Wednesday 27 February 2013

HARD VIEW (DISPENSABLE LIVES)


HARD VIEW
DISPENSABLE LIVES
Mother Nature could be beautiful, kind and nurturing, but she also has her dark moments. Floods, droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes, cyclones are all natural disasters that have the gargantuan capacity to destroy communities and indeed cities. The biggest most recent natural disaster was the Haiti earthquake in 2010 where an estimated 316,000 people were killed by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and a minimum of 52 aftershocks. As devastating as these events were, they were not preventable because they happened naturally. 
But when disasters are caused by man, it is inexcusable. Mankind has frequently created catastrophes that have devastated the immediate environment and taken countless innocent lives. The effects of chemical or radioactive spills are especially horrific to a person’s physical and mental state of health. The adverse effects resulting from chemicals are known to evoke a wide spectrum of biological responses in people, depending upon the extent of their exposure and its potential to interact with the person’s anatomical structures and physiological functions. These effects could finally result in clusters of disease or instantaneous death.
That is why when I shockingly learnt of the alleged dumping of harmful waste by the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KPRC), the NNPC subsidiary in Rido community of Chikun LGA, Kaduna State, I was appalled. The community of Rido is about half a kilometre from KRPC with an estimated 30,000 people residing there. But between June 10 and 14, 2012, a powdery, dusty substance was dumped by contractors that were hired by the KRPC. Almost immediately, two human deaths were reported with a high death toll of dogs and chickens within the vicinity. At least six more deaths were reported within two weeks of this alleged callous crime; many children were admitted into the community’s only hospital and clinic. Many villagers experienced respiratory tract problems, as the fumes they inhaled were toxic and caused incessant, severe coughing. Even though children and animals alike had gone to the waste dump to pick wood and other things, those that did not go near the dump site experienced severe symptoms as the wind blew the powdery substance to nearby distances. The village head, nurses that work in the community and eyewitnesses have clarified the above facts.
The proprietor of Biams Integrated Farms, a farm located 500m from the vicinity of the waste dump, recorded the loss of 700 chickens in less than three hours, within four days of the waste’s dumping on their poultry farm. Staff employed at the farm complained of headaches and bloated stomachs. Justifiably, the matter is now in court and it would be inexcusable for the legal system not to take this matter with the seriousness it deserves. KINGS (Kaduna Integrity Groups), an NGO, has on behalf of the Rido community taken the matter up in court and a legal battle has been in the works since last year. Abdullahi Umar Ladan, leader of KINGS, has repeatedly called on the relevant authorities to come to the aid of the people in Rido Community by avoiding another illegal dumping of any toxic waste.
A veterinary doctor of Biams Integrated Farms, Abdul Ganiyu, spoke about the high mortality rate experienced with poultry on the farm. He also described some of the symptoms experienced by villagers, who described the smell of the waste as “having a tear-gas effect”. The victims spoke about taking painful breaths from the fumes of the waste.
Despite the fact that the waste has long been evacuated, residents of the community are still suffering from the effects of this traumatic event. The KEPA (Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency) has also confirmed that industrial waste was dumped in Rido community when KRPC refurbished some of its facilities. KEPA had informed KRPC that any waste to be dumped has to be done only with official clearance from KEPA, as industrial waste is a specialised waste and there are usually specific sites where these are dumped -- far away from community settlements. There have been futile promises by the affected government agencies to look fully into the matter but, till date, no impactful action has been taken on behalf of the people of this longsuffering community. The KRPC has continuously denied any misappropriate action taken by them, claiming that any dumping of waste was conducted by contractors. If indeed toxic waste was dumped by KRPC, then there need to be accountability by the organisation as well as adequate compensation for the victims.
Whatever the facts, a chemical incident has resulted as an unexpected, uncontrolled release of a chemical from its containment. The WHO defines a public- health incident as “where two or more members of the public are exposed (or threatened to be exposed) to a chemical.” In a majority of cases, it’s an acute release where the exposure and dose do not rise quickly and public health measures are not taken so promptly, even though the public- health concern can emerge suddenly and acutely. Chemicals enter our body through the eyes, skin, lung or digestive tract. The rate varies from different chemicals and the concentration of a chemical as well as length of time of exposure can have varying but ultimately damaging effects.
So how do we protect our people and environment from exposure to these chemical disasters? The federal government should set up procedures and organisations to ensure that the public- health management of any chemical incident is effective and comprehensive. In the case of the Rido community, it is apparent that the safety measures put in place were not adequate enough to protect them. At the local level, public- health authorities need to identify situations where chemical incidents could occur and assess the likely risks to exposed people, property and the environment. There should be facilities for emergency plan development and implementation. This means well- stocked pharmacies within a clinic, functional ambulances and highly trained staff attached to the clinics.
Vulnerability assessment, also known as community risk assessment (CRA) in the field of chemical incident management, is an assessment of the potential effects of a chemical incident in the local area. This is composed of four major steps: identification of hazardous chemical sites, identification of possible incident scenarios and exposure paths, identification of vulnerable populations, facilities and environments, and lastly estimation of health impact of potential chemical incidents and the requirements for health-care facilities sensitised on the dangers of such. There should also be proper monitoring of vulnerable areas with emergency phone lines available in preparation for any chemical incident.
In April 2010, a Maesrk Line vessel, “MV Nashville” was apprehended by the Nigerian Ports Authority. It was filled with toxic waste. In June 2010, a ship, “MV Gumel”, was detained in Lagos with several containers of toxic waste. Similarly, in 1988, radioactive waste was dumped in Koko, Delta State. The list seems endless. Ironically, in all these cases, the federal government sought substantial compensation for these crimes. There should not be double standard in how the crime of toxic waste dumping is investigated. 
Since it is proven that chemical waste has a long-lasting impact on our society and environment, all potential victims are entitled to compensation. Sadly, there can be no compensation for those innocent adults and children that lost their lives in 2012 in Rido community. A community’s basic right to coexist in peace and lead happy, healthy and productive lives has forever been blemished by the incident of chemical waste dump.
No matter how powerful or influential an organisation is, no one has the right to play God with innocent people’s lives. And if that unfortunate gamble is indeed taken, then, the culprits should be ready to not only face the wrath of God himself but be accountable to the proper authorities within the confines of our judicial system.
Hannatu Musawa
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Wednesday 20 February 2013

