WHY YOU SHOULD BOYCOTT 2019 NIGERIA ELECTIONS!

One who submits to be governed in a democracy must have a stake in it, if not, one has not only enslaved oneself, but had oneself locked in a ballot box and sooner or later will asphyxiate. The government of the people, by the people and for the people is a succinct definition that is self-explanatory. How and where this definition relates to or matches what is going on in Nigeria as government since the inception of civilian administration, no one can tell. If the people don’t have the government (are not sovereign) which is contracted in a constitution where they decide the supreme law of the land; if the people don’t have the mandate (their choice of leaders) which is in the will of the majority; and if the government is not accountable to the people (the indisputable stakeholders) which is in the keeping of the terms of the contract, then there is no democracy.

If it is not a democracy, what is it? What is Nigerian system of government called? Who in his right senses will call it a democracy? Federalism or unitary system that is contracted by who and who? What is this fuss all about PVC and voting? How long shall you be beaten before you quit? You do not have any right to criticize whoever you permit to govern you if you vote in any Nigerian election. For those of us who had been criticizing Buhari and his abysmal government since 2015, tend to feel justified, or revel in some kind of right-demand asseveration as one whose bidding ought to be done. But what majority of us still don’t know and can’t accept is that we don’t have any right, given the way Nigeria is fudged together. It is a phony government; a fraud of monumental scale.

The truth is that we don’t have a constitution, a legal document where we spell out the terms of our government, nor have Nigerians ever come together and agreed to create one. What supposed to be a constitution of Nigeria doesn’t resemble a constitution both in content, structure and context. It is a mumbo-jumbo bunch of meaningless letters drafted by the military junta and imposed on hundred and eighty million people since 1999. And it is clear that most of the youths who are itching to cast their vote have not read a page from out of that document that serves as Nigerian constitution. If you don’t know the terms of a contract, why would you sign the document (vote)? Imagine you sit in your father’s house and vaguely overheard people discussing outside on how to sell the house and all the property that belonged to your family. In a few seconds, a stranger walked in with a sheet of paper and asked you to sign that it is a document, an agreement regarding the sales? Would you ask for a pen or demand to know who the stranger is, who entered such an agreement, why was it entered and the terms and conditions. Of course, no sane person will not choose the latter and even threaten the stranger.

Unfortunately, Nigerians had chosen the former and are willing to renew the contract with zeal. We are asking for the pen to endorse our slavery, to sell our freedom, our lands, inheritance, patrimony to shrewd strangers who are plotting our destruction. Because we have some of our family members who were bribed, brothers who are debased and evil and had been sent by these strangers to convince us about the sell, we ignore the right process. We forgot to ask for the document to see what the plots are and how our deaths will come about.

Our ancestors were overpowered with guns by the white man and later hoodwinked into annexation of our lands, amalgamated it to the lands occupied by invading killers for the sole purpose of founding a business venture which will keep the entire region in perpetual servitude and service their greed. For more than hundred years, since 1914, the agreement signed by our unlettered fathers had allowed the British to steal our resources and control our lives till today. We honor these criminals, serve them with delectable while we stoop down on the floor to scavenge on the crumbs that hardly satisfied our hunger. Before they physically remove themselves from our land, they left us in an unnatural union, bound us with itinerant Jihadists whose wacky belief orders for execution of the infidels (you and me).

I won’t go into this history now lest I veer away from the main purpose of this essay. Let’s focus on how irrational it is for a Nigerian to cast a vote in an election. It is obvious that what presupposes an election in a democracy is a constitution, and one which is agreed upon and written by the voters. Do Nigerians have a constitution that they agreed upon and was written by them? When were Nigerians consulted to decide if they want to live together and how they would live together? How can such a fundamental issue be glossed over by youths who passed through tertiary institutions? To neglect a foundation of a house is to risk a collapse. Nothing has been working in Nigeria that is endowed with enviable resources and potentials. The basic things of life including food is being denied them and people who believed they are thinking are blaming someone else. It is Buhari who is clueless and inept. It is my governor who is diverting the state money into private coffer. It is Ohaneze ndi Igbo who has not brought any single development to the region.

No, it is none of them, but ourselves who had constantly plotted our own destruction. It is ourselves who had been wooed to believe in a government that is apparently fraudulent. It is ourselves who go with our voter’s card to reequip these political bandits by renewing their holds on our common treasury. We cast a vote ignorantly and ready to shun anybody who wish to enlighten us on the futility of the exercise. You spew every stupid reason to defend a stupid belief in voting. Now listen!

Since we don’t own a constitution, we have relinquished every right to objections in a government. Those whom we ignorantly ask to preside over us, by this very reason, do not owe us any obligation because we have never stated what our demands are. There is no contract! If they don’t repair our roads, equip our hospitals and schools; if the politicians don’t pay our salaries, pensions and gratuities; if they ban importation of food stuff into our lands; if they close all our ports and raise import duty, and if they embark of anti-developmental policies, we don’t have any right to demand for explanations.

The union of Nigeria by different ethnic nationalities is not a choice but coercion. We are held under duress by threats of war and destruction if we resist. We are defeated, subjugated and enslaved by folks whose primary goal is to annihilate us. We are jumping up with PVC as though it makes any difference. With your PVC we are reinforcing our enslavement, and if they perfected their plans to wipe us out, it is our ignorant that killed us.

What sense does it make to remain in a union with a group who wants to impose sharia law that calls for your heads as infidel? Some folks are clamoring for restructuring and I consider such cowardly. They were asking for restructuring as though if guns are not on their heads, and they have the option of leaving the union, they will still remain. The truth is that they are asking for restructuring, which in their opinion, is a fair demand than secession that will infuriate their captors. The truth is that all who want restructuring actually want Nigeria to split into the three major ethnic lines. They argued that they want the system restructured to strike balance and enthrone justice in the union. That is not true. They want restructuring because they are spineless to demand for a split. If we are not honest and seek out safety on time, we are going to pay with our bloods. If we are afraid of war and dying now, death will eventually catch up with us, either starvation, or by the sword of religious lunatics.

If we boycott the election, it is not only going to shake the establishment, but will attract the attention of the international community. If the purpose of the boycott is to protest and demand for a separate republic, it will become a burning issue and will be given a priority. Boycotting an election is an effective protest strategy to vent your dissatisfaction over our slavish condition. But if we remain in this ungodly union by voting, soon or later, we shall be overrun by the killers, whose thirst for conquest is illimitable. They will kill us and take our land to establish a caliphate as they are already establishing in the middle belt.