I can perceive the election atmosphere of my dear country Nigeria. We are in a hot period of election. All we talk, eat and breathe is the election. However, we are also scared of the outcomes of the election as it draws nearer. An American columnist, who is one of the famous political pundits around, once said: “One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician’s objective, election and power are.” So when you go to vote, make sure you keep calm and think of the consequences of your decision for the next four years. Can you bear it, can you jeopardize the future of your children for nothing? Look for competency, transparency and visionary leader to vote for.

Sadly, our votes alone won’t do this for us. This is a very big challenge that I personally noticed and I feel it is the high time people knew about it before it’s too late. When we go out to vote we feel it’s our candidate that would do everything for us, and it’s entirely not. God does everything for us. If a country gets developed or otherwise through an elected candidate, it’s just God working things in his way, but using the person we elected as a medium. Prayer is the key that unlocks all vaults. It’s not just about going out to vote for this candidate or that candidate. We need a lot of Godly intervention in all our activities; our safety, national security, economic growth, infrastructural development and much more.

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Moreover, another important thing is positivity anticipation. If we all allow ourselves to think positively, I believe and trust a lot of unnecessary chaos would be avoided. Some political clashes happen because we think and feel that something unlikely may happen. We are not even sure which is why we feel insecure because we fill our minds with negative thoughts. These two things are very important that we need to take into consideration. Often times when we see things going wrong, it’s not because God is not fair or so, rather it’s because we have put all our faith in the person rather than God. In such cases, I believe God will leave us with our choices, which is quite unfortunate for us.

To our amiable candidates, leadership is not about the next election, it’s about the next generation. I want to seize this opportunity to plead to our politicians that anyone that lost the election should take it in good fate. It is the will of God and congratulates the winner and wishes him/her the best of luck. However, there is no religion - Christianity or Islam - that encourages violence. We should, therefore, live in peace and harmony for the sake of God, because anything that happens affects all of us in one way or the other. Winning or losing the election is less important than strengthening the country.

Women are special and great in every way one can think of, that is why nothing in this world is complete without women. My beautiful ladies, I want to use this medium to plead with you all to come and vote for the right candidate on that day, because when you refuse to come out and vote, means you have no right in your own country. I also want to add that we should respect the INEC agents at the polling units and give them our full support to make their job easy for them to carry out their election duty successfully. Just so you know that the people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, but the people who count the votes do. The agents at the polling units should be treated with care and respect.

A throwback to 2015 election, a lot of cases were reported for thugs threatening and beating some of the women at the polling units. I’m begging all the citizens of this country, I mean all and sundry, to go out to that polling unit and cast their votes. Our businesses and works are all important to us, however not as important as deciding the future of our nation.
Please and please, there should be no unnecessary movements, after casting your votes you should go home and rest and wait for the outcome of the election. Make sure you have access to the media. Please don’t wear any candidate’s or party’s shirts or caps, for it might cause unnecessary arguments. Carry your voter’s card and another means of identification along. As we look into this election season I wish everyone safe journey to their hometowns, and safe return. I also wish everybody a fruitful election with zero violence and also wish the contestants the best of luck.

Ms Yuguda can be reached via hadizayuguda114@gmail.com, hadiza.yuguda@yahoo.com, or on Twitter at: @HadeezahY.