Hard View (LORD OF THE AspiRINGS)

LORD OF THE AspiRINGS
I have a pitch for a great, blockbuster movie; I think I just may have to call Peter Jackson about it. My working title is “Lord of the AspiRings” and it goes something like this:

“A very powerful organization whose... inner functioning is concealed from non-members has covert meetings in which they strategize on ways they can hoard power within their group and deny anyone that is not part of them a fair shot. In a grand design, they agree that the best way to maintain that power is to rotate it exclusively between the members of the group and create an uneven playing ground to hinder anyone outside the organization from getting their hands on this power. Despite the fact that this organization controls the administration of over 160 million unsatisfied people desperate for change, they plot and plan, scheme and spin every possible strategy that would hold that power down. In a move to maintain the power, members of this organization came up with a rotation scheme that would alternate the power between the different regions that the members come from. Although the insulated agreement they drew up had no constitutional backing and wasn’t endorsed by the over 160 million people that the organization ruled over, greed, blind ambition, arrogance, self-interest and narcissism became so severe within this organization that it began to consume them. As more members of the organization became interested in aspiring for the most coveted post, accusations of agreements and broken pledges began to float to the surface. Suddenly feathers became ruffled and hairs started sticking out of place within this organization.

The story culminates into a bizarre drama, filled with a cocktail of suspense, sci-fi, action, thriller, horror and comedy, where the main players get nasty and downright dirty. And as the audience anxiously watches the epic saga unfold, the question remains, which one of the leading men within the organization will become the Lord of those aspiring…?”

Wow, what a blockbuster. This is how Oscars are born. I may be due for a brand new career soon.

OK, so unless one has been living under a meteor for the past couple of months, it is clear to every Nigerian that the political race for 2015 has well and truly begun. And if anyone wanted a lesson on how power is the ultimate corruptible aphrodisiac, they need only look at the power struggle igniting in the PDP.

As the race takes off, we have a series of claims and accusations in the PDP from the president and governors, with each repeatedly denying the other's accusations. An ambitious president, an agreement that nobody told us Nigerians about and a cluster of equally ambitious governors on the last leg of their second terms get a few nice shout outs but nothing is yet fully exposed.

And so it began a couple of days ago in the vibrant city of Abuja during a live radio broadcast when Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger state spoke of President Goodluck’s one term pact. An agreement was made, we are told, by the president to run only for one term in 2011 and the rumoured interest of President Jonathan in aspiring for a second term in 2015 should be taken as mere speculation.

