We’re in it for real. And to the fullest maximum. They are happening to us like violent torrents. The time has come. It’s here with us. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. The season is the present.
From now on. Even up till 2027 and farthest beyond. Our genuine fears. We have every reason to be internally worried. This our sordid lot may last more than the distance. More than our wishes. Or wishful thinking. In fact, we shiver, it may outlive us. And reigns till eternity.
These backslashes won’t go away any time soon. Our rulers won’t want none of that. They are the eerie characters that make that happen to us. They led us this deep into this wilderness. The end of which no human dares to prophesy, predict, speculate.
In all of this. There’s weird synergy. No region, no race. No faith is marginalised, victimised or short changed. We’re equally yoked together. Strange!
Though we are never of the same thought-process. Yet, the backlashes, walk the same path. We’re birds of a feather. And we flock together in spirit, body and soul!
You will not but find this opinion piece relevant. What a deadly bashing. To the hideous call for a shift of 2027 general elections. The shift sponsors are furious and livid. They cited Ramadan as a lame excuse.
They couldn’t comprehend holding election in the holy month. The reason its usefulness can’t be contested in any way possible. So, also its suitableness. More so in this very time of our need. Its ilk is in acute short supply. Scarce and rare.
Run through it. You will enjoy the read. It’s all you need to know about “Election cycles that fell on Christian Lent.” Though, authorless, it remains incontrovertible: General elections, 2023.
“Presidential and National Assembly elections were held on February 25, 2023. Just three days after Lent began. Governorship and State House of Assembly elections were held on March 18, 2023, right in the middle of the Lenten period.
“General elections, 2019. Lent began on March 6, 2019. Gubernatorial elections were held on March 9, 2019, the first Saturday of Lent.
“General elections, 1999. Lent began on February 17, 1999. Presidential election that ushered in Obasanjo was held on February 27, 1999, during the Lenten season.
“This is largely due to the express dictate of the 1999 Constitution, which requires elections to be held not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the handover date of May 29.
“This narrow window (February to April) almost always guarantees a collision with either Lent or, in some years, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.” Obviously. The author behind this mask is a Christian:
“Not once did Christians attribute the timetable timing to an agenda against Christians, nor did we demand that the timetable be shifted. We accepted it in the overall interest of peaceful coexistence.
“This is a dangerous agenda being pushed and it’s highly ridiculous. Calling for a change of date is playing a needless religious card in a multi-religious society.”
In this country, we carelessly take things for granted. Everybody that’s nobody. Every Dick and Harry wants his or her desires or lusts to prevail. No matter how empty, loathsome or hideous. If wishes are horses…
Come to think of it. What’s an election day anyway? Go to sane societies. It’s as ordinary as any ordinary day. No fuss. No hassle. Elections can take place any day. It matters not to them. What’s uppermost is its conduct and end result: Fair, free, just, peaceful, credible. And of course, largely acceptable. If it passes those credibility tests. They’re home and dry.
For them, elections hold any day. Be it on Sunday or Friday. Christmas Day or Sallah Day. They care less. You will then wonder aloud into the whirlwind. Why are we “miswired” like this? Eternally mischievous, even unto ourselves?
It’s a circuit. Their odd established itinerary. At the approach of general elections. Mischief makers go to work, full blast. They’re ferocious in operation. Deadly in execution.
They burn candles of varied colours, shapes, shades, sizes. Length and breadth. They work assiduously hard and harsh. They soak themselves in nightmares. Searching through files and documents. They upturn archives.
In vain, they labour day and night. Striving just to buy us into their queer narratives. To sway us otherwise into their bizarre anomaly. They believe they know the best. For they are in the best positions to determine what we must desire.
That we should not be left to a mind of our own. They believe we don’t have one. Plenty of times, they pretend to prove themselves right. How? Why? We sheepishly fall victims. And become their easy prey. How they get us so cheaply. Every four years is baffling. A huge mystery.
With time and their evil perseverance. They are sure. We are bound to collapse. And fall in line. They are so confident of the high potency of their major weapon: Money is it! Weaponizing poverty. And we scramble for crumbs. That deliberately fall off from their expansive tables.
