Putting your money where your mouth is

We’ve been besieged by readers’ fights on social media for months on end…as part of the political campaigns and political season. As is usual, the fights went down tribal, religious lines( and anything other line it was possible to divide us against).

Now the hour is here as we say, when we put our money where our mouth is, where we take physical steps to support  the strong strong stance(s) we’ve taken over the past couple of months . Those fights in the offices and at the bar, need translate only to two things- physically going to get your PVC( yes I finally have mine)…and then getting up to go to your ward in the morning of the 28th of March to vote your choice.

No social media commentator deserves audience on the social media scene without a PVC  whether you be on Twitter,  Facebook, Instagram or any other platform. It is important so we rise above e-noise alone which doesn’t help us elect the right person to oversee 170million of us.

I was startled when two of my friends mentioned casually that they’d be journeying outside the country, my eyes widened as my mouth popped the question- aren’t you voting?…they both had the grace to explain that it was a journey of true necessity and way pre planned. One of them had played host to a wide circle of  debaters at her house, so I felt a little betrayed at her response.  I do hope there are others who aren’t considering the 28th to be ‘just another Saturday’.

I often try hard not to lend my voice to critising of our great nation, as I often say to myself there’s already too much bad out there about us. However recently during a conversation with a friend, I had course to recall a piece from a dutch turned Nigerian had written  about us- the piece had left me with mixed feelings at the time- first because  whether naturalized or not, I didn’t think it was in her place to help us pick out a negative ; (brings to mind the Yoruba adage which says there’s nothing like ‘bami nor omo mi’; ‘help beat/reprimand my child’). Still I knew in my heart that she spoke more truths then I dared acknowledge.

In that particular article by Femke she had said the biggest problem we had as a nation was ‘settling’( I’m putting it nicer than the article had). She said in her view we always just accepted things as they were rarely demanding more. I tried recently to make the link between her theory and a story a friend told me about how it took  nothing to break their resolve in 2012 when they decided to support the persons who were ‘occupying Nigeria  for various causes’.. ..She reports that the grocery stores had  been shut for upwards of three days following the demonstrations, she felt starved of ice cream, Indomie and her usual haves and  thought to herself ‘I have no energy to continue this’.The point im trying to make is that we need resolve, staying power- long queues at the polling booth or not, stay the course and cast your vote. That’s the way we can get a better Nigeria-when we choose the right leader. Similar to happy Sunday, happy weekend, I’m going to wish you  Happy Voting!.

Nkiru Olumide-Ojo