strength to meet that claim, and fairly and squarely faced the fact of their failure.”
ARISE ‘O COMPATRIOTS
Richard Odusanya