At first, the president’s camp met this exposure with an almost stupefied taciturnity. And instead of a categorical address or some sort of press release to the nation to clear up the matter, the president did what all ill-starred leaders do when they want to express a position that they may need to deny in future. He sent his aide to wax lyrical about his commitment to Nigeria and deny committing to any agreement not to run for the presidency in 2015. All the while resurrecting nothing short of a sum speech of the president’s assumed aspiration; which essentially translated as, ‘Yes folks, I am aspiring for a second term… Don’t mind these darn governors and their premature aspirations.’

So did he, or didn’t he sign a pact to run for only one term? And if he did, does it really matter? Although ones intuition says that the president is being less than truthful on the matter, with so many of the key players giving so many variant accounts of the same topic, we may have to wait for Wikileaks, who will no doubt tell us what really happened in a couple of months.

As the mud gets slung around, we the spectators are being led to believe that the supposed collaborative agreement was predicated upon the desire of our leaders to uphold national character and stand up for the rights of their regions. One begs to differ! Let’s not get it twisted, this impasse has absolutely nothing to do with regional power shift or a need to protect a people’s interest but everything to do with a formula where everyone is feverishly angling for the best position to make their imagined target of taking power for themselves come true.

And it begs the question really, if the governors arguing for the turn of the north were in earnest trying to protect the interest of the north, what on earth happened to them in 2011? And was it not their fault that the initial power rotation of the PDP which gave power to President Obasanjo for eight years and then President Yar’adua for eight years was not enforced in accordance with that initial agreement in 2011? Since they had an opportunity and audience with President Jonathan to negotiate power back then, why did they not claim the position for the north in the aftermath of President Yar’adua’s death? Why, one may also ask, did they not support Atiku Abubakar or any of the other northerners that put themselves up for election in 2011? Their ferocious campaign against anyone that was northern in 2011 and in support of President Jonathan is a clear indication that the only interest they are truly out to protect is their own. Now that they are finishing their second terms and may have the aspiration to elevate themselves to the presidency in 2015, it’s difficult to take their crusade for the north sincerely. Seriously, if anyone is begging to not be taken seriously on the issue of trying to protect regional interest, it’s the northern governors who were in office in 2011 and their approach. There’s approach and strategy and then there’s freaking exasperating!

But despite the dodgy objective of the governors, President Jonathan does not and should not get a pass. Though his pledge of ignorance is coming furiously through his aid, the fact of the matter is that it goes to the root of revealing President Jonathan’s true character as a person. At a time when the presidency is openly being accused of telling bare faced lies, it would be untoward for the president to expose himself as a fibber. Already in the past he was caught in a lie in 2010 when he denied that PDP had an agreement for rotational presidency even though he was a beneficiary of that agreement. And when he denied the involvement of MEND in the October 1st 2010 Eagle Square bombing, his nose might have grown a few inches. If he did indeed agree to run only once and has subsequently changed his mind, Nigerians would respect him, not only as a leader but as a man if he admitted it. He still has a constitutional right to seek re-election despite any agreement and if he wants to be the Lord of those aspiring, then he should own it.

The region that the 2015 aspirants come from shouldn’t matter. The native language and native dress they wear shouldn’t be a factor. If they came from Mars, as long as they are Nigerian and have a constitutional right to run for the presidency, no agreement can bypass that. Nobody should get to hide behind an agreement which has, at best, outrun its purpose and is unconstitutional.

Something new is happening across Nigeria and it has nothing to do with an insulated agreement that PDP made or with the towering zombie of ethnic dichotomy that has been manufactured for us to absorb and align with. The discourse with the vast majority of Nigerians has shifted. People are desperate for change; a sustained incremental change. A change that will be carried forward by ordinary people, ordinary men and women, not by governors or presidents or anyone who worships an unconstitutional agreement fashioned to take away the choice of the Nigerian people. And this is something that those in the ruling party should probably be remembering as the next two years go by.

As we watch the dramas unfold, I doubt that Hitchcock, Shakespeare or even Spielberg could have come up with a better plot than our epic story. And although we probably won’t be winning any accolades or awards for our ratchet mess, Nigerians will be on the edge of their seats to see whether it’s the governors or the president that emerge as the “Lord of the aspiRings”.

