Yusuf Ishaku Goje
2023 will be a defining moment for this great but troubled country. No doubt we are at a crossroad. The excessive desperation of our political elites signifies the implosion waiting to happen. If this is not managed constructively it will spillover – thereby making the current bad economic and social situation worse.
We the people have a major role to play in ensuring we are not susceptible to being manipulated or used. We must resist the vicious divide and rule strategies that take advantage of our fault lines. We must remember that poverty and hunger do not recognize religion, ethnicity, region or party affiliation.
We cannot afford to commercialize our conscience – our support should not be to the highest bidder. We should not be used to destabilize the only country we can claim ancestry. It is better to be in a dysfunctional country, with at least a ray of hope things will change one day, than being a refugee in another man’s country – with no rights but dependent on the charity of others which is not sustainable.
We should ensure we support and vote for candidates based on merits not primordial sentiment or deceptive generosity. We must seriously scrutinize all that throw in their hats into the political ring. We must ensure they have the character, credibility, competence, capacity, compassion and creativity to save a dying nation.
We the people have the power to make 2023 a turning point for the better. This is so because we will almost always get the leaders we deserve. We are the people and the power belongs to us. What we do with that power is what will make the difference.
