Dr Gabriel Onajite David-Okoro
In 2014, before the elections that ushered in the presidency of President Muhammadu Buhari, I made bold declarations of an islamization agenda in the offing. I prophesied that Nigeria’s economy will be so bastardized, the Naira will experience an unprecedented free fall. I also foretold of high level corruption and tribalism, the likes of which we have never seen or experienced in the history of the nation.
To say the least, all that is happening now were accurately predicted. Ironically, most of the people who criticized and villified me in the wake of the general elections that ushered in Buhari were Nigerian youths who are now being subjected to all sorts of inhumane treatments in the first and second tier of a regime they supported; notable of which is the Lekki massacre.
It is with mixed feelings that I accept heaven’s justification for my 2014 position. No one believed that Nigeria will be as bad as my 2014 painting of Buhari’s presidency, but God showed it to me. Now, as per the 2023 elections, we don’t need a prophet or a soothsayer. It’s a three horse race between APC’s Tinubu, PDP’s Atiku and Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
Any well informed Nigerian knows that Peter Obi is the best among the three candidates in terms of mental sagacity and fidelity. True, he may not have been throwing money around because hard earned money is not easy to throw around. They claimed he has no strong political structure, but what could be stronger than honesty and trustworthiness?
The truth is in every one’s heart. We all know who is sincere among the three. Knowledge of this truth is the solid structure that we need to build a Peter Obi presidency upon.
Nigeria is once again at crossroads where the choice we make in the 2023 presidential election will make or mar our collective destiny as Nigerians. Our trajectory in the forth coming election will either consolidate the gains of the agitations of Nigerian youths for good governance or make futile those quests; thereby making those who lost their lives to have died but in vain.
Those who lost their lives in the various quests for a better Nigeria should not be allowed to die in vain. I remember four Nigerian youths who put their lives on the line in the wake of the June 12 crisis on October 25, 1993 by hijacking a plane bound to Abuja from Lagos. The plane was diverted to Niamey in Niger republic with the aim of using the hijack to seek the intervention of the international community about Nigeria’s political imbroglio.
Unfortunately, 24 years and still counting, these youths’ dreams of having the power to choose a leader of their own choice is yet to be actualized despite putting nine years of their precious lives on hold in an Ndjamena prison in hope of a better Nigeria.
We know the people that are responsible for the Lekki massacre, unless we willingly want to enter into the trap of self-deceit. It will be foolhardy to vote them into power. I hope the various lives that were lost during the EndSARS protest will not be in vain provided the Nigerian youths rise up enmasse to vote Peter Obi who is the best candidate for now who can fix our Nigeria. We need at this point empathetic leaders. To all Nigerian youths, once beaten twice shy.
Dr Gabriel Onajite David-Okoro