Hannatu Musawa
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Hard View (Global Warning)

GLOBAL WARNING
 
Our climate is changing. What is meant to be the chilly season of harmattan apparently feels more like a scorching heat-wave. Nigeria is supposed to have a wet and dry season, with the wet season starting at different times i...n the north and south. The harmattan season, the West African winter, is a season of gusty, dry winds, relatively cool at night but warm by day. Presently it is the season of harmattan, but in contrast to the norm of the climate, the weather is hot throughout the night and day. Like the weather, most Nigerians should agree that our climate is changing all the time. Because of global climatic cycles, some of the changes are natural while others are caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and gas emissions. In the past when I heard scientists talking about protecting the environment and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, I put it down to the fact that they did not have better things to talk about. With millions of men, women and children being abused and starving the world over why would a scientist solely be concerned with how many vehicles we drive? Besides, any talk about the ozone layer sounded more like the title of a Sci-Fi adventure movie for children to me back then. But upon doing some research and coming across numerous meteorological accounts that climate change is one of the most pervasive threats to the web of human life, I realized the supreme importance of considering the devastation of weather change. What prompted me to do research in this field was as a result of the countless, recurring natural disasters that have been occurring and reported all over the world in the last couple of years. Every time one turns on the news there seems to be a report of a hurricane, earthquake, typhoon, snow storm, drought or cyclone and I wanted to understand whether these unfortunate events had any connection with the talk of the greenhouse effect.

The truth is that much of our lives depend on our climate because we rely on water stored underground, in lakes and reservoirs for our personal use and crop irrigation. If the climate changes and warms up, the ability of the land to store moisture or the rain to fall changes. Evidence of the effects of climate change is presently being felt throughout the world. All over the globe glaciers are melting, avalanches are threatening, soil is eroding, water is flooding, snow is receding and oceans are warming; posing a risk to many marine creatures. The warm climate is upsetting seasonal cycles, harming ecosystems, affecting agriculture, food production and causing sea-levels to rise. In addition landslides, drought and famine are experienced. On top of this imminent threat, hotter heat waves create an ideal breeding ground for disease infested insects and rodents to expand their range while species are pushed to extinction. In Nigeria the effects could include an increase in epidemics of water-borne diseases such as malaria, typhoid, hepatitis and cholera.

Statistics show overwhelming evidence that the planet has warmed by about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the course of the past century with the final 2 decades of the 20th century being the hottest on record. This is due to rise even more rapidly in the coming decades. The cause of this hybrid is because of the thickening layer of carbon dioxide pollution mostly from power plants and automobiles that traps heat in the atmosphere. Evidence shows that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels used in vehicles and dirty power plants has formed a blanket around the earth and is warming it. The gasses act like the gas of a greenhouse, trapping heat that would otherwise radiate off into space. The heat then rebounds onto the earth's surface and the planet's temperature rises, creating the greenhouse effect. Its harmful impact on the worlds’ climate is now so overwhelming especially given the fact that we have been pumping it into the world atmosphere for more than 2 centuries. Although a certain level of global warming is natural and essential to sustain life, the excessive emission of greenhouse gases accelerates this process by trapping too much heat and resulting in devastating effects on the world. Meteorologists argue that the recent change of weather is the natural consequence of this green house effect. Whether we subscribe to this argument or not, we can’t deny that the recent behavior of the weather and atmosphere has been irregular to what we are normally used to.

If our behavior as a people has had anything to do with the freak trend of the climate, it is imperative for us to study natural events and strive to correct the continuing damage on the world at this stage. While it is impossible to completely stop global warming we do have the ability to lessen the process, allowing nature time to adjust to this man made problem. Since we know that the majority of heat trapping gases comes from vehicles and power plants, we have the capability to curb their emissions by perfecting modern technologies and passing stronger laws regarding vehicle use and power plant management. Typically, it is quite common to see cars and trucks in this country traveling the motorways with an unbelievable amount of exhaust fume, as if in an exhaust fume competition. Regulations need to be passed prohibiting vehicle owners from operating such hazardous machines because apart from damaging the ozone layer, they further pose threats to other motorists. Since we are a heavily populated country with a vast number of vehicles, the Nigerian authorities should educate the nation on the ill effects of climate change to our environment and the importance of adapting to it. Government and industries should adopt initiatives to take the immediate action that will lead to more efficient public transport, cleaner energy production, increasing the efficiency of buildings and better responsible industrial and agricultural practices.

