The last time I painstakingly checked, Nigeria had entered yet another political era that is meant to usher in another interregnum in the country’s political system. The last time Nigerians witnessed such a moment was in 2018.
We aren’t unaware that a period of this kind is usually characterized with a lot of intrigues and intricacies, hence this very one wouldn’t be exceptional.
Soonest various political parties domiciled in the country would, according to the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), be involved in their respective primary elections towards nominating the candidates that would be posing as their flag-bearers for the impending polls.
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This implies that, at the moment, several aspirants are littered all over Nigeria in the name of looking forward to occupying the number one seat in the country, or any other post, as the case may be, after the awaited expiration of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
Presently, each of these aspirants is deeply involved in consultation tours across the length and breadth of the country. In the visit, he would be opportune to meet with the leadership of the political party in which he belongs.
In every tour any of them embarked upon, as the custom demands, he is expected to therein formally disclose to the hosting group his intention to vie for a certain political seat come 2023. He would equally be required to tender his mission statement. In other words, he would be expected to tell the people what he intends to achieve if eventually elected as the President or what have you.
A tradition of this type didn’t commence now or this year. It’s needless to state that it has been one of the features of any pre-electioneering era. It’s noteworthy that, in most cases, the hosting group is usually induced with a huge sum of money with the aim of seeking their collective support.
However, it’s also worthy of note that, at such a time like this, most of these aspirants are mere pretenders while just a few are contenders. What I’m saying in essence is that most of these men who have disclosed interest to emerge as Nigeria’s President, for instance, come 2023, are only pretenders whilst only few of them are truly seeking for the number one position.
It’s imperative for us to comprehend that those I referred to as pretenders are only interested in distracting the electorate. It suffices to assert that they do not have any iota of mission as regards the impending presidential race. Their only concern is to distract the mindsets of the unsuspecting Nigerians with a view to causing havoc at the polls.
This set of aspirants is very dangerous, to assert the least. Some of them are looking for an avenue where they would make money through the so-called aspiration. What they do is; in the long run, they would decide to merge with, or throw their support behind, other aspirants, hence would expect the benefiting aspirant to lobby, or present gratification to, them.
Similarly, some of them are only interested in making themselves popular. They are of the view that by printing posters and posing on various banners and billboards as well as social media, Nigerians would get to know that someone like them truly exists. Hence, in the future, they would irritably be criticizing the government in power by presenting themselves as one-time presidential aspirants or contestants.
The point is that this set of aspirants is visionless and lacks Nigerian blood in their system. This is so because, anyone who really possesses the said blood or who such blood flows in his veins will never attempt to deceive the good people of the country let alone looking forward to defrauding them.
Nigerians, therefore, are required to beware of this ugly happening. They must acknowledge that not all that glitters is actually gold. They must understand that among these numerous aspirants, most of them could simply be described as vampires, because their only mission is to suck the blood of innocent people of the country.
On the other hand, they must equally take into cognizance that we still have contenders in the midst of these aspirants. They need to comprehend that there are those who truly want to emerge the president of the country and actually possess genuine mission and vision.
The fact is that the contenders among the countless aspirants are just a few of them. Why it is amazing is that, if the electorate are wise and cautious enough, they can easily detect the pretenders amidst the aspirants. It’s very easy to separate the pretenders from the contenders because by their steps and speeches, we shall know them.
Against this backdrop, I challenge my fellow Nigerians to become wiser than the serpent. They need to become much more awake to enable them to separate the chaff from the grains. They cannot be able to do so if they refuse to become wiser than the serpent.
The pretenders need to be fished out as soon as possible with a view to enabling the electorate to concentrate on only the contenders towards averting any form of distraction at the polls. And, the time to do so is now.
We cannot continue to claim that Nigeria is made up of discerning individuals and groups, yet these deceits would have the opportunity to play on their collective intelligence.