AFTER ALL SAID, IT IS ALL OF US THAT SHOULD DO IT.

AFTER ALL SAID, IT IS ALL OF US THAT SHOULD DO IT!
BY SULEIMAN HASHIM

Going by the writings, the speeches, increased youth participation in politics, post election analysis and expectations, as well as opposition which has started, it appears that there is an increased awareness in the land and the number of people who have identified the problems have increased tremendously from probably GMB and a few in 2003 to GMB and almost all of the people. This in itself to me is an achievement the nation should be proud of and must therefore be consolidated.

Because we all now know the problems, it is high time we stopped lamenting and reminding ourselves things we already all know but rather begin to formulate and practice the solutions of which a large chunk of it has to do with sincerity of purpose and tolerance. Some voted for APC and some did not but we don’t need a rocket science to explain that a better Nigeria will benefit us all. This means that even though we should have an opposition, we must be civil and considerate about it because even GEJ himself was fully supported at some point until he frittered away the goodwill by himself. I am not also saying that GMB should not be condemned if he does wrong but I think for the first two years what he needs most is support after which if the policies set that far are not satisfactory then the change of change could probably begin to spring up. Imagine a situation where we have all identified religion extremism and bigotry to be one of our major problems and some greedy and silly individuals are trying to reintroduce it all in the name of opposition. This type of opposition is a venom and must stop. Same people who called GMB a bigot are today trying to portray him as being a sociable person because he shook Oshiomole’s bride. This will only bring back same stuff that divided us so much that it clearly showed itself in the voting map of 2015. It is our responsibility to make Nigeria great and we must learn from our mistakes to move on. Opposition should be a sort of a research so as to come up with intellectual arguments to activities of the government rather that issuing cheap propaganda that will be more injurious to the nation than doing any good.

We have also began to see some of the APC people exhibiting some pride and running away from people. This is not what was said during the campaigns, we all moved and rolled together to achieve this victory and so it should continue to also make Nigeria greater. I was speaking to a friend the other day and he told me that he read a newspaper publication where GEJ said his friends had abandoned him, he said that it was not true because in the true sense it was GEJ that abandoned his real friends and made new friends in Abuja who are actually not his friends but were there to fill up their pockets which they have done and are moving to another level. In essence what I am saying is that APC have to keep their people close, they should pick up their calls or better still respond with text message when busy, they should create avenues to meet with people and they must ensure they treat their party members rightly especially the original party members.

The above said are the most critical ways of us all doing what we have all being saying we know are the problems of Nigeria and if we could practice it appropriately then we have a situation where we would all say: “After all said and done” APC has succeeded.
God Bless Nigeria!

Suleiman Hashim wrote from Abuja. (oneheartnaija@yahoo.com Twitter: @oneheartnaija)