by Tunde Fagbenle

One thing remains clear: nothing will change if the country and her peoples do not do things differently.

A couple of columns back I hinted that some group was in the offing the group is made up of patriotic Nigerians both in the Diaspora and within Nigeria, we are concerned about the continued deplorable level of development in the country, the shenanigans of the political leadership and their parties, and, in particular, the unimaginable rottenness and corruption in the system that get worse by each succeeding government.

Patriotic and reasoning elders in the country have voiced their concern on the trend, some have in despair opined that only a revolution, even of a ruthless kind, can get the country back from the brink of eventual collapse.

In the midst of it, those benefitting from the system and the present rot are quick to call these patriots and their patriotic concerns ugly names or perhaps even set their evil dogs loose on them.

There is palpable despair in the land. The youth worry and wonder about their future as millions roam the streets jobless and futureless.

Those who have hijacked the democracy that was hoped would correct the ills of the past and bring about rapid development hold the country and the so-called democracy by the jugular, ensuring by subterfuge and other obnoxious means, that the peoples’ votes do not count, where and when they even take the courage to vote.

And so, a country with most of the best brains in Africa, nay the world, totter on in perplexity.

As if drugged, she manages to get led by a succession of politicians or politrickcians hellbent on keeping the country in perpetual underdevelopment. But that is how they and their gangs are fed – looting the country blind in the billions or trillions whilst over 80% of the citizens live in penury.

One thing remains clear: nothing will change if the country and her peoples do not do things differently. New ideas have to be developed and new paradigm engaged on the process by which leaders that can truly represent and best approximate the amazing intellectual and creative resources of the people could emerge.

A key contributory factor to the ease by which the past electoral heist kept succeeding is the lethargy and disinterest of the electorate in the whole process, a syndrome the new group calls “siddon look,” that has turned the electorate into “spectorates” as coined by Pius Adesanmi, professor at Carleton University, Canada, and a leading member of the group.

The group thus adopted the name “Kick Out Siddon Look 2015” as its clarion call to action rather than inaction, to reason rather than unreason. And the new paradigm envisaged by the group is one in which the youth (those within the ages of 18 and 40) constituting at least 60% of the electorate can decide by themselves (through scientific polling) on who they would want as their president and who the deputy. And having thus identified and settled on the persons pull their resources, of numbers and material, to sell the candidates and get them elected into office.

The novel idea is not without its own imponderables. But it is feasible as can be glimpsed from the Iroko example whereby Dr. Olusegun Mimiko twice rode to governorship victory in his Ondo State, virtually solo on a (still) relatively unknown party. In any case, democracy is a game of numbers and (free and fair) elections are the avenues for the masses to show where the real power lies.

It is a revolutionary concept which if successful, may become a variant of the Arab Spring and such. Essentially, it is that regardless of party platforms, the electorate can use their voting power to bring those they truly desire to power, provided and once their consciousness is awoken and appropriately channelled into positive “Spring!”

In a way, Professor Wole Soyinka (one of the few surviving but ageing patriots who have spent their lives fighting the cause of the common man and development even at the risk to their persons) clamoured for such possibility in his 2009 speech at a London event of Kayode Ogundamisi’s Nigeria Liberty Forum when he called the youth to action for the 2011 elections.

“The ball is now in your court…Election is still two years away…What is wrong in identifying now your candidates and beginning to mobilise support for them…Why can’t you invade your homeland…Use your mobile telephones now to mobilise the people and guard democracy… the way Barrack Obama used the Internet technology to mobilise the youths to strengthen democracy… Mobilise the youths to guard the ballot boxes from start to finish…Defend the vote, nobody is going to do it for you,” he said.

The new group sent out a press release a few days ago that went viral on the Internet and social media, indicating the sort of criteria those to be suggested for president would have to satisfy. They include: demonstrable history of standing on the side of the masses; proven track record of achievement; and scoring high on “the three Es and I (education, exposure, experience, and integrity).

Listed among initiators of the group are intellectuals and professionals, including, Okey Ndibe, Pius Adesanmi, Safiya Musa, Ndubuisi Victor Ogwuda, Modupe Debbie Ariyo (OBE), Tunji Ariyomo, Soni Akoji, Kinglsey Ewetuya, Anozie Ebirim, Yommi Oni, and yours truly.

In the coming weeks and months, the “Kick Out Siddon Look 2015” group will be drumming their messages into the ears of Nigerians, young and old, home and abroad,provoking their minds and engaging their thoughts, utilising all avenues including door-to-door mobilisation and enlightenment; they will ask Nigerians to come up with names of people they believe can lead the country out of the present morass; that done, the “spring” will then be unleashed, galvanizing the electorate and massing the numbers in the several millions in readiness for 2015 when they will demonstrate that no force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come!

 

– Read this piece on The Punch Newspapers

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.