By Nnaemeka
Oruh
A few days from now, we shall be headed to the polls for
the 2015 Presidential and National Assembly elections. Then two weeks later,
the governorship and state assembly elections will hold. This year's
presidential election will arguably be the most fiercely contested and the
closest presidential elections since the history of Nigeria ’s democracy. The All
Progressives Congress (APC) – the major opposition party in Nigeria, has over
the past one year grown to be a robust and influential party which stands
within touching distance of taking over from the ruling People's Democratic
Party (PDP). Few will argue that this development has engendered a sense of
insecurity amongst the ruling party and has ultimately become very healthy for
our democracy. Yet, as we go to the polls, it is important that we
be careful and desist from certain acts that may truncate this well-worked out
democracy.
*President Jonathan and Gen Buhari
One of the most important things we need to watch out for is the
circulation of false information. In this era of social media, several false
information have been in circulation either to gain cheap popularity, or simply
to cause mischief and advance some sinister objectives. With the nauseating
desire to 'feel among', many for the sake of attracting retweets by twitter celebrities have gone as far as cooking up
fake stories that they know will pander to the desires of the twitter
celebrities and proceeded to tweet such false news to them in order to gain
acceptance and appear relevant.
A case in point was when one blatantly lied that the road that
leads to the Abia State Government House was an untarred single lane road. I
was horrified. If I did not know first-hand the state of that road, I would
have believed. Yet it was retweeted by a twitter celebrity with over 190,000
followers! Imagine the number of people who thus had access to that lie. This
is what I fear the most about this election. Many people will come up with so
much falsehood and those lies will be shared until they are perceived as the
truth.
My little plea is that we remember that after the elections, we
will still have a country to build. It will be grossly unwise to use falsehood
to engender violence that will consume us all. Remember, the twitter
celebrities, the politicians, and so many of those encouraging you may not be
in this country if anything violent erupts. From a very safe distance, they
will continue to 'agitate' for the 'good of the country' while you and your
relatives face the travails of violence. So it is important for the sake of our
country, our democracy, and our own lives and businesses, that we try and
report only the truth. Reporting lies will only water the ground for
post-election violence which will greatly harm this country.
Scene of post-election violence
Furthermore, it is already being touted by some that a certain
candidate must win the election. I plead for caution in this. The question I never
tire of asking is: what if he does not
win? I have never heard of any preparation for that eventuality. What that
then portends is that if the outcome of the election does not go as a certain
party expects, they may resort to accusations of electoral malpractice which
may result in post-election violence. I am really worried about this. Which is
why I am using this medium to beg that we all keep an open mind. Whoever
emerges the winner of the 28th March Presidential elections, let us all accept
that the electorates have spoken, shun violence and join hands in building a
better Nigeria .
Violence can only lead to us taking retrogressive steps and I want to believe
that what we all want is the progress of Nigeria and not the advancement of
the goals and aspirations of a few individuals or group of persons.
We have been enjoined several times to ‘protect our votes’. It
is a very important advice. But I will like to add one more advice to it: do
not 'fight' for your votes. We sometimes misunderstand what it means to
'protect'. It is not all protection that demands violence. Protecting our votes
does not demand violent acts. In any case, if violence mars a polling unit, the
likelihood of the votes from the polling unit being cancelled is very high. If
that happens, how then have we protected our votes? So please, let us not fight
for the votes.
Happily, the two major contestants of the Presidential election (President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and General Mohammadu Buhari) have signed two peace
accords. Their supporters should borrow a leaf from these two noble Nigerians and
embrace peace.
We should all collectively desist from using inflammatory words
this election. Period. No matter how much you desire to insult or shout down
anybody, try and not use inflammatory words. Let us all desist from violence.
Let us all seek peace and embrace it for the sake of this country which we have
confessed many times to loving so much. At the end of the day, the one victor
after the 28th March Presidential elections should be Nigeria .
----------------------
*Oruh
contributed this piece to SCRUPLES from Port Harcourt
No comments:
Post a Comment