The 19th day of November broke like every other day, but be sure of it, events in the coming months are set to make it a day like no other. It is a special day for all Nigerians yearning for a change in the way this country is run, a day to chart a new course for a country that has been tossed about by deadly waves. It is obvious that it has not been smooth sailing for the ship called Nigeria. In the eternal voyage in which every country in this world is bound, our own country lags far behind. Waves of poverty, insecurity, economic mismanagement, unemployment, corruption, irresponsible, unimaginative, incompetent, self serving, draconian and autocratic leadership, cronyism, clannishness, tribalism, and deliberate attempts to divide the country along ethnic & religious lines have dogged our path & threatened to drag Nigeria down into the abyss.
There is therefore no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria needs a new captain to steer the ship out of the troubled waters and bring her to a safe harbour. After 3yrs of sailing around in circles and finding ourselves in deeper problems, we can no longer delay. The harbingers of death, destruction and deprivation are ever on our heels. So like in the quest to rescue Pirates of the Caribbeans’s Jack Sparrows from the underworld, we need a captain who knows the waters. We need a man who has a workable plan not one who trades in promises.
We do not want 1-dollar-to-1-naira-by-the-sleight-of-the-hand kind of magic trick. No! Nigerians want to see the workable lines of action the incoming leadership of this country will take to steer us away from the danger zone. That is why 19th November is such a special day as HE Atiku Abubakar unveiled and launched his plan to get Nigeria working again. Every Nigerian should be thrilled about this. We should also be ready to engage in the discussion that follows. This means that we should be active participants, asking questions and making recommendations. This is because Atiku’s plan is Nigeria’s plan. It is not his business or family plan, it is his plan to get Nigeria working and thriving again. And when he is elected, we Nigerians are the ones to put this plan to great effect.
To all intent and purposes, this event should signal and set the tone of the 2019 presidential campaign as a period of issue based electioneering campaign. Well-meaning Nigerians are angling for a presidential campaign which dwells on proffering workable solutions to the issues that have bedeviled the country. That is the only way we can bring ourselves to have geniue hope for a better future for Nigeria. Atiku Abubakar is doing exactly that now. He is setting the pace and that is good news for us. By launching #TheAtikuPlan, the PDP presidential candidate showed geniue convictions to serve & work for this country in the best possible way. He has also shown that he is ready for the great task ahead. He does not want to be like the president who came in unprepared, at a loss, and for six months could not appoint his ministers, invariably plunging the country into a damaging recession. Atiku wants to hit the ground running. He is prepared to get Nigeria working again as fast as he could when he is elected.
It is good news then that we have a man of this attitude ready to step into the beat. That is the excitement of the day and that is the reason to expect and hope for a great future for Nigeria. Atiku has made a plan; we can make the plan the building blocks of a better tomorrow, so that sometime in the future we could look back and say that the path to our glorious future was laid on a day like this.
Chijioke Mbaka wrote from Enugu.
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