Chris Okotie Slams All Naysayers, Adding That Election Will Not Break Nigeria Apart (A Must Read)

Founder of the Household of God Church and former presidential candidate of Fresh Party, Reverend Chris Okotie in this article he titles ‘The light in this present darkness,’ says the upcoming presidential Nigerian election will not break the unity of the nation. He urges that whoever wins should embrace the loser just as Obama did to his then opponent Mitt Romney in the last presidential election. Read article below;

“The current general elections, especially the Presidential, should never be regarded as a referendum on the corporate survival of Nigeria as some misguided irredentists want us to believe. Those who threaten to set the nation on fire, if their preferred Presidential candidate loses, should be reminded that the critical issue of Nigeria’s existence as one indivisible nation was finally settled during the 30-month civil war.

Like Gen. Yakubu Gowon rightly said, at the end of the war: “no victor, no vanquished”. In the same vein, the real winners in the forthcoming elections are Nigerians, because we have managed to hold together for more than a century. Many older nations have disappeared from the world map; but Nigeria is still here; warts and all!

The civil war also showed unequivocally that sibling rivalries or quarrels, like internal differences in nations, are family affairs that need not degenerate into violent separation. Despite sabre-rattling by some ethnic jingoists prior to the just concluded National Conference, nobody or group tabled any request for secession. Clearly, it showed that the blood shed by our compatriots in Biafra wasn’t in vain. Our unity was purchased at a high price. But up till now, the wound has not fully healed. That’s why we should not stir ethnic and religious passions for cheap political advantage in these elections.

The acrimonies that mark the on-going campaigns are already creating an effluvium that is polluting the political environment, robbing it of the excitement expected of a maturing political class. We returned to representative democracy in 1999; if 16 years is not enough learning curve, what time do we need to catch up with Indonesia, Ghana, Botswana, Chile, India, Brazil and other developing countries which have continued to transit seamlessly, to the admiration of the world.

Our polity is looking very much like our national soccer team, the Super Eagles, who keep rebuilding, but never seem to be able to end rebuilding. As a nation, we seem to be ever learning, but never able to understand. Our predilection with work-in-progress accounts for half finished or abandoned projects that litter our national landscape. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is still uncompleted, despite it having been under construction since the days of military rule.

Beyond catchy campaign slogans, how those projects could be completed, and new realistic plans put forward to revamp the economy, ought to be the real issues on the table. Instead, we are daily inundated by repulsive, hate-driven campaign adverts that denigrate opponents, assassinate character and generally de-humanize opposing political contestants.

Our sensibilities are assaulted and our moral and cultural ethos brought to a new level of denigration, unprecedented, even for a badly fractured polity like ours. This certainly is not the politics Nigerians deserve after going through a harrowing 24 years’ experience with military rule, a 30-month civil war and the June 12 annulment crisis.

This is our fourth democratic project; the first three failed abysmally because of a combination of immaturity on the path of our key players and the refusal of an ambitious military to allow our democracy grow at its own pace. Today, although credit must be given to our armed forces for holding the country together after a terrible civil war, part of the sad legacy of that tragedy is the militarization of our polity. But I dare say, that is not an excuse not to up the ante in the current electioneering process.

We watched with admiration, how the Americans ran the last presidential elections. At a stage during the debate, the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney appeared to have upstaged the incumbent democratic candidate, President Barack Obama. In the end, Obama won, and Romney conceded. He was even hosted to a post-election dinner by the victorious Obama. That is the true spirit of democracy, unfortunately, we only imported the model but ignored the spirit of western democracy.

When a transition runs smoothly, the real winners are the voters, who actually wield real power by their franchise. Why voters should indulge in violent acts, to the extent of stoning candidates, burning party secretariats, is hard to explain; especially since the elections have not even held. What happens if expected winners lose in the end? Sponsors of the Abuja Peace Accord addressed these concerns when they got the Presidential hopefuls to commit to a written pledge to keep the peace before, during and after the polls. But nobody knows how the contestants could rein in their supporters who have been primed to take up arms if the results don’t go their way.

It is instructive to note that each time this country gravitates within the orbit of cataclysm, God always intervenes to save the situation. The battle line was drawn between Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime and Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola’s June 12 NADECO forces when, suddenly, the two principal actors died mysteriously, about 30 days apart.

Thus, the rumoured planned execution of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and other senior military officers held by the Abacha regime over an alleged phantom coup was averted. The light of God, in this case, shone brightly after these dark days to usher in the fourth republic under the leadership of Obasanjo, who stabilized the fragmented polity, which has produced two other Presidents after him.

We are in the process of another transition, which is creating jitters because of the incendiary, hate-filled campaigns we are experiencing. There’s now a dark pall over the elections, due to fears that they may be shifted due to the poor distribution of the PVC. Whatever decisions we take; what action we take; we must remember that Nigeria is more than any of us. We must make it survive. 

Transition in a democracy is the tonic that invigorates the process. It is never a smooth ride, even on the best of roads. These are the visions of my head in the twilight of meditation, before the present darkness envelopes the configuration of our faith and hope.”