I have watched keenly the developments resulting from the forth-coming rerun election coming up soon especially as it relates to the fate of the Idoma Nation after the election. I have asked myself several fundamental questions such as; what will the Idoma nation look like after all these?, are these our leaders doing us any good with all these outbursts?, have we now come to the reality that all the 29 registered political parties should operate freely and our people should be allowed to associate freely? etc. I remember a day when I met one of my childhood friends, a very good political material that you can market very easily, known to the people, very easy-going and I said to him " come and take my party ticket free". His reply "o boy nobody go fit operate with this your party here o". I asked him why and he said to me "this area is PDP, no party can operate here, not even the ACN that then existed" otherwise you will be killed. I felt so bad but pretended to be laughing. My conviction was that the day of reckoning will come and we all will pay for this mistakes.
Then came 2015, the people were so disenchanted with the PDP, not because of anything but most of all, the plights of civil servants and pensioners who were owed massively and were even referred to as "dead woods" that did not merit what they laboured for over the years. All entreaties to make the PDP led govt know that there was no food on the tables of these people fell on deaf ears not to talk of the inability of them to send their children to schools. A lot of armed robbers were bred, in fact my area became their nest that you cannot pass through even at day time. Cultism became the order of the day as there was nothing to do and all the schools had been locked up and the keys submitted to Govt House in Makurdi. The people now resolved to show them they are not dead woods and that their PVCs were potent enough to pay them back. The time the alternative APC came, it was already late to shop for a candidate credible and strong enough to challenge the hegemonic and heavily entrenched PDP, and so they won. The youthful APC candidate decided to diligently pursue his matter and today we are getting set for a rerun.
The rerun is between 2 political parties out of 29 in the country. The implication is that if these two candidates are not good enough, there is a problem because Benue zone C must fill its position in the upper chamber. You can imagine the array of choice that would been available if we had embraced at least 7 or 8 political parties and allowed them to operate freely without threats. These 7or 8 political parties would have given us 7 to 8 candidates from where we can make a choice. Imagine the array of politicians we have in Idoma land, imagine us having 8 contenders. There is no way our choice out of this number will not be sound enough to provide us with effective and God fearing representation in the senate. The time of reckoning, weeping and gnashing of teeth is here. I weep for the Idoma nation but believe that the youths may need to rise up to this challenge otherwise there will be no future or our children.
The Idoma nation is too advanced and sophisticated to continue with this trend. Let this be a lesson for another day. We must prove to these so called leaders that we have served them enough and will require some independence to be able to take our destinies in our hands.
Change is here. The youths should brace up for the challenge that will arise from the February 13th election. Managing the dismemberment of the Idoma nation will be a huge challenge going by the unguarded and unnecessary outbursts presently ongoing. Brothers and sisters are being pitched against one another and this is alien to the Idoma nation. The Idoma man is an example of peace and love and do not deserve the disservice presently been visited on them.
Let us embrace multi-party democracy. It is working in places where the people are not as sophisticated as we are. Democracy is all about choice and when choice is limited, decisions taken can never be sound.
Long Live Idoma Nation,
Long Live Benue State,
Long Live Nigeria.
Long Live Benue State,
Long Live Nigeria.
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