The National Assembly elections of Saturday, April 9, 2011 have come and gone but the ripples generated are still obvious to see. There is no doubting the fact that the People's Democratic Party (PDP) was shocked in the Southwest and is very much aware of the potent threat that General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) poses to the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
Without being sentimental, it is safe to say that it will be difficult for any candidate to win in the first round. General Muhammadu Buhari is obviously loved by the masses in the north and under free and fair elections devoid of rigging he should have an overwhelming lead in the North. The same holds true for President Goodluck Jonathan in the South-East and South-South. The Southwest is firmly in the grip of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its presidential candidate Nuhu Ribadu stands to benefit from this.
Now, the key question we all have to answer on Saturday is: will the presidential election be won because of rigging or in-spite of rigging? As Nigerians we have to see this Saturday's election as a mission to save the country from chaos. Hence, not only must we vote for candidates of our choice, we must also ensure that those who want to subvert the process are identified, exposed and punished (according to the law).
In order to achieve this, we should all go out to vote with our multimedia gadgets (phones, smartphones and cameras). Where you find electoral offences being committed, record and post videos on the different social networking platforms ; Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry Messenger, Nairaland as well as local and foreign news channels and websites.
I also suggest that if you have not joined President Jonathan's fanpage on Facebook yet, do so. Then flood his page with videos of any electoral malpractice that may happen in your locality, do the same for the Facebook pages of the other two major candidates. It would be very difficult for him to face the world with thousands of videos showing electoral malpractice on his own Facebook page after next Saturday's presidential elections.
At the end of the day, we are out to achieve 2 things on Saturday:
1. Elect our country's leader for the next four years (God-willing) based on the choice of the majority and
2. Prevent our country from experiencing the dire consequences of failing to achieve 1 above.
God bless Nigeria!
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