-Blank NEWS Online (NIGERIA) –By Austen AKHAGBEME:

THE shenanigans of the vicious Nigerian elites has for time immemorial, brought our Nation into a serious disrepute, knowingly or unknowingly.

They have gradually put fire to the inflammable tail of our socio- cultural pluralism which otherwise could have been annexed as a joyful expression of our hetrogenuity, as it is capable of promoting genuine national consciousness today.

Presently, every aggrieved youth is taking up arms against the state, calling for a chunk of his own home and nation where peace and justice reigns. This is made possible by the false and faulty foundation laid by the earliest political elites, nurtured by their succeeding generation and expanded by the present crop of their deaf variety, who are vigorously steering the ship of state to its dangerous precipice.

While we stand in awe and disbelief about what is happening to our dear country, this same political elites are busy, rallying, tallying, hobnobbing and horse trading with one another (all in readiness for 2023 elections) what remains of our embattled polity, deliberately oblivious or pretentious of the danger ahead.

Is there something that these politicians know that is unclear and unknowable by the rest of us, especially against the backdrop of the present existential threat posed by wanton violence and insecurity pervading the land?

Why would any sane patriot or nationalist be thinking of an election first when the electorates are being kidnapped, raped and their properties and homes burnt in a rapid succession across the nation? How did we come across these crop of insensitive elites whose heart of human compassion is at their back?

Why would anyone be thinking of 2023 elections first, instead of the undeclared war going on in our polity? Who will come out to vote in an environment fraught with fear and trepidation? How do you ferry across the states, electoral materials when the roads and terrains are increasingly becoming war theatres for daredevil kidnappers etc?

Let all hands, both the filthy and the clean, be on deck to solve the present security issues while we forget for now, the distraction called 2023 election.

• Austen AKHAGBEME is a Columnist with –Blank NEWS Online