By Patrick Obia
The Cross River State chapter of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) has launched its “ballot revolution” campaign to sensitize residents on the need to participate in the electoral process and elect good leaders.
The chairman, Comrade Anthony Bisong while launching the campaign in Calabar lamented that the current crop of political leaders have failed the people hence, there is need to sensitize the masses as 2023 beckons.
He also disclosed that the party will register 100 disabled persons for the Joint Admissions ad Matriculation Board (JAMB) and provide scholarships for some.
The project aims at moving against vote buying and voters enticement. And, Bisong posited that the power to change the narrative lies in the ballot.
Read the full statement below…
“In the past 22 years of our exit from military administration, one of the greatest dividends of democracy has been perhaps the return to civil rule. While we celebrate freedom from military dictatorship we are still millions of miles away from enjoying the dividends of democracy, an expenence that looks more as a mirage and a promissory note always rehearsed during political campaigns.
“Nigenans have even stop yearning for dividends of democracy and are merely begging for the provision of basic social amenities and it appears very clearly that we are asking for too much. On the contrary, less than 3 percent of our entire population of over 200 million people who have access to power are endowed with the exclusive privilege of not just dividends of democracy but the disproportionate appropriation of the resources of our nation.
“Expectedly, the political class who rode into power through the hijack of our collective mandate have become so selfish, self centered, corrupt, cruel, shortsighted and wicked in handling the affairs of our people and the result of this has manifested in the current state of hopelessness, despondency and frustration we all find ourselves.
“Today, while an average Nigerian can barely grab a meal in an entire 24 hours, our political elites live in primitive affluence with their families enjoying in foreign countries while our own nation under their watch is helplessly drifting to the Hobbesian state of nature where live is primitive, cruel, nasty, brutish and short.
“We are all witnesses to the reality that waking up as a Nigerian today is an achievement, traveling on our roads has been included in 10 ways to die in Africa, the cost of living has hit the roof top, nobody anywhere is safe, bandits, kidnappers, terrorists, herdsmen, unknown gunmen or ungun known men are reigning supreme, promoting the AK 47 economy. The ordinary Nigerian is lost in the middle of nowhere.
“In the light of the foregoing, it has become very clear that we hold the only solution to our collective problems. These people are few and we are many. If we withdraw our support we flip the political carpet under their feet. And this is what we call Ballot Revolution.
“As we approach 2023, it is important to start planning ahead and strategizing how to take over our mandate from these elected bandits.
“We must resolve to work with ourselves to change ourselves, we must resort to participation, to counsel, to guts, to grit, to sheer will power, to ballot, to its revolution to stop this evil once and for all and recover our nation from the hands of these evil behemoths who live for themselves at the expense of us all.
“The next election should be about us. We must reject their offers and attempts to divide us by buying us over. We must say NO to their stipends, to their salt, maggi, rice, beans and other cheap palliatives. We must ask ourselves how much one, two, three, ten thousand etc can do for us for four good years. When they bring arms for us to use, we should demand that they bring their children back from foreign countries to lead the fight. We must by all means get some sense.
“2023 should be about the 97 percent Nigerians that have always borne the burden of bad governance. It should be the concern of that market woman who takes her wares to her small open air shop to sell but comes home without enough to feed her children, it should be about that youth that despite graduating with good grades cannot find a job and soon becomes unemployable by reason of age, it should be about that young man/woman with great business idea without available access to capital to fund their creative ingenuity. It should be about that old man/woman who retires without hope of rest during their night season, it should be about the ordinary man on the street who is tired of how the system is run and is ready to stake everything for a new Nigeria.
“(The) current crop of leaders like the proverbial monkeys have succeeded in hijacking our vehicle but it’s very obvious that they cannot drive us to our preferred destination. Young Progressives Party (YPP) is the alternative platform that offers Nigerians the opportunity to reclaim their country from the Siamese twins that have plundered and squandered our common patrimony on one hand and has sabotaged our future through their abysmal 22 years of unprofitable governance.
“We therefore call on the youths of Cross River State and Nigerians as a whole to join us as we take back our vehicle and drive it ourselves to a safe harbor. I believe that Nigeria can be great again. But it begins with a revolution, not a bloody one though. Ballot Revolution is the Answer.”
Leave feedback about this