A US-based socio-cultural group, Pan Ndi-Igbo Foundation (PNF USA), has urged Nigerian electorate to wake up to their civic duty and vote for credible candidates in the 2019 elections.
In “An Open Letter to the Nigerian Electorate on Your Inherent Obligations,’’ the group advised the electorate against electing people with questionable character into offices.
“Look at it in the light of being the owner of the corporation and you are hiring managers and officers to run the corporation for you.
“You would never hire a known thief to run your business on your behalf.
“If you would not do so for your small business, why do you engage in doing the opposite in the much bigger operation of a nation?
“You own corporate Nigeria and you have the power to hire and fire any and all managers that are not performing well,’’ it said.
The pan Ndigbo group, in the letter signed by Mr Geoffrey Nzeadibe, PNF USA National Chairman, urged Nigerians to elect accountable candidates to manage nation’s resources, adding that there was never a good thief.
“A thief is a thief and is a thief anywhere,” the US-based group said in the open letter.
The group reminded the electorate that their present and future net worth was far more than a bag or rice.
They urged the electorate not to mortgage their future for a bag of rice that may not last more than a month.
“Some of the politicians are equating your life as equal to or less than a bag of rice.
“That is why they come around election time to buy your vote for a bag of rice and turn around and rob you blind when you vote them into office.
“Please, stop that practice and vote into office the person that will perform the duties assigned to that office.
“For you to achieve this is by making yourselves available on the day of election to vote a candidate of your choice.
“Someone you consider credible and fit to manage nation’s resources with sense of accountability,” the group added.
It noted that the most powerful group in any nation was the electorate and they should not relinquish their power to any other person or group for anything.
“Never should the electorate relinquish power to anybody and that is why PNF USA says, wake up.
“The Nigerian electorate have been in a big slumber for too long, dreaming a lot of fantasies and now we believe you have rested enough, and it is time for you to wake up and go into action,’’ it said.
The US-based pan Igbo group urged the electorate to rise up and use their PVCs to install good governance and vote out those who have performed below their expectations.
“If you take election days as holidays and sit back at home, then you are the enemy of yourself and the nation.
“Any Nigerian of voting age, who displays apathy towards electoral process perhaps because he or she thinks votes won’t count, remains part of the clog in the nation’s wheel of progress.
“It is saddening that most people sit at home on election days,’’ the group said. (NAN)
