SILENT VOICES OF AN ELECTION - EMI IYALLA

The 2011 election has thrown more lights and indeed darkness to several issues that we have always ignored as a people; questions have been answered even as more questions are raised. Paramount among them is the question of our national unity and the sharp divide in the nation’s politics. People’s true self has been brought to bear; media houses' have shown their true nature (biased, unbiased, confused, etc). National heroes have failed in their test  even as new heroes emerge and Nigerians in general now agree that what they really need is result – whether by party or person.

Events happened:

• Attacks on persons and institutions and counter attacks; Some of these attacks are so disturbing that one fear it will go beyond the political territory.
• Some past leaders realized that they can’t “insult” the youths and win in a nation that is made up of over fifty percent youths (youths by the African union standard).
• Some realized that the era of god-fatherism is fast fading out
• Some realized that women should be given more level playing ground in the political sphere
• Some came to term that you can’t always hide behind the walls of unmerited fame to get elected
• Some disappointed Nigerians by going back to become deputy to the same people they tagged as “not Gods chosen” and used certain civil society approach to step into the big league
• Others spoke their hearts out but backed out at the eleventh hour
• Some showed the world their true character: which raised a lot of questions about who is truly corrupt and who’s not due to the denial of certain facts that they made public as ex-anti-graft war lords
• Some fought fair
• Others fought dirty
• Some divided an already divided people the more
• Others united a divided region
• Some made us believe more strongly in providence
• Some made us remember our wounds as a nation.

• We also realized:
• That the only place where we have a united Nigeria is in our dreams
• That the need for a sovereign national conference (SNC) is more imperative than ever before
• That religion is being used as a tool of manipulation in certain region just as it is used as a tool of pacifism in other region and will get worse with time
• That the political main stream of Nigeria is divided into the US vs THEM to which the categorization of the two depends on the categorizer which brings us back to the question of national unity…(to be continued)