This is a follow-up to our previous article entitled, "Will the 2023 Election Avert the Looming Danger in Nigeria?' In the present article, we posit the same question as follows:

ill your PVC put a stop to all these Fulani herdsmen militias and Islamists terrorism of kidnapping, banditry, killing and destruction of lives and property of civilians and Christians in Nigeria? Will your PVC put a stop to the terrorists' burning alive of Catholic priests, pastors, and other church leaders? The continued killing of ordinary Christian worshippers as well as the continued abduction of school children, stoning to death of Christian students by Muslim extremists, and the destruction of the communities and farmlands of the indigenous ethnic nationalities and Christians in the Middle-Belt and Southern regions, and the ethnic minorities in the Northern Nigerian Sharia States by the same terrorists?'

Will your PVC or even election of a Christian or Muslim candidate from the South as President, put a stop to all these things: kidnapping, killing, banditry and destruction of lives and property of Christians and other peoples of different Indigenous ethnic communities in the country?

By the way, how do you think your PVC or votes during the forthcoming already determined (rigged), fraudulent 2023 elections, is going to change anything in Nigeria? In Nigeria, where both the PVC and INEC (Independent Electoral Commission), are controlled by the same people, the Northern Caliphate Oligarchy, who themselves, are complicity in most of the Islamists' insurgency and herdsmen terrorism - kidnapping, banditry, killing and destruction of communities and businesses of ordinary citizens taking place in the country today? Have you ever heard the Aso Rock (Abuja, State House or President Buhari himself), come out to condemn vehemently or go after any of those Islamists, Muslims and Fulani killer-herdsmen (a.k.a bandits), responsible for the carnage and insecurity in the land - the ongoing killings, kidnapping, banditry and destructions of innocent civilians, Christians and Indigenous ethnic communities in the country?

Again. Mind you, the reason why we insist on referendum for self-determination of the indigenous peoples in Nigeria is because we want the people to be alive. We want the people to live and be alive. None of the presidential candidates for the 2023 elections is going to guarantee your security of lives and property in Nigeria, today or tomorrow. None of them can guarantee the security of your life and property in Nigeria! Moreover, election of any of them as President of Nigeria or whatever, is not going to stop either the Boko Haram, ISIS-ISWAP insurgency or the killings going on in the country. Neither can it stop the Fulani herdsmen terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, destruction of farmlands and killings of innocent civilians happening in Nigeria today!

None of the three major Presidential candidates, or any other candidate, for that matter, becoming the President of Nigeria today, is going to guarantee your safety and well-being in Nigeria, today or tomorrow. We have been conducting elections and electing these politicians since Nigeria's flag Independence in 1960, and the end result have always being the same - insecurity, bloodbaths, underdevelopment and backwardness.

So, tell me, will any of those Presidential candidates for the 2023 elections, going to affect any positive and courageous change on the military and police, controlled by one ethno-religious group, the Fulani Muslim North? Will any of those three major Presidential candidates going to effect any change in the military and police that everybody knows is today, controlled by the Islamists terrorists who have infiltrated the Nigerian military and police? Will any of the three major Presidential candidates, for example, becoming President tomorrow, going to stop the Fulani herdsmen militants and terrorists from further penetrating the military, police and other security apparatus in Nigeria? Will any of the three major Presidential candidates stop the Northern Muslim Oligarchy from controlling the three-arms of the Federal Government, the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary arms of the government, as well as Military and Police, DSS, and what have you in nation's security apparatus?

Will any of the three major Presidential candidates or whosoever, becoming President of Nigeria tomorrow, going to change the Northern Nigeria Muslim domination, preponderance and control of the National Assembly and the Judiciary or Security Operatives? Tell me, if the Christian Presidential Candidate from the Southeast, for example, becomes the President of Nigeria tomorrow, with what National Assembly is he going to work with? Is it this National Assembly that is dominated by the Muslim Fulani North? How many legislators in the National Assembly are going to support him? How many of them are going to be elected on the platform of his own apparently, relatively known political Party? Even if he happens to get a kind of a majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives (which everyone knows is impossible), how are you sure that those members of his party from the 12 Sharia States of the Muslim North, will not cross-carpet the following day? To form majority with the party controlled by one of their kinsmen? Especially, in Nigeria where ethnic and religious allegiance hold sway over and above national interest and political cohesion. After all, we have precedence in the defunct Western Nigeria House of Assembly, when the Great Zik of Africa who won in the Parliamentary elections in that region with the NCNC votes, was sent packing and back to the Eastern region where he came from, by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The beginning and mother of ethnic politics in the British Nigeria and in Southern Nigeria of all places!

