You just can't imagine the depth of wickedness and anomie to which our country has progressively and inexorably descended.

That’s why Nigerians are where they are.

And the sh*ty hellhole keeps getting deeper and deeper.

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It started with PMB's divisive rule. Now, the duo of BAT and Atiku are weaponizing poverty, religion, and aggravating tribalism to advance their bids for Nigeria’s presidency come the 2023 elections.

And our people (or many of our people) like to have it so.

At the end of the day, Nigerians deserve the leader they elect come the 2023 elections.

The grapes of wrath are fully ripened. Unless God Almighty intervenes and gives us the leader we are so undeserving of, we are in for bigger troubles ahead.

Partisanship aside, the only silver lining in Nigeria’s dreary political cloud is Peter Gregory Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.

Still, many Nigerians are aligning with evil forces. These malevolently ill-willed are cowering and co-opting the rest of us with violence and their guns.

Currently circulating on social media, a Nigerian traveler was stopped on the road, humiliated, and his life was threatened with guns. His assailants then had all four tires of his car punctured with bullets.

His only crime was daring to wear a T-shirt with the Labor Party’s highly (and nationwide) popular presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, while journeying through another tribe.

Just imagine that!?

Down here in some Southern Nigeria states, as reported, some Nigerians were compelled by some staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to pay bribes before they could collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC). This happened in Edo State. This is not just hearsay. My home people reported witnessing a similar scene at another INEC's PVC collection center in Rivers State.

Also, down here in the South, some INEC officials (as reported) denied some Nigerians their PVCs because their names gave them away as being from Peter Obi’s tribe and therefore more likely to be favorably disposed to vote for him.

Meanwhile, in several Northern Nigerian states (as reported), foreigners and patently underage Nigerians were freely getting PVCs. INEC even reported they were probing it.

Just imagine that!? Imagine that!! Imagine that!?

What type of collective self-inflicted wickedness and destruction could be worse than what some Nigerians are doing to themselves and approving to be done against them?

Can you now see the reasons why I posit that we Nigerians deserve the ruler(s) we get? And that unless God Almighty intervenes and gives us a leader we don’t deserve because of our near incorrigible “like the citizens like their rulers” attitudes, we are in for rougher days ahead?

The prophets of ancient Israel warned their backslidden and evil-bent nation as follows,

"Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him."
~ Holy Bible, Hosea 8:3

In like manner, no more can Nigeria make progress for as long as we continue to call evil good and good evil.

Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
~ Holy Bible, Hosea 8:3
No more can Nigeria make progress for as long as we continue to call evil good, and good evil.

If you are a Nigerian, go and collect your PVC. I've already got mine (+ 5 more of my other family members have got theirs as well.)

Save for some selfless and hope-inspiring compatriots, we deserve all the BATs and Atikus of this country.

I repeat, Nigerians deserve all the BATs and Atikus of this country.

Nigerians deserve all the BATs and Atikus of this country.

I am sorry if you don’t like my assertion. My heart bleeds for my country daily, but that affirmation best describes the way I feel about the situation of things in Nigeria.

Those like me who want a better Nigeria can never resort to unneeded violence to achieve our goals. So, go get your PVCs, vote and defend your vote.

But while we are at it, also pray, "God Almighty, please don't give us the (un)leaders we deserve. For if God gives us the (un)leaders we deserve, Nigeria is in for deeper troubles and ripened for total evisceration. God Almighty, please give Nigerians the leader(s) they don't deserve."

God Almighty, please don’t give us the (un)leaders we deserve. For if God give us the (un)leaders we deserve, Nigeria is in for deeper troubles and ripened for total evisceration. God Almighty, please give Nigerians the leader(s) they don’t deserve.

That is why I am praying God Almighty grants Nigerians the Moses they do not deserve.

My friend, a pastor, shared a story that best sums up the mindset of many Nigerians shamelessly complicit in the pillaging of our country.

Atypical of many Nigerians, this story best describes how our country is sinking drop by drop into a morass and sh*thole of oceanic proportions. How? Through little and not-so-little acts of evil.

The government you elect is the government you deserve.
~Thomas Jefferson

Read on.

So a story was told of a king who called his subjects to a feast.

The king promised to provide enough food to feed the entire village, however, he said he wouldn't provide them with any wine.

In order to strengthen their sense of community and foster togetherness, the king asked that the wine be provided by the villagers instead.

He put a huge pot at the village square and asked that each household pour a keg of palm wine into the pot. If every household donated a keg, they should have enough wine to last them for the entire feast.

On that appointed Eke market day, the villagers started trooping to the village square to donate their quota.

Now, the king decided not to have this process supervised. He trusted his subjects to act accordingly. You only needed to declare your attendance after you must have poured your keg into the pot.

While this was going on, one man, Mazi Okoro, thought to himself, "If no one is supervising the donation of the palm wine, why do I need to donate at all?"

He reckoned, "If everyone poured in a keg of palm wine,

And so he did. He poured a keg of water into the pot instead of a keg of palm wine.

The days passed, and trickled down until the feast day finally arrived. All was well at the feast until it was time to drink the wine.

Lo-and-behold, it was only water!

Because while Mazi Okoro thought his keg of water would go unnoticed since everyone else was pouring in palm wine, Mazi Okeke also thought the same. And so did Mazi Okafor, Mazi Okonkwo, and the entire village.

So, in the end, they had to endure their pot of water throughout the entire feast. Because who could they complain to? The king? He had nothing to do with it. They themselves had brought this misfortune upon them.

As elections draw closer, do not be like these villagers and assume that others are going to vote for your preferred candidate even if you don't vote.

Do not think "after all, we did million-man marches all around the country and people came out in their thousands, so my one vote won't make any difference."

Some Nigerians regale and revel in evil and (un)leaders of malevolent intentions. Yet, they expect other Nigerians to do right by all and by the country. How can the nation stand?

In this present dispensation, unless God Almighty gives us the leader we do not deserve, how can we thrive?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not by any means suggesting we can shirk our civic responsibilities while waiting for God to give us the leaders that will save our country.

It has never worked out well that way. It won’t work that way this time either.

We know our people and our people know themselves. The rulers we elect are going to emerge from among us. So, we are more than deserving of the leaders we elect in 2023.

Last week, a story emerged on social media. A pastor while ministering to his congregants, prayed for his church members as follows, “may your children have the character of the man you vote for”, in this forthcoming election.

So telling in its implications, many of the church members refused to say amen to those prayers.

In other words, many Nigerians already know the best among the contesting candidates. Their response also proves Nigerians know the right leader to elect.

Many Nigerians against their best judgments vote unwisely because of their tribal and ethnic preferences. Yet they are still expecting good outcomes.

Will it work out well that way?

Has it ever worked out well for any nation that chooses its rulers that way?

This time around, are Nigerians going to make the right choice?

If you are a Nigerian, do not be like those villagers. You already know the leader we do not deserve. Do your own part.

Now, follow that old advice, “Work and Pray.”

Your vote makes all the difference.
Please, go and collect your PVC and be Obidient/Yusuful 🙏

Sources used in this story

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This story was first published on Medium by the author.

𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕖 𝟚 𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕖 - 𝕦𝕟𝕊𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕕

Nigerians, pray, “Dear God Almighty, Give Us…