CALL TO ACTION: BEWARE (OF) THE IDES OF FEBRUARY “If you are a patriotic Nigerian, permit me to envision you as Julius Caesar, the Roman leader whom William Shakespeare, the legendary late 16th and early 17th centuries’ England playwright, poet, and actor, wrote about. In the book, Julius Caesar, a soothsayer warned Caesar to ‘Beware the Ides of March.’ The clairvoyant cautioned the Roman leader to be attentive in the middle of March, termed the Ides of March in ancient Rome. Carelessly, the Roman leader threw down his gauntlet, and was viciously murdered by a cluster of politicians, led by two of his adherents, friends, and confidants – Brutus and Cassius. We could relate the primeval Roman tragedy to the forthcoming political showdown in Nigeria. The Nigerian face-off may not tarry till the middle of March. Rather, the citizens of Africa’s most populous nation should beware of the Ides of February! Nigerians should be wary of the middle of February, because the nation’s general elections are scheduled for Saturday, February 14, 2015. The Nigerian Brutus and Cassius, characterized by President Goodluck Jonathan and the ravenous clique in his party, are out with their chancy intrigues and treachery, warming up to slay you (the patriotic Nigerian Caesar) on February 14, 2015. Perceptive Nigerians need no supplementary explanations on why the nation can no longer afford President Jonathan and his party, after one-and-a-half decades of raiding the commonwealth. The ruling party has relegated Nigeria from the fountain of hope to a chasm of despondency. They have created an open sea of corruption for the slipshod public officials to swim unimpeded. Subsequently, no one respects Nigeria and Nigerians anywhere again. If you are one of those Nigerians who support decadent politicians on the basis of ethnic affinity, you are what the Yorubas christen an ‘Asiniwaye’ – the one who follows others to the world. Alternatively, if you support unethical office-bearers because you share a religion with them, you are one of those they call ‘Ero-Iworan’ – the mere spectators who watch and clap while others act and earn so much for doing so little. While the corrupt politicians’ children attend elitist schools abroad, live in exclusive mansions, and drive exotic cars, your own children spend six years to complete four-year degrees in strike-prone local ivory towers. You thrive on insufficient monthly pays, and generations of your offspring might dwell in poverty, because of your erroneous choice of backing shady politicians. President Jonathan, the lucky ruler of an unlucky people who needed a leader, had the prospect to shine, but he opted for dullness. More than ever, the Federal Republic of Nigeria needs a leader – a real man among men or a candid woman among women. The nation needs a tested pathfinder from the jungles of corruption, nepotism, sectionalism, incompetence, and religious bigotry. Posterity may not exonerate you for supporting corrupt politicians because they are from your region. Divinity may never forgive you for standing by fraudulent politicians on the basis of religious creed. It is time to relegate the machinery of sleaze called the People’s Democratic Party of Nigeria, PDP, to the inconsequential margin of history it belonged. Beware of the ides of February, 2015.” – DELE AJAJA
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:07:13 +0000
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