FEATURE ARTICLE

Ejike OnuoguTuesday, April 12, 2011
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New York, USA

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NIGERIAN ELECTIONS OF 2011:
FINALLY A LIGHT EMERGES AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

he thrill has not stopped, and the drums are still beating. The songs send echoes of a triumphant entry into a new phase of Nigerian politics. It is a phase where the common man can finally breathe Alleluya and sleep with satisfaction that yes, for once, his vote has come to count.


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It is a new day for democracy in Nigeria, it is a new tide in the wave of our political dispensation where it used to be business as usual and political godfatherism held sway and afflicted untold hardship on Nigerians through the emergence of bizarre characters who stained the corridors of prudent leadership.

Today, Nigerians can hold their heads high and applaud, and be grateful to the INEC leadership, as well as her Commander-In-Chief, President Goodluck Jonathan who stood firm and upheld the ideals of social justice. The message reveraberating across the globe is unanimous, succint and sentimental. Nigerians are proud to be associated with a performance par excellence where the ruling party lost ground in many a district, yet the President and INEC Assembly pursued the honorable path of ''Let right be done.''

However, Nigerians must not rest on their oars at this time. The battle is just beginning, the road to victory is still far. Nigerians must continue this fight which is a victory for evalengelical revolution . It is a victory rooted in our faith in the power of light over darkness; it is moratorium on spritual wickedness in high places and on the protagonists of injustice and inhumanity who for decades have taken the Nigerian nation hostage leaving a multitude of poor men and women struggling with scars of a wounded legion.

If today marks the beginning of new era in the arena of good governance, I can comfortably re-echo the Igbo proverb "Ta bu Gbo", meaning, "It is not yet late."

Good governance is contagious and evolutionary as well as enduring. It is the emergence of some unique governors and administrators that seems to have turned the table around, making Nigerians believe once more that"The Good" live amongst us, but we have to search hard to find and empower them with the staff of public office.

Hitherto, Nigerians were bedeviled by the ugly aspect of rear-door elections and apointments, the institutionalization of mediocrity as well as the "fat calf syndrome " of Political Godfathers appointing imbeciles as representatives of the people at both the State and National Assembly. The end result was predictable. No bills were passed, or even when passed were not essentially critical to the matters of the day. In fact we got to point where the people seemed fed up with the modus operandi of our Leglislators, in that business of the day was invariably connected with the "Ghana must go " emolument, and the work of the people totally abandoned.

Sadly enough years roled by and the Nigerian Nation slowly but progressively witnessed the erosion of her ecological pride; millions of dollars realized from crude oil sale vanish into thin air, leaving us a nation that is structurally, morally, intellectually, ecenomically and technologically bankrupt. Our educational institutions have collapsed into warehouses of cultism and redundancy. The foothold we gained immediately post-independence was lost on a template of political adulteration of a culture of hierachy and accomplishment in our civil service structure; not to talk about the loss of the checks and balances enshrined to protect the civil service from vandalization.

Political advisers at tiers of government service must represent men and women of unparalled integrity, who are ready to speak truth to power. Leadership is helped more by dissenting opinions rather than the "I agree with you, Sir" attitude which has weaved and sustained hegemony at most cabinet meetings.

Having said that, I believe that the good days of Nigeria are still ahead of us. It seems the light has finally emerged at the end of the tunnel. The results of the recently concluded elections lay credence to this hypothesis and serve not only as a catalyst to this strategic equation in the history of Nigeria, it is also a divine fuel that lights the way forward towards ensuring that we vote our conscience and persuasion in our travel towards building a batter nation.

Needless to say that we owe it to our children and generations to come, that this light continues to burn bright and not be extinguished in our time.

Ejike Onuogu, MD, MSc. is an Attending Psychiatrist in New York

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