” This is a timely warning as Africa’s most populous country goes to the polls on February 25, to elect a president. In exactly two weeks from today, Nigerians will be on the march again on the queue at various polling units. Interestingly, in our beloved country, there is always a reason for ethnic and religious coloration to everything in Nigeria.
By Richard Odusanya.
The golden words of Hugo Lafayette Black, an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971.
A member of the Democratic Party. Hugo posited: “A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion.
The history of governmentally established religion both in England and in this country, showed that whatever government had been that it had incurred the hatred, disrespect and even contempt of those who held contrary beliefs.
“”That same history showed that many people had lost their respect for any religion that had relied upon the support of government to spread its faith.
” This is a timely warning as Africa’s most populous country goes to the polls on February 25, to elect a president. In exactly two weeks from today, Nigerians will be on the march again on the queue at various polling units. Interestingly, in our beloved country, there is always a reason for ethnic and religious coloration to everything in Nigeria.
•Hence the bandwagon fallacy – also known as an appeal to popularity or argumentum ad populum – is a type of incorrect argument in which we assume something is good or right because it is popular.
•The above is validated by the profound words John Adams and Albert Einstein — ‘What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.’
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” – John Adams.
#NigeriansDecide……
Nigerians are on the march again.
The whole world is patiently waiting for the African giant “Sleeping giant
As a realist, I believe that one of the things that differentiates human beings from animals is the sense of reasoning but this word called reasons does not exist in the political dictionary of Africans! Where is our redeemer? Our redeemer is certainly not the social media president or a packaged messianic product.
It has to be a prepared mind not an emergency magician taking advantage of the gullibility of the masses.
Therefore, as the preparation for the 2023 General Elections picks up pace, nothing short of Issue-based campaign will be acceptable.
They want it to be about the things they consider as “issues”.
Furthermore, the emergency “Patriots” social media warlords want issues that favour their candidate and if it doesn’t, then it is not an issue. And if you don’t see and talk about the issue in their perspective, then you don’t understand the issue.
In the bid to win all political discourse, we become belligerent and refuse to learn.
History beckons as the verdict of posterity await us. Let’s bear in mind that misinformation and smear campaigns are age-old propaganda techniques, and common occurrences in political campaigns. However, vilifying other candidates is not the way to go.
Therefore, these divisive and derogatory expressions must be discouraged as the countdown to the D-Day February 25 begins with optimism.
Finally, I like to conclude this article the first in the series of #NigeriaDecide’23, with the inauguration speech of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. An American politician the 46th and current president of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, and represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009.
Biden had famously posited: “This is America’s day: This is democracy’s Day.
