Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, we come to you to express our gratitude for your loving kindness extended to us throughout the duration of 2022 that is coming to an end in a few hours to come. We are not unmindful of how Thou Lord has brought us thus far amidst the trying moments unleashed on us by bandits and other criminal groups. That we are alive today is a demonstration of your undeserved blessings to us.
In a few hours to come, we shall yet again witness the dawn of the New Year. While we look up to your divine powers for renewed hope in the New Year, we cannot but express our deep appreciation for your manifold blessings in the last 12 months. We must have passed through the fiery trial of temptations, but Thou Lord has not given us for destruction. As a nation, we have survived as a corporate entity despite threatening predictions by reputable global organisations that our nation’s destruction is irreversible.
When in 2015, we voted for change, we hoped that the storms of life as verified in the ‘cluelessness’ of the Jonathanian administration would be a thing of the past. We yearned for the ‘Change’, but we soon discovered that the fire we had looked forward in President Muhammadu Buhari had turned into ashes. In the present national leadership, we discovered that it is easy to promise than deliver on campaign promises.
Even when it became obvious that President Buhari was overwhelmed by the insecurity he vowed to stamp out, he is yet to breast the tape in tackling the scourge of corruption and pulling the country’s economy from the woods. We are where we are today because politicians have abandoned their promises to the electorate. On the eve of voters going to the polls, many Nigerians are still undecided on the candidates and the fear of uncertainty still stalks our land. More confusing is the involvement of clerics in swinging the likely outcome of the polls. More than at any time, preachers have abandoned the pulpit to seek privileged seats among the congregation of political power seekers.
Almighty God, our confusion is more heightened now that we are in the corridor of another general election year. Our dilemma as a people is further complicated, with many reservations expressed on major candidates struggling to succeed the Katsina-born General. Those opposed to Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu are quick to remind us the former Lagos State governor is too old and frail to realise his life ambition of becoming our nation’s president. Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is described as too desperate and his election as president would naturally enthrone regional supremacy over national quest for justice for Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party is seen by his detractors as a neophyte without the requisite experience to captain the ship of state. How can someone who was once the governor of a state like Anambra be accused of not having the capacity of leading a nation that has suffered leadership deficits in the 10 years or so? If experience is what must be considered for qualification, then, Atiku who was second-in- command to former President Olusegun Obasanjo should step aside and allow those without experience to try their hands.
From whatever angle the matter is viewed, our frontline presidential candidates are not devoid of weaknesses. As God Almighty, we know of Your capacity to do things right even when our expectations seem unrealisable. Trapped in the trenches of hopelessness and despair, we beseech the Almighty God of the universe to turn around our present dilemma into sunshine of hope.
Nearly 24 years of democracy, we are trapped in this manhole of uncertainties made worse by the greed of the political class. We now know that what matters now is the quality of leadership and not political platforms. All the parties are now the same difference, with the quest for material benefits dominating our democracy without ideological leanings, the quest to deepen civil democracy is enmeshed in selfish empowerment.
As Nigerians anxiously await the commencement of the polls, Lord, we seek for your mercies and intervention for our nation. Any of the candidates that will create confusion and divide our people through manipulation of religion and ethnicity, Lord, may you withdraw their tenancy in this part of mortality. Your people oh Lord have suffered in the hands of these despicable politicians whose ambition never wanders from acquiring more money to oppress voters. We beseech you dear Lord to give leaders that will seek to administer justice on the basis of equity and justice. Lord, we pray for leaders that will ensure those whose feet have been victims of oppression shall be set free.
The decimation of our communities and endless sufferings brought by bad governance, Lord, may it be a thing of the past as we witness the dawn of the New Year. We are tired of the manipulative spirits of politicians that have turned our country into a farmhouse. Like other citizens of the world, turn us into enraged citizens that will stand up for the rights of our people and not be divided on primordial sentiments that have never helped and shaped us into realising our manifest destiny.
We are worried by the nature of presidential candidates to be decided upon. Our hope that party primaries would produce candidates of repute as unlike in the past turned out a mirage. The old horses knowledgeable in the tricks of politics have refused to unlearn their old ways. While a frank assessment of candidates’ capacity reveals that none of them holds more aces than the others, the rumbling discord caused by the activities of the G5 PDP Governors presently strategising in the United Kingdom is a great minus to the PDP candidate. How any of the favoured candidates emerges victorious at the polls is purely a subject of political conjectures to be determined by certain dynamics.
Our Lord, we are not unaware of the fact that political power in our nation is still a commodity that can be purchased. Despite the commercialisation of democracy that has been more of the rule than the exception in the last 23 years, we are happy that the introduction of electronic voting in next year’s election has the capacity to reduce fraud in the electoral process.
Nearly a quarter of a century of an unbroken democracy in Nigeria, we have discovered that the popular form of government has been flawed by the greed of politicians who can’t see the bigger picture. Like chickens in the barnyard, those who deal in power only see the material end, rather than the social services to be offered. A nation blessed with such seekers of power that seek personal development on the altar of national leadership will only deliver a riotous leadership.
Bless leaders that have delivered on their promises, but Lord do not forget to curse those who have taken pleasure in unleashing pains and sufferings on the people. You are the source of life, dear God, withdraw life from those plotting to afflict us again as a nation. The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may not have excellently conducted previous polls, in 2023, Lord, let the Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led electoral commission deliver on free and fair polls in 2023.
May Nigerians know peace, unity and progress in the New Year!
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