AUGUST EDITORIAL

Nigeria’s democracy seems to be threatened by the unnecessary decamping of politicians from one party to the other at the slightest provocation. A repeat of what happened before 2015 election is here again. Laws should be made by the National Assembly to checkmate this trend that many times merely promotes the actualization of selfish interests at the expense of the overall good of the country’s citizens.

Nigeria is too great a nation to be at the level she presently is. Our dear country will not come out of the woods by having good leaders alone. I like the slogan that says: “Change begins with me.” This means that we all have roles to play individually and corporately to move the nation forward.

Nigerians are yet to get out of the realm of stomach politics where the highest bidder gets the ticket and emerges victorious during elections. We should come to that point where manifestoes, antecedents and the leader’s responses to questions from the electorates determine if he or she gets the ticket from his party, before even talking about winning elections. Ekiti’s election, marred by vote buying, speaks volumes and should be condemned by all.

2019 is around the corner and I do not expect a perfect election and can only pray that the seemingly obvious desperation for power by politicians does not lead to something disastrous.

The budget for the election demanded for by INEC is yet to be considered by the Senate members who are, at the time of writing this piece, still on recess.

The political cloud hovering over Nigeria looks gloomy, but we hope that by God’s mercy we will scale through.

The month of August is here and we are gradually heading towards the ember months. Oasis Magazine team congratulates her numerous readers and wishes you all the best in this season of political jostling here and there.

Shalom.

Daniel Dafe Umukoro

Publisher, Oasis Magazine