It wasn’t this weird manner in the days of yore. Never, ever did we have it so sordid. And nauseating. Second Republic is the appropriate study at this our crossroads. We never came near this mess between 1979 and 1983.
Neither did we experience such untidiness. Or disarray when that republic lasted. Why are they stoking this religious fire so vehemently? What does election have to do with our faith?
Only in Nigeria do we dwell richly on inanities, frivolities and their kind. Why the hues and cries over elections during Ramadan. It’s a four-year cycle. Just two days in four years.
We should endure the few hours the elections last. More so. The elections are reasonably spaced. With a two-week window. To refuel and refresh. Christians gladly do this every four-year. And they cherish it with relish. will hold just in two days. And spaced far apart enough.
Presidential and National Assembly elections hold on Saturday, February 20, 2027. Governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls surface two weeks later, Saturday, March 6, 2027. What’s strenuous here?
Still, they stick on to their strongest point: “The physical demands of fasting during the days and midnights may affect voters turning out for long hours under the sun while queuing to carry out election duties.”
National Missioner, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Sheikh AbdurRahman Ahmad, aligned. He labelled “INEC’s decision as insensitive and disrespectful to the Muslim Ummah.”
They forgot that they did it seamlessly in 1979. Without raising eyebrows. That year, presidential election held on August 11, 1979. It fell within Ramadan, between July 20 and August 18, 1979. Nobody saw insensitivity in its timing. So did gubernatorial elections of July 28, 1979. We ought to have outgrown these absurdities.
Long before this precarious time. Religion or faith never showed any ugly head. Not in our national affairs. We held it up high in awe to our Maker. We rightly presumed it to be strictly a private affair. It never impacted negatively on our national life.
We consciously erected a thick, clear demarcation. We correctly got it completely right. Neither politics, nor religion dared over step its bounds. Each steadfastly maintained its lane. But not anymore. All have been depraved, bastardised.
With excruciating pains. They are being compelled to walk on their heads. Things have fallen apart. The centre can no longer hold. Not even loosely. They have systematically altered that. Making it a huge mockery of its old self. Upturning it into one big systemic perversion, failure. That’s our pitiable state of affairs.
At this confused critical juncture. It’s imperative we borrow ourselves some sense. We need to brush up. And wisely divorce ourselves from these inanities we flaunt with reckless impunity.
Let us discard them. They are the dragging burdens we don’t need. And won’t need. Now and forever more.
We should not all the time succumb to sentiments and emotions. They are the heavy loads weighing us down. Wearing us out. And fiercely tearing us apart.
We should have learnt this bitter lesson these past years. We ought to have outsmarted. And out staged these dual dreaded monsters.
Let’s be resolute, unwavering. Faith is designed to be the ultimate unifier. That’s how God structured it. Not the absolute divider. Which we are recklessly making out of it.
That’s far away from God’s intended purposes for us all. We are neither cut for blind fanaticism. Nor obsession, or infatuation. Let us re-order our glaring missteps. Re-tool our senses. And re-set our minds. We should always look forward. And remember not, the things of old. We should fix our gaze on new things springing up. And perceive them correctly, accordingly.
Our challenges are legion and overwhelming. They stem from insecurity. It’s the chief of them all. That’s our Herculean obstacle. With a collective willing will. And the right mindset. We can determinedly send it to its Waterloo. With God, it’s doable! He’s our strength.
Our monumental error. This is a personal conviction inside of me: We shouldn’t have obliged 2027 elections to be our topmost priority. It’s not it. The loud, ravaging insecurity is it! Again, this is resolutely strong in me.
But the throne of power thought otherwise. It insists: 2027 is the beginning of wisdom. Even as 2027 polls swing loosely on the cross.
Pity! Pray, I goof!
—————————————-
Share your story or advertise with us:
08033783144 (WhatsApp)
08023469999(WhatsApp)
idowuadelusi@gmail.com,thepathfindernews0@gmail.com
Follow our reports also on X @idowuadelusi and Facebook (Idowu Oluwole Adelusi)