In a country like Nigeria, there is a requirement for far more effective waste management and disposal. Everywhere we go in this country; there are dumps of rubbish and pollution on drive ways and road sides that it has almost become a trade mark of our towns and cities. The environmental sector in Nigeria needs to introduce more strategies for waste disposal. Previously, past governments had a sanitation eradication program on Saturdays where people were not allowed to roam the streets until 10, after a general clean up operation. The streets back then were much cleaner than they are now. Maybe the government needs to consider revisiting this practice in order to facilitate the clean up of the environment. The Nigerian government must consider adopting these or other alternative strategies and policies so that it can encourage industries to adapt to climate change. Furthermore, the initiative could include a sensitization exercise on the benefits of recycling products such as aluminum, glass, plastic, cardboard and paper. This would help because it would allow industries to save a lot of energy needed to make new products. In addition the use of energy efficient technologies and renewable energy resources like wind and solar power could be integrated by the industries that have the means.

On an individual and community level, we can each help cool the earth by small actions such as turning computers off overnight because of the energy it uses, planting trees and plants in order to combat erosion and integrating agricultural lands. The use of better water storage systems such as underground tanks and improved water treatment plants, improved rainwater harvesting strategies and creating community water resources to meet human or livestock needs can also be effective. Even though resources are limited, people engaged in the transportation business should try and service cars regularly and not send them out onto the streets with an unreasonable amount of exhaust seeping out. This is very common with molue buses and trucks.

All Nigerians should get involved in curbing the climate change that is fast becoming a threat to our existence. The whole process of environmental awareness is a difficult feat because as humans we tend to be nonchalant about the effect of gas emissions and water misuse on our environment. It is so easy for us to take the air we breathe for granted and not give a thought about the numerous ways we are polluting it. Unless a stance is taken, the cumulative impact of climate change is bound to affect our air and water quality even worse than it is now, resulting in inestimable consequences on every body living on this planet. If not in our lifetime, the fall back of the damage will affect the occupation, property and lives of our descendants.

Since the root cause of climate change is thought by scientists to lie primarily in the phenomena of huge emissions of gas, we effectively have the power to mitigate its damaging impact on our planet. To protect the health and economic wellbeing of current and future generations, we honestly must reduce our emissions of heat trapping gases by using the practical solutions already at our disposal. Solutions to global warming are available and everyone has a role to play in implementing them at all levels of society.

Since embarking on my research and recovering from the ignorance of climate change that plagued me, I now consider global warming as one of the most serious challenges facing our species today. And since we were the original cause of the problem we can always take solace in the fact that we can also create a solution for it. So even though Nigerians are in the middle of a harmattan heat wave, we should strive to consider our role in keeping our environment clean and eventually saving our world. I hope that the cumulative negative effect on natural resources and the balance of nature created by our over smoking exhaust pipes and rubbish laden streets serves as a global warning for global warming!

Written By Hannatu Musawa
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Hard View (New Dawn)

NEW DAWN

February 6, 2013 was a magnificent day for Nigeria. As the sun rose over the eventful day, Nigerians all over the world celebrated the thrashing our Super Eagles gave Mali’s Les Aigles to reach the final of the African Cup of Nati...ons in South Africa. But prosperity was not done with us, for as the jubilations rang out, news that several of our most significant opposition political parties, including the All Nigeria Peoples Party, Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change, and the All Progressive Grand Alliance had merged to form one party gave cause for much more celebration. As the news of the newly formed All Progressive Congress trickled in, the social networks went crazy. Nigerians young and old; far and wide expressed their delight at the possibility of this new coalition party. Opposition victories have been hard to come by in the last decade and this new coalition not only gives the vast majority of worn-out Nigerians a tremendous sense of achievement, it gives millions of people new hope that their cause was right and new determination that change will finally show its face in Nigeria.

For many of us, this week has been a time to be proud; a time for reflection on the possibility of a new dawn, a time where our country has the chance to sow the seed of success in overcoming the great turmoil that our electoral and political process has thus far represented. Now, as Nigerians look towards 2015, it is beginning to look like we may be standing at the beginning of a new chapter in our history; one that will hopefully be defined by a prosperous democracy incontrovertibly built upon the will of the people.

Nigerians have really been put through the ringer. Apart from dealing with the dearth of security, employment, health care, education, striving to provide for our families and rising crime to name a few, we have been lumbered with a political leadership that is solely focused on personal interests rather than on solving our widespread problems. And even though there are over one million and ninety nine thousand things that Nigerians would ideally like to see done differently, the one general consensus of what people want right now seems to be a change of government.