Therefore, tell me: How a Christian President from the Southeast, for example (or even from any part of the South or Middle-Belt), can function as President under the present fraudulent structure and political system of Nigeria, that is by far, controlled by the Fulani and the North majority dominated National Assembly? Obasanjo tried it and couldn't succeed, in spite of all the advantages he has as an ex-military general and former military head of state, who fought for Nigeria against Biafra. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, a civilian also tried it, but couldn't succeed. Before them, Aguiyi Ironsi tried it before the January 15 1966 Military Mutiny and we all know how he ended up, the catastrophic events that followed his regime. Recently, both Abiola (a Muslim), and Earnest Shonekon (both Yoruba from the Southwest), tried it and we also know how each of them ended up. The rest is now history. Now, tell me, how do you think that anybody from the Southeast (or thereabouts, from the Southern Nigeria), becoming president of Nigeria tomorrow, is going to perform the desired 'miracle' that will bring the needed positive change and social transformation or security of lives and property in Nigeria? You are joking!

Under what platform or rather political structure, philosophy of life, value system and worldview then is the supposedly anointed 'Christian President of Nigeria' from the Southeast, for example, going to function as President? That is, assuming that election takes place in 2023, and the Fulani Oligarchy and British allow him to be proclaimed elected President in 2023, which we know will never happen. But assuming he wins the election, tell me how he is going to function under such a fraudulent structure, political system and Sharia-inspired 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended?

Please, my friends, don't allow yourself be deceived! Don't allow yourself be used by those who want to use you and use your so-called 'Elections or PVC', to validate Nigeria's continued existence through the 2023 fraudulent elections, your continued enslavement and subjugation in that British contraption, called Nigeria! All because of wickedness, hatred, jealousy and envy, and because of their lust for power, domination, monetary inducement and selfish interests.

Therefore, if you like, continue to deceive yourself, thinking that your voter's card, PVC or election in 2023, is going to bring anything positive in Nigeria! It won't. Rather, if the 2023 election is allowed to take place at all, the event of the genocidal Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970), and the present Islamists' carnage and Fulani herdsmen terrorism in the country, happening under the watch of Buhari-led Jihadist-driven regime, will look like a child's play! God forbid!

The only thing therefore, that can avert the looming danger is not election or PVC. Neither is it a change of personnel, no matter how morally upright or righteous, the candidate may claim he or she is. What Nigeria needs is not another political election under the present dispensation, but rather a referendum for self-determination of the endangered Indigenous ethnic populations and nationalities, that were logged together under colonial fiat by the British in 1914, and named Nigeria! Referendum for self-determination is what every right-thinking person in the country should be clamoring for by now! Not another political election or change of personnel that will still end up fraudulent and shambolic as always. There is no security and no enabling environment for any credible political election to take place in Nigeria today.

Any election conducted in Nigeria today under the present dispensation and general state of insecurity, will end up like the previous ones, fraudulent and scam. More importantly, "No political election conducted in Nigeria today, that is not referendum for self-determination, is going to stop the Islamists and Fulani herdsmen terrorism and carnage; or the state of insecurity and political instability in the country." No amount of the ongoing sponsored youths/comedians and celebrities' shenanigans, all those 'hired' or rather 'rented' crowds and uninformed individuals, who are being deceived and are busy wasting their time campaigning for their so-called favored presidential candidate, for the 2023 Presidential election, or whatever, is going to change anything! Rather their actions are going to embolden the Islamists' insurgency, herdsmen terrorism, military and police brutality and recklessness in the country, all the more!

Only referendum for self-determination of the indigenous ethnic nationalities who want to opt out of Nigeria to form their own sovereign independent state, is the most viable option and answer to the country's chronic problem of insecurity, violence, and especially, of Islamists and Fulani herdsmen terrorism, kidnapping, banditry; and continued historical political instability and killings in the country! Referendum for self-determination of the indigenous ethnic nationalities is the only viable solution and the remaining option, to the problem with Nigeria!

"The tribal divisions that remain in Nigeria are so deep that the unity and stability of the country will continue to be elusive! The problem with Nigeria is the country's dangerous diversity, Fulani herdsmen terrorism, lust for power and domination." Only a referendum for self-determination, can put a stop to all these!

A word is enough for the wise!

Fr. Francis Anekwe Oborji is a Roman Catholic Priest, is Professor Ordinarius of contextual theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome.