The PVC Song, by Muhammed Belgore
NEWS DIGEST – That perhaps I might illustrate my thoughts. That I hope this sounds like music to the mind of the reader, as would be the case for the ears listening to an audible song. I have put pen to paper here or rather set my fingers to task on my keypad while praying carefully regarding this passionate appeal, that the Soro Soke generation will nod in compliance.
A call to participate. A call to the field, to the arena where all our fates are decided. A call to the game of elections.
If I would say to my peers, my generation, my contemporaries, that we have a role to play in our nation’s growth, it behoves consequently that I should ask myself, how? What can I actually do to affect my fate so that I will not leave my destiny in the hands of inauspicious leaders.
Of soul searching and introspection in order to ascertain the method, process or plan of action to play that vital role, I realised that all I know how to do is write. The next thing I can do is vote. So kindly pay these words a favorable sentiment. I beg you.
Politics is ubiquitous. This is the first thing a political science student is taught. Perhaps as a friend once said to me, even in Heaven there’s politics. I find that my argument here is not a novel one. I am not saying anything new, it’s not such a special recommendation of which the kind has never been heard, I myself have said it before in a previous article.
As at the time when the EndSars movement was in its very hay days, I wrote an article titled “PVCs before placards”.
The gamut of my message here is effectively the same with the one in that article. What I said was basically, that, there were scores of protesters who didn’t even have a PVC. That is a Permanent Voter’s Card. Disenfranchised by self. So what is now their business with a police policy? Why are they acting all concerned? I’ll give you the answer.
Because they realized that whether they like it or not, we are all affected. My generation needs to take voting during elections seriously. We need to make ourselves count. I have often stood on the mantra that you cannot rig out an overwhelming majority. I am not threading an untraversed path for I myself have never voted, so I know what I am talking about.
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I look at my daughter and I imagine a bright future for her. Yet if I will be realistic the present problems of this great country portends a bleak future. If not for ourselves, then for posterity, as I know that it is more difficult and time consuming when fixing than it is when destroying.
Again, all these things I’ve been saying here is that we should all participate. I thread a bold path when I say it sounds reasonably logical to me that the pain and sacrifice is minute compared to the effects of a gloomy national abode. It is the least we can all do.
I can stand in the Sun bearing its scorching heat, suffer aching legs and whatever other discomfort I might have to endure, because I want to vote. The pain beginning it’s life from the point where I start to process my PVC down to where it dies, the point where I vote.
That’s all. What I observed is that when elections come around, we leave the process to the rural areas. To basically the lowest class, a few members of the middle class and then the politicians themselves.
The enlightened Ajebutters Yes me too I be Ajebutter. We consider ourselves too fresh to struggle. Albeit, again, a tiny struggle. If we will move forward and we must, we have to, that mentality has to find itself in a mortuary. We need to change the game.
If I would be permitted to digress a little bit although into very familial subject, in my home State, Kwara, lots of young people are putting themselves up for election. It is nice to see that we want to play amongst the legislators. We want to become lawmakers in the realest sense of the word. But if we’re not strategic, and we go and vote in a political party, thumbrinting across board, maybe because the Presidential candidate is the face of the party and he’s popular, we’re shooting off target.
We need to give our votes individually to the candidates we believe in. Here’s how it’s cooked at the moment. As soon as INEC blows its whistle, and the match begins, politicians start serving stomach infrastructure. They prey on the hunger of the oppressed. I know many of us will not yield to this.
They give a paltry incentive with one hand and take our lot with the other, I don’t think the enlightened and educated will fall to such a scam. That is why the onus rests with us. Against 2023 the heat will be turned up this year. So let’s follow proceedings, let us know what is happening so that we can be properly aware of all the politicking. This way we will study the candidates, we will listen to them, we will recall their antecedents, and then we will rescue as much of the present as possible while rescuing also, tomorrow completely from the despots who rule our land. Please participate. Happy new year to you and yours.
