Why We Must Get It Right This Time -By Muhammad Yasin Yahaya

Nigerians all around the world have lost hope in the nation and everybody must rise up to this occasion. The call for a stronger alliance with all the youth in this country is far due, from the North to the South in all breadth and length all around the country, we must take the stage to decide on the future of this country.

A lot of evil has occured right before all us, from corruptions to misgovernace, from insecurity to suffering and so on. The time has come for us to return this nation to the path of greatness. From statistical analysis, over 33.6 million Nigerians are regarded as Youth which constitutes to about 16.8 percent of the population(aged 15 to 35). According to these statistics, we ought to have share of leadership in the country, but from all overview, the reverse is the case.

When I was a child in my elementary school days, we were constantly told things like: “you are the leaders of tomorrow,” but in my country, those that were leaders during my father’s days are still the leaders of today. What an odd and painful situation for us as a nation. Aged leaders, as it may seem, is just one out of numerous problems we face as a nation.

We can’t deny the fact that we are a Nation that has everything but lack everything. One would say it is due to ethnicity and religious intolerance that has been unjustly integrated into our political system, others would say Nigeria as a nation, is cursed and it would never be well with her. Most people would say it is due to engrossed and abject corruption over the years but in this case, I view all these as a result of failure in leadership.

Anyone can say the corruptions in the Fourth Republic is more abyssmal, compared to previous governments, but in my opinion, corruption is corruption and we making these comparisons really shows our nonchalant attitudes towards putting an end to corruption. This is one reason we must get it right this time.

According Chinua Achebe, in his book, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria,’ he wrote, “It is totally false to suggest, as we are apt to do, that Nigerians are fundamentally different from any other people in the world. Nigerians are corrupt because the system under which they live today makes corruption easy and profitable; they will cease to be corrupt when corruption is made difficult and inconvenient.”

Yes, our major problem stems from the fact that we failed to elect crediable leaders to positions of authority mainly because we’ve been deluded away from scrutinising them based on merits and their abilities to deliver but constantly judged or voted for them based on ethnic solidarity and religious sentiments. If we continue this way as a Nation, we’ll not get it right. This eventually means we’ll continue to run around in circles. This is why we have a government that spent over 10 months without a cabinet (Ministers) or having a leader
that cannot address us other than reading a passage of words to us every now and then. This is why we must get it right this time.

If we should make the same mistakes we’ve made in the past in electing our leaders by putting religion and ethnicity first, instead of competency and the capacity to drive home good governance, we shall get the same old result that will continue to leave us in a precarious situation as it is today.

Our people have suffered so much in the hands of incompetent leaders and are still suffering a whole lot more. We need to make a change and the right time is now, be you a Muslim or Christian, be you an Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa, we must put behind us ethnic politics in order to grow and move forward as a nation.

Nigeria and Nigerians have not been this divided as much as it is today; from lopsided appointments to nepotism, which has in turn given room to incompetent appointed officials. No one can deny that this has cost us a great deal over the years. We must get it right this time.

The 84 Billion naira saga is even shameful to the image of this country that for the same government that came to power to put an end to corruption is now the worst and most apt perpetrator of corrupt practices, apart from the security that the government has also failed to provide for the common man. The fuel queues are back to our petrol stations, the Naira continues to drop without redemption, inflation rate is growing higher by the day and just to mention a few. The masses can hardly afford three square meals a day, Electricity megawatts continue to depreciate without any tangible solutions and our leaders turn a blind eye to these issues.

Nigeria’s public debt has risen the most under the Buhari administration, when compared to previous governments since 1999, and foreign debt has grown three times more than the combined figure recorded by the past three administrations. ASUU strike seems to have no end due to insincere government efforts in curbing the failing university system.
Under the government that assumed office with a lot of expectations, sadly, after seven good years, we’ve been returned back to where we were. We must get it right this time.

The misdeeds of any government officials would always appear on the masses; from poor capacity to implement effective polices that would enhance productivity and growth for general welfare to poor service delivery.

I can’t deny also that this government has done some few good to her people; with things like rail network that’s has made travelling easy in some areas, the NPower program and many more, but the issues that confront us now have overshadowed the few good actions portrayed by this government. Therefore, we must get it right this time.

If we should continue to say the things we face as citizens of this country, we could go on for years without ending. We have overtime been able to analyse most of our problems without diagnosis on way out of them. Therefore, in my view, the solutions to our issues to start with are to; elect crediable leaders with the vision to bring this Nation back to prosperity.

This is why we must get it right this time and the only power the constitution grants us is for us to excise our franchise and before we can excise this power we must get a PVC (Permanent Voters' Card). 

Therefore, I urge all the youth in this country to get this power ready to vote incompetent and corrupt  leaders out of our governments houses. 

Come 2023, go out and vote. Vote out bad leaders, no violence, Election no be fight oo, na just to vote and make sure your vote count.

Get your PVC ready. We must get it right this time.
God bless Nigeria.

Muhammad Yasin Yahaya,
Writer, essayist and a student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna, Nigeria.
Email address: muhammadyasin3890@gmail.com
July, 2022.