The Race For 2023: What Nigerians Must Do To Elect A Better Leader

2022 has been a year of serial politicking for Nigeria. The past few months have witnessed a heated political atmosphere and with less than 80 days before the elections, one needs no prophet to know that the pressure is about to be ‘wesser’.

The 2023 election race has accelerated. We are officially in the season of catchy phrases and sweet talking.

Registered political parties have put their best men forward and have set plans to become the election’s favourite platform. The search for the messiah to deliver Nigeria from her multifaceted problems has begun. It’s another opportunity to make things right.

What Nigerians must do to elect a better leader in 2023?

Power has shifted to the electorate. Our decisions during the coming elections will have a tremendous impact on our country's future. Electing a better leader in 2023 requires Nigerians to:

Don’t Sleep, Wake Up!

Nigerians continue to be deprived of their future due to accumulated leadership failures, but unfortunately, the fight to reclaim the country still lacks enough involvement. Wake up from the political apathy slumber. For a better Nigeria, all hands must be on deck. The power of involvement and togetherness already played out during the 2020 remarkable nationwide protests. We must keep the spirit alive and channel the energy to the forthcoming elections.

We must wake up from our slumber of ethnic and religious bickering. Look inwards and look beyond candidates’ religion, tribe and ethnic groups. ‘Who is the best man for the job? Can he deliver?’ are the questions we should ask and less of ‘I can’t give him my vote and betray my ethnic group’ for a better leader.

Shege, at the end of the day, is a national cake. Everyone is directly or indirectly affected by poor government decisions. Kidnappers don’t hold religious conversations with their victims, power outages aren’t ethnic-specific and economic hardship knows no tribe. We are in the same boat - we paddle or we sink together.

Less Talk, More Action

We mustn’t relegate our voices to social media only in demanding good governance. Talk really is cheap. To elect a better leader, we must elect the leader i.e to go to the polling units. It’s not enough to sing praise songs for our favourite candidates online; walk the talk. The country’s fate, literally, lies in our hands. We must put our thumbs to work and exercise our civic responsibility with our PVCs.

You don’t want to leave your house but want your preferred candidate to win? Dey play, just dey play. It might be a bit late to get register for a PVC but you can volunteer as INEC’s ad-hoc staff and actively help in mobilising your community members to the polling unit too.

Don’t Settle For Less

Citizens need to take a greater interest in who governs them. It is essential that the electorate draw their own measurement parameters. We must set the expectations and deliverables that help make informed decisions. Aspirants have released their manifestos, thus, citizens must carefully analyse those with a workable plan and note just released to fulfil all righteousness. Great attention should be paid to the candidates’ body language to see those with uncompromising prospects and people-driven representation.

A Voice To Diasporans

INEC should devise means for Nigerians in the diaspora to vote online too or find ways to encourage them to return home and contribute to the nation's development.

We can turn things around. We just need to stop doing things the same way and expect a different result.

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