I have come to realize that it is not the wish of politicians for Nigerians to be united. They exploit the lines that tear us apart. These lines serve as walls, they impede the flow of truth from one region to the other. In the absence of truth, lies prevail. They construct and dispense lies in tones that will ensure they attain and remain in power.

Politicians have weaponized poverty, illiteracy, and lies.

Poverty.

The poorer one gets, the more desperate he is. It is easy to direct the voting hands of a poor man in exchange for a few thousand. In ALL regions of Nigeria, some families have little or nothing to eat until an election period. While others see elections as periods to elect the right leaders, these people see the voting period as a period to maximize profit, notwithstanding the consequences. Of course, for some of these people, things can never be worse than they currently are. So, even though the worst possible individual gains power, their already-poor standard of living will suffer little to no change.

Illiteracy.

An educated mind can make rational decisions. True, there are educated people that may sometimes appear irrational and unreasonable, but I ask, what is being rational/reasonable? If we dissect further, we'd find that these two terms are largely subjective and loosely defined. Tinubu, Obi, and Atiku all have professors and highly-placed professionals supporting their candidacies. Truth is, there are some of these professors that support their candidates for unselfish reasons. Some of them may have been won over by their proposed policies, charisma, leadership styles, etc.

While it is possible to buy an educated mind over, it is, however, more difficult/expensive. It remains much easier to woo uneducated electorates. This is why politicians have weaponized illiteracy. Rather than send their followers to schools, they give them "agbero" roles and patronize their criminalities. They create all kinds of task forces to keep their boys busy until another election period.

Lies

We've seen all sorts of lies weaponized by politicians. They lie to each region that we hate ourselves. They use their platforms and resources to tell the northerner that he has no place in the south, they lie to the Igbo man that he is hated by the Yorubas and northerners. They lie to the Yorubas that they are hated by the Igbos. They make utterances that ignite tribal and religious discords. They pay media influencers to ensure these lies remain in the Nigerian airspace forever.

As a Youth Corps member serving in Benue State in 2013, I was privileged to meet people from all corners of Nigeria. We existed just fine, and we still keep in touch to this day. So, where is the hate? I know of a lot of Yoruba and Igbo friends and colleagues that live like brothers, they cooperate fine and watch out for each other. So, again, where is the hate? I have a close friend from Kaduna State. He's such a great guy; we are very good friends and colleagues; so, where is the hate?

Dear Nigerians, it's a shame that we have allowed our politicians to deceive us for this long. Nairaland has become so toxic that I can't recommend it to my friends and family. This is our major problem. We will begin to make informed and objective decisions once we raise our heads above the lies of our politicians.

Conclusion

Any leader that AGGRESSIVELY attacks illiteracy and poverty in our country is the best man for the job. Once these two are tackled, over 50% of our problems will be solved. I can't imagine Obama or Trump giving cups of rice or envelopes of 10 USD bills to Americans to buy their votes. Not possible.

May God help us all.

True!
You made brilliant points!

bentenny:
True!
You made brilliant points!

Thank you.

Perfect saying.

Emmanuella00:
Perfect saying.

Tired of the current situation of our country. Tired of all the animosities that fly all over every election period. Seriously hoping for a better Nigeria.

TONYE001:


Tired of the current situation of our country. Tired of all the animosities that fly all over every election period. Seriously hoping for a better Nigeria.

I swear oh, tribalism really hits its peak and i fear that after the election their will be clashes.

Maazieze:


I swear oh, tribalism really hits its peak and i fear that after the election their will be clashes.

Exactly.

Dear Mods,

I think this is front-page worthy.

Cc: Seun, OAM4J, Mynd44