Risikat: Hello Broda Segun

Uncle Segun: Hello Risikat

Risikat: O ti sele o (It has happened o)

Uncle Segun: Ki lo sele? (What happened?)

Risikat: It’s your brother Akin, he has threatened to die today alongside the thugs at the polling unit in front of the Chief Ajebiewe’s house at Orolu.

Uncle Segun: Is he mad? Why does he want to kill himself? Tell me what happened, he can’t kill himself. I said tell me, what happened?

READ ALSO! NOTORIOUS CULTISTS! Point and Kill, Pursue No Cash surrender in Akwa Ibom [Photos]

Risikat: Thanks Broda Segun, he went out this morning to vote as voting was not concluded in his polling unit last Saturday when we had the Governorship election. He came back home after an hour with his clothes torn and blood dripping down his head. He rushed in and took a machete ready to return to the polling unit. I quickly called neighbours to help me hold him and thank God our neighbours were able to hold him

Uncle Segun: Oya, give him the phone so that I can talk sense into his head. This boy will never change!

Risikat: He said he is not ready to talk to you and that if you are not pleased with his decision not to talk to you, you should not bother to come for his burial but surely God will receive unexpected visitors today.

Uncle Segun: Can I talk to one of those holding him not to go back to the polling unit? Give one of them the phone

Risikat gives Kolawole the phone while Risikat takes over from Kolawole in holding down her husband

Neighbour: Hello Sir, E kasan Sir (Good Afternoon Sir)

Uncle Segun: Please help me to hold Akin down and don’t allow him to go back to the polling unit. He is my only brother, I beg you in the name of God. Please, I trust you with his life. Please help me, he is the only brother I have in this world. I am in Lagos now and I can’t come down immediately. Help me to save his life, he could be killed.

Neighbour: No problems sir, God will help us to keep him back at home.

READ ALSO! THEY SLAPPED HIM TO DEATH! Two on trial for conspiracy and murder

Uncle Segun: Please give the phone back to Risikat

Uncle Segun: Hello Risikat, e ma je ki o lo o (Don’t allow him to go o) We will not lose him untimely because of his stubbornness and I expect him to have changed having given birth to three children who are already in Secondary school. Well, ojo ori o kin se ogbon (Age is not wisdom)

Risikat: Thanks Baba oko mi (My Father Inlaw) I will keep you posted and please don’t hesitate to come to see us as soon as you are back from Lagos

Uncle Segun: Bye

Risikat: Bye.

“End of Phone Call”

Akin struggles to break loose from those holding him back and ranting at the same time

AKIN: Let me go, I will stab whoever will not allow me to go and die with the opposition party thugs. I will kill you people and nothing will happen. Let me go!

Akin: Risikat, consider yourself dead. You called people to hold me down like Sallah ram while my party faithful are been driven away from the polling centre. It seems I will start the killing from here so that I can be allowed to go back to the polling centre to die with the opposition party agents who smacked a big stick on my head and tore my cloth.

Neighbours including Kolawole: Daddy Kunle, we will not allow you to go but if you keep threatening to kill us we will leave you because we are only your neighbors and can’t be held accountable for your death.

Risikat: Oko mi, please remember your children. I can’t take care of them alone. I need you to be around to give them a future.

Akin: Emi (Me), Emi Akin (I Akin), Awon Agbero Party (Party Thugs) beat me like this, I will die with them today.

He struggled to break himself loose one more time and he was able to break free the hand with which he was holding the machete. Immediately this happened, all the neighbours fled for their lives.

“Akin ran away like a wounded hyena who was ready to die with his predator and couldn’t be held down any longer”

Risikat: Temi ti baje ( I am done for), My hope is dashed. God, where is your face, don’t allow this man to die because of a politician who doesn’t even know he exists.

The battle and suppression of the ordinary man didn’t just start today, it dates back to the creation of Man. My review of occurrences around the globe particularly in Africa shows that people prefer to stick with their tormentors than trust an unknown liberator.

Maybe the saying “A known devil is better than an unknown angel” get his credence from the behaviour of Africans on election and our understanding of democratic institutions. The incident above happened at Orolu in Osun State during the Gubernatorial rerun election, I would love to give the story a twist from the standpoint of the people.

The main character in the story (Akin) is the Nigeria masses who are interested in good governance through a transparent democratic process, their willpower and resolve to be part of the electioneering processes that will produce the kind of leaders they desire is unprecedented. They have been battered over the years and losing strength to pull themselves out of the suppression because of the injuries they have sustained from their involvement in the electioneering processes.

Our Risikat happens to be those who believe the democratic process is good but it is not worth dying for and for this reason, they will not take any step towards exercising their franchise or get involved in any form of party politics.

The neighbours are the doubting Thomas who would not encourage you to exercise your franchise as a good citizen but criticizes every effort of Government while they watch good Nollywood movies on election day, they would go as far as ensuring the fuel tank of their generator is filled and additional fuel in jerrycan in case electricity is not rationed to their streets on election day.

The beloved Uncle Segun are the Nigerians in the diaspora, they have a good outlook about democracy and wished we have something similar to what they have where they abode. They are always abroad on election days even though they can prove their patriotism by coming home to vote even if our leaders will not believe that the several millions of Nigerians in diaspora deserve a voice in our democratic process by allowing them to vote even while abroad.

The Agberos (Thugs) represents the few people in the political class who would not stop at anything in achieving the needed political advantage. They are ruthless, brutal and unforgiving in their attempt to gain power. They do away with anything (through vote buying, disruption of voting process, killing of people, use of the instrumentality of the Government Security Forces etc.) on their part to get the seat they eye, beit political opponent, community influencer, and even voters just to become someone to reckon with within the political space.

The battle for the soul of Nigeria cannot be stopped just the way the neighbours couldn’t stop Akin in the story above. There is a rage in the soul of the people to take back what rightfully belongs to them but the hurdles stacked ahead of them by the political class have continued to hold them back. The issue of weaponized hunger, increased inequality, increased unemployment are deliberate attempts to make masses lose their sense of identity so that they can always come around to beg their oppressors for what rightfully belongs to them.

Akin (the masses) has unleashed himself and heading straight to the polling centre where the battle for his soul will either be lost or won but the outcome of the battle might not be obvious today but it will usually shape the future of our Nation either positively or negatively.

Who knows, maybe it is when we lose our soul to the right course that we will be able to find it and utilize it effectively for the future of our nation.

Olakunle.
Good Governance Activist & Mandela Washington Fellow
Twitter: @olakunleluther