Open letter to the Northerners
My dear fellow Northerners, I greet you in the spirit of love and mutual respect. It is less than 14 months to the 2019 general elections, looking how time flies, because it was just like a year or month, that 2015 has speedily come and gone, therefore, I hope in 2019 electioneering period, it would be a year of revival in our polity.
Absolutely, I am writing this letter with much concern regarding our attitude towards engagement with politicians and politics. Because, there is no way we can get a positive result and progress, while we continue to do things in the same way for many years. To tell the truth, let’s all help ourselves and put our hands together, irrespective of our affiliation, to regenerates our mindset, for the betterment of the Northern Nigeria and our beloved Nigeria at large. We have no alternative region beyond Northern Nigeria, and we have no alternative country beyond Nigeria. So if we make the country or the region congenial, no one would enjoy it better than us.
Because, it’s only we, the populace, that can make the change, owing to the apparent facts, that the political leaders can only get to the leadership mantle via our mandate and without any other option above it. The power of change is in our hands!
Henceforth, there are numerous things we need to do to transform and alleviate Northern Nigeria, prior to the 2019 general elections. In this instance, I think we should have to start emulating our counterpart in the “Southwest”, especially in this nature. Because it’s evident during electioneering period, stakeholders in the Southwest used to engage candidates in town hall meetings and organized public gathering, making interaction and rubbing minds together with them. They submit their written regional agenda, devoid of individual interests or needs. As an ardent follower of the Southwest politics, right from 2007, 2011, and 2015, I witnessed how they engaged President Muhammadu Buhari in “Mapo Hall Ibadan”, in an open, intellectual discussion. Likewise the other candidates, they were also drilled in the same manner.
But alas, the reverse is the case in the North. I pray that this time around, it’s not going to be business as usual. It’s not going to be the same practice, whereby, the mammoth crowd will be shouting in a stadium or square, when a candidate arrived for a campaign, making a vociferous noise saying “Sai Kayi”, without inviting him/her to a special public discourse or town hall meeting, in order to assess the capability and eligibility of the candidate. Thus, making a bond with the candidate, forwarding our terms and demands so that if the candidate emerge on the seat, he would abide by the peoples’ mandate!
First, we shouldn’t ignore voting, we need to consistently continue voting with shrewdness and wisdom. Because there is no alternative process for choosing our leaders within the system of government which our nation is practising now, beyond election! So we shouldn’t be dissuading with some failures of the incumbency. Nothing stands for eternity.
Secondly, we must ensure that we strive to elect those who can make the system of governance function within the ambit of law. Therefore, we should assess the integrity, capability, and sophistications of the candidates, regardless of their wealth, or sectional, religious, and ethnic affiliation. Because a patriotic leader accommodate everybody and give them sense of belonging, through protecting others religion, rights and ethnicity.
Thirdly, we must learn from our past mistakes, and we should kindly read history, so that we could take proactive measures in the present time. Reading history will also enable us to know the ills of the past, during the former government, and it will immensely help us, not to be taking a palliative measures.
And, we must adopt the culture of persuading good people; who are educated to join politics. Because if we continue allowing naive, and myopic minds to dominate politics, they will surely pass foolish laws and policies which all of us must comply with it. We must make the best use of the good people we have.
Finally, we should give community service priority, and make it a major prerequisite to those who are seeking for political office. This is a clarion call. May God help us and bless Northern Nigeria and Nigeria at large.
Jabir T. Usman, Kaduna South, Kaduna.