All i hear these days is everyone preaching the gospel according to “Have you registered?”, “You should register?”, “We must vote”. It sounds all quite proactive and encouraging to see that people in this country have become sensitized to the need to rise up and speak out. And yet I ask myself if I am to register am I doing so because of conformity to the crowd or necessity because I actually believe in the presidential aspirants?
Who are these people? Where did they come from? What does their history say? What steps have they taken to get to where they are today? What courses or classes did they take? What positions have they held? Whose lives have they changed? What impact have they brought? What change will they bring? What legacy will they leave? I don’t know all the answers to these questions. So I ask myself the question, should I register? Should I vote? You may read this and have differing opinions on what I’m saying but its OK, we all beg to differ. Am I obligated to vote, out of conformity or necessity? No. Am I obligated to vote because my vote counts (in my mind)? Yes. Will I vote? No. I’m not going to vote and not because I don’t care, I’m not going to vote because I care. I care who sits at the cockpit manning the plane. Is he a trained pilot? Or is he a wannabe pilot? Does he have a license to fly or has he been selected and shoved into the seat, willingly, to cater for lives of his passengers? Our country has been likened to an airplane filled with passengers and left in the hands of a neophyte to fly. He crashes the plane and is blamed for the crash whereas no one sought to ask if he had the right qualifications to fly the plane in the first place. The saying goes that the “devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know”, is this really true? I mean the devil is the devil and an angel is an angel. Each has their own characteristics, good and bad. What works for the goose may not work for the gander. There are people who believe Mother Theresa wasn’t ALL THAT or even Nelson Mandela. I say this to highlight the differences in opinions and analysis of characters.
If we were all to ask ourselves the above questions about the presidential aspirants, will we reconsider voting? Are you voting out of conformity because everyone says we should vote and because our vote does count? Or are you voting because you absolutely believe in the candidate and therefore it is imperative you play your part in putting him on the seat?
Ask yourselves these questions people and then decide to vote or not.
Don’t judge me because I won’t vote. I’ll vote when in my spirit the conviction is as necessary as I breathe.
Till my next blog,
Tuyo por siempre.
Chinny! :)
Chinny, elections are not only about the presidency. If u aren't convinced about the aspirants for that, then look at the gubernatorial, senatorial etc. Besides, u can get a lot of info about each candidate 2 help u make an informed judgement. Thanks to d internet.
ReplyDeleteAmaka
@Amaka,thanks for taking time out to read this. I know elections are not just about the presidency, however my primary concern is the presidency as leadership should cascade from the top to the bottom even though EVERYONE, regardless of position or role, should contribute in whatever way they can to change. For me its not just about informed judgement to vote or not, after all we all both know that not everything splashed out on the media is true. Actions speak louder than words, thats what we should vote for in Nigeria. What we can see, not what we hear.
ReplyDelete