Today, we come your way with a conversation between two friends — This writer (hereinafter called PADDYMAN) and the undecided voter (hereinafter called UNDECIDED).
UNDECIDED: Paddyman, good morning sir. Long time no see.
PADDYMAN: Good morning, my dear. How are things?
UNDECIDED: Fine, Oga you de write o! So, na from this head all the grammar de flow, eh? You de try.
PADDYMAN: Thank you, my brother. Remember what they say: Monkey smart, monkey smart, na because tree near tree. Many things are happening in this country now; and there is a lot to write. How do you see the campaign so far?
UNDECIDED: The politicians are here again scampering for our votes. After the elections, nobody will see them again until 4 years time.
At times, we get confused because they are all saying the same thing and making the same promises, which are largely carried out more in the bridge than in the observance….
Worse still, their so-called Manifestos are so alluring and glossy that they reduce original textbooks to nonsense. In the face of all these, one easily gets confused on how to vote.
PADDYMAN: You are right, my brother. All the same, you must resist the temptation to judge a book by its cover.
In any situation, the truth does not hide for too long. It must come up.
Incidently, these men are not new to us. They have served in other places before now. From their past records, you must by now begin to see who amongst them has the capacity and the competence to pull Nigeria out of the mess in which it finds itself today. It is about the honesty of purpose. You must now take a stand because those who stand for nothing can easily fall for anything.
One bad turn deserves another. If you tell one lie today, you must be prepared to tell more lies tomorrow so as to sustain the old lie.
It is allowed to lie about your age and your taxable income but don’t get caught. But if a man yanks off 20 years from his age, he will at a point destroy his First and Second School Leaving Certificates when it begins to occur to him that these certificates predate his new age. For whatever they are worth, campaigns have a way of dancing around such situations. After all, honesty begets honesty.
Campaigns are good. Even more important than the campaign messages, you must constantly look at the mouth of the campaigner. A man who rides into office through lies cannot be too straight on getting into office….
UNDECIDED: What do we make of all the slip of tongue on these campaign trips?
PADDYMAN: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the father of Psychoanalysis, would have us believe that there is nothing like slip of tongue. That which we call slip of tongue may, indeed, be the working of the inner mind, the subconscious mind.
All those Freudian Slips are simply demonstrations of incompetence.
UNDECIDED: What of the Obedience Movement that is blowing across the land like a wildfire in the harmattan? Someone has likened it to Andrews Lever Salt. Empty a pocket of it into a glass of water, it foams up and immediately settles down; leaving the water to find its actual level.
PADDYMAN: That is the movement of the people! Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was perhaps one of the earliest people who saw tomorrow. The Obedience Movement is an idea whose time has come and nothing beats it!
The movement is growing from strength to strength. Unlike their Andrews Lever Salt, it is not settling in a glass. Rather, it is permeating all the nooks and crannies of the country and far beyond.
The old order who are threatened to the very foundation by the Movement have attacked it in all fronts but to no avail.
They claim it has no structure but we have seen that it is the only organisation that has structures up to Ekudo, Uwemuwe, and Osagie Camp! People make up structures and there is no hamlet in Nigeria where Obedience has no people.
They do their business quietly; like no other. Their campaigns are devoid of mudslinging, smear tactics, insinuations, innuendos that were characteristic of the dirty politics of yesteryears.
UNDECIDED: People say Peter Obi may become President but he will not have a comfortable majority at the National Assembly to see his measures through. They say he may even be impeached.
PADDYMAN: The Obedience Movement believes that a General should not be fighting in many fronts at the same time. Wage your war in one front at a time.
Obi was govenor of Anambra State under APGA but the Legislature was totally PDP. He worked successfully in that situation.
When a Leader is focused, he can work with any type of Legislators.
Today, Nigeria is faced with problems of insecurity, stagflation, corruption; and so on.
The Legislators of every party are Nigerians first and Legislators after that. They are as much affected as any of us by any of the problems.
In fact, they would be prepared to pay any price to have any of the problems solved.
Nigeria is desperately in need of survival. Let us assume that in the first month of coming to office, Obi rakes in some ₦3 Trillion from the stoppage of the fuel subsidy scam that has been plaguing the country all these years; He blocks the oil theft that has brought the country to its knees; and we are able to resume our daily production of 1.8 million barrels. Now he is bringing to the National Assembly a measure to stamp out insecurity in the country. Which Legislator of any party will oppose that measure?
Legislators are the most patriotic set of people you can think of when the need arises. We have seen this at work. In 1982, the World Economic Order was collapsing. Nigeria was in a mess.
At one point, President Shehu Shagari decided that something must be done. He introduced the ECONOMIC STABILIZATION BILL to an otherwise rancorous National Assembly of the NPN/NPP – UPN era.
In spite of their bitter differences, that bill remains the fastest Bill that ever went through the National Assembly: The President presented the Bill to a joint session of both Houses in the morning of that fateful day; by noon of that day, the Bill had been passed by both Chambers, we quickly authenticated the passed Bill and forwarded same to President Shagari for assent. That was how the Bill became Law before the close of business on that same day!
UNDECIDED: Thanks a lot for the enlightenment. I now know that when it comes to the soul of Nigeria, Nigerians are unbeatable in patriotism. That explains why the Obedience Movement is gaining momentum by the day.
Come to think of it, our Elders realise that the easiest way of perpetuating evil is for good people to do nothing in the face of tyranny, hence the avalanche of endorsements pouring into the Obedience camp. From now on, me and my household, we are Obedient.
PADDYMAN: You’re welcome, Brother.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HON Josef Omorotionmwan writes from Canada