A very smart man known as Albert Einstein once described insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ It would be difficult not to agree with him. If having the same party in power since 1999 translates into a reality where we still have no stable electricity, no unity, no security, no peace, no job opportunities, no development and hardly anything good, then how on earth can anyone expect a different result in terms of the way the country is governed if the same party keeps hoisting itself into power? It would naturally follow that in order for our life to change from the nightmare we are living, into a more structured dream, we must change; the country must change and government must change. And for the first time in a very long time, a vehicle with the ability to translate that nightmare into a dream and then into reality is being presented to Nigerians. That vehicle is this newly formed united merger.

However, now that the first leg of the task has been achieved, this marks the point at which the real work needs to be done. To consolidate the exceptional success that the merger represents, the APC must now pass the crucial test without allowing the demons of the past to re-emerge. The demons which defy stepping up to the challenge of putting personal interest aside in order for the party to operate in the interest of all the people of this nation. The party must set the objective of making Nigeria a place liveable for the right of the many. The coalition must work in partnership with each other to create a dynamic, broad and competitive platform for progressives, for minorities, for women, for children, for the poor and for every interest. The party must be fashioned as an entity that seeks to restore trust in Nigerian politics, cleanse Nigerian politics and decentralizes it so that people can once again have hope that politics can be about the service to the public.

The APC should be a party entrenched with solid ideals; the ideals of integrity, impartiality, unity, honesty and development. And it should also be a party equipped with the valour to welcome new ideas required to make those standards a reality for Nigerians; a party of practical process in pursuit of a gallant cause and the solemn obligation to act accountably, transparently, and impartially. These should be at the core of APC’s intention for Nigeria.

True democracy has never been a concrete box that isolates the political leadership from the people. And if it’s true democracy we are interested in, then the party leadership must embrace that fact. Leaders of APC have the obligation to use their positions of power to earn the people’s trust because that is what will primarily impact the public’s confidence in the party. As the governors and leaders of the opposition gathered in front of the residence of the Lagos State Governor to announce the merger, they must know all too well the enormous responsibility that they have undertaken and the great trust that the Nigerian people may be willing to place in them. More than anyone, the leaders of the APC know well the change that Nigeria desperately needs. They know that this country is anxious to step away from its past, desperate to get those things done that need doing for the future.
No less important, the parties that have come together to form the APC must each individually get their acts together. The ongoing internal wrangling and court cases that litter the corridors of most of the opposition parties have to stop with immediate effect. If the APC is to have a chance of success and have a chance of being inclusive and nonpartisan in its internal decision making, then the different entities that form it must find a way of letting bygones be bygones, cooperating and actively seeking consensus through compromise and dialogue. Each of these parties is responsible for cooperating fully with the ideal and unity necessary to establish and promote the APC.

Let me state a simple truth: public faith in the political process is extremely low. Many people are still pessimistic, especially given the fact that a number of the strong players in the new coalition were once part of past governments. Part of the APC’s challenge is to earn the trust of the people by avoiding political trickery, standing up to the PDP, abstaining from inflammatory behavior, working together and convincing the public that the party really is ready to be the fresh new change Nigeria needs despite some of the personalities that make up the party.

If managed well, the APC has the ability to bring Nigeria together once again, to unite people as one nation in which our hopes for Nigeria corresponds with a sense of consideration, decorum and responsibility. Let us be hopeful and optimistic about this chance. One can only shape the opposition and make it what they need it to be when they participate in the process.

As Nigeria prepares to embark on this new chapter in its political life, one element of change seems to rise above all others in terms of importance: specifically the need for our politicians to show love for Nigeria. Love for Nigeria means putting public interests above personal interests. It means doing everything possible to keep partisan politics fair and clean. Love for Nigeria is not about the words that politicians speak but about their actions. It’s about putting nation building above everything else. Leaders of APC must display their love for Nigeria.

With 2015 approaching, we have a chance to start a new chapter, to put aside individual and party interests, to insist on accountability from the political class. More than anything, we should all accept individual responsibility for making this happen because only individual Nigerians putting Nigeria’s interests first can build the just, democratic society that will make present and future generations of Nigerians justifiably proud. As this new dawn breaks, the APC is giving Nigerians a platform to do just that.

February 6, 2013 truly was a magnificent day for Nigeria and as we keep our eye on the making sure the APC does right by us, let us also keep our fingers crossed for the success of our Eagles in the African Cup of Nations.

Written By Hannatu Musawa
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