The year, 2019, had come and gone, and we are now in 2020. We thank the Almighty God for making us get to this day. 2019 had not been easy. It had not been a jolly ride. 2019 was an election year, and Nigerians do not joke with election. They see it as “a do or die” affair, “a make or a break”.
Already, some prophets of doom had come with their usual bad news: what to expect in 2019. They said they saw war in Nigeria; they saw blood flowing in the country; they saw catastrophes, etc. We were afraid. We were apprehensive. We were disturbed. We were worried.
Looking back at 2018, it looked as if the predictions by these doomsday prophets would come to pass. The primary elections by the various political parties aimed at selecting their flag bearers for the main elections were characterized with intrigues, intimidation and shortchanges of popular candidates. This had resulted to bad blood, acrimony and rancour, among members of these political parties, and to some physical combats.
The year 2019, thus opened for us with fear, uncertainty, and trepidation. We held our hearts in our hands. All the same, we prayed that nothing untoward should happen.
As the year 2019 began, and the date for the elections fast approached, the man at the helm of affairs in the country began to plan for the exercise. He looked at the man presiding over the judiciary, the role he would likely play in the outcome of the elections. He was not very comfortable with the man, and he was not prepared to take any risk. So he opened the man’s file and found some skeletons in his cupboard, that the man did not properly declare his assets.
He then invited one of his attack dogs, the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), to deal with the man. So, early in 2019, we were told that head of the judiciary was not clean, and that the CCT had issued him with a query. But before the man could pick up his pen to answer the query, he was shown the way out. Thereupon, a man after their hearts, was immediately brought in to replace him. We shouted, made some noises, that the man was not fairly treated, but nobody listened to us.
Meanwhile, we had started warming up for the elections. On the eve of the first day of the exercise, many people travelled to the various places where they registered in readiness to cast their votes, the next day. At about the mid night, they woke up to hear that elections would no longer hold on that day, that it had been postponed. They were disappointed, downcast.
Why the eleventh hour postponement? Why did they allow people to travel out from their places of residence before announcing the postponement? Why did they allow people to waste their resources, time and all that, only to be told that elections would no longer hold? That would be too callous, wickedness and insensitive.
All these notwithstanding, the people still resolved to come out in their numbers whenever the exercise would hold so as to be able to exercise their democratic right, their right to franchise.
Then on the day of the rescheduled election, the people came out to the field to cast their votes, only to see the entire place filled with stern-looking security personnel, army, police, civil defence, etc. armed to the teeth, wielding automatic rifles. They began to shiver, and became afraid.
Some of those who could not withstand the sight, quickly returned to their homes and did not vote, while those who thought that they could brave it, met their ugly experiences. Many of them were felled by the bullets, while several others returned to their homes bearing serious wounds. The rest ran to different places for their dear lives.
This provided excellent opportunities for those who planned the barefaced political robbery, to have a field day, begin to snatch ballot boxes, to stuff them with thumb-printed ballot papers for their candidates. At the end of the day, some humongous results were announced as the outcome of the elections.
When the people complained, that the results announced had no bearing with the realities on ground, our President told them that those who were not satisfied with the results “should go to court”! The people were not happy with that statement. They were disappointed. They were annoyed. They recoiled to their tents.
The people already knew that the judiciary would not give them justice because the courts had been compromised. They knew that those who sit at the temple of justice had been harassed, cowed and intimidated. In other words, many of them would not be bold to say what they knew to be the true situation of things.
Some of those who took part in the elections, who knew that they were robbed of victory, decided not to go to court to challenge the result, while those who went to court came back with the stunning defeats.
Generally, democracy is about allowing people freedom to exercise their franchise in elections, to vote for candidates of their choice. But in the present Nigerian democracy now issues through the barrel of the guns, through harassment and intimidation, which is a mockery of democracy.
At the end of that charade called 2019 elections, those who survived the ordeal were visited with more hardships. The Value Added Tax (VAT), was increased from 5% to 7.5%, while taxes were introduced both for bank deposits and for withdrawals, Nigeria still remains the headquarters of world poverty, even as the country’s borders were closed to prevent goods from coming into the country.
Nigeria thus became a mere garrison, a prison yard, with millions of people living there suffering and suffocating – no employment, no basic amenities, etc.
This, no doubt, had led to increase in criminal activities, in particular, kidnapping, which has turned to be a lucrative business. Once somebody is kidnapped, the kidnappers would be expecting some handsome ransoms before the victims were released. Those who were not able to meet their demands were brutally killed.
There is no doubt therefore, that 2019 was a very hard and tough year for many Nigerians. Those of us who managed to have survived will continue to give God all the glory and to pray that 2020 will be better than 2019.
HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR EVERY ONE OF YOU.
