Nigeria’s presidential 2023 general elections are increasingly looking like soap operas, much like the United States version. The stagecraft is getting better, response to trends, even more so.
What can beat how quickly e mi lo kan! has become a lingo, even turned around by its initiator and members of his party, thereby removing the negative toga it initially had. E mi lo kan (literally: “it’s my turn”) is now fun to mouth! Trends are emerging in this election cycle.
One of the most enduring trends is the unprecedented number of young people, in their millions, demanding to have PVCs. And some of our celebrities that are usually in cuckoo land, far removed from daily realities, are mobilizing their fans to take an active interest in the elections. With millions of new voters going through the trouble of obtaining PVCs, there is every likelihood that they will take the trouble to vote too.
The elections next year will certainly be like no previous election.
The interest in who governs the country being shown by young people is a huge positive for Nigeria. The youths have long been accused of focusing on unimportant issues – bling, status, easy lucre, hedonism; in fact, described as lazy and just going through the motions until there is a japa opportunity.
What does all this mean for the country, long treated as a Plan B by its elite and wannabe elite?
The more people invest their resources – time, energy, money, etc. on anything, the dearer that thing becomes. Queuing up at the offices of INEC for hours on end to get a PVC, and when not successful, showing up the following day and the day after, rather than engage in some mundane or self-serving activity, is a marker that Nigeria is being taken seriously by its people, that the country is moving from being a second option to the ONLY OPTION.
It bodes well for Nigeria’s future.
Whoever wins; no, more appropriately, whichever geng wins – Obidient, Jagabanised, Atikulated or, indeed, Kwankwasiyya’d, all the candidates are cosmopolitan and have a pan-Nigerian outlook. Any of these leading candidates has the potential to start the process of healing our deeply-fractured country.
So, next year brings renewed hope for a fresh start – new thinking around security, making Nigeria investment-friendly, focusing on policies to empower young people to drive productivity to create even more wealth, making the country inviting for tourists and bringing back the sunny view of life that Nigerians were known for. Yes, I strongly believe it’s possible.
May Nigeria win.
Adewole Ojo
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
