BB 2011: A 48-hour appeal

In 2007, we were a small group called GIC (Green Invasion Campaign), we were comprised mostly of youths, young workers and students. We were driven together by the love of our fatherland burning in our hearts. We organized ourselves, contributed our monies. Students contributed part of their school feeding allowances, young workers cut a huge chunk of their salaries. Volunteers gave up their cars for service. We decided to clean an entire major road in Lagos, Akilo road. We met with the head of the spare parts sellers, a man called John Paul. We told him our intentions. He was glad and informed his colleagues. We chose a date, we bought cleaning tools, we bought trash cans. One of us had access to LAWMA (Lagos State Waste Management Agency), they were gracious, they gave us the service of a whole waste truck for the whole day. Young men trooped out, young women, old people joined us, Okada men gave us rides across the length of the road for free. We dug out the gutters with our gloved hands. We packed plenty of debris off the road, and the LAWMA truck took them away. We were so joyous, no one paid us in return, no one gave anyone any awards or recognition, the media did not even know about it. But we derived huge satisfaction, for we did it out of the love for our fatherland. But we just didn't do this on our own, we did this under the inspiration, leadership, guidance and permission of one man, Pastor Tunde Bakare, for we, GIC, were a unit of the Legacy Youth Fellowship of the Latter Rain Assembly.

In 2010, the Nigerian nation was in palpable tension. There was no clear cut leader, opportunists dished out conflicting information and orders. Billions were being looted. Once again, the time beckoned on courageous men of conscience and genuine love for the fatherland to step forward. We were there again, but this time we were not alone, we were bigger, supported by greater men and larger organizations. We were no longer the tiny GIC, we had become part of the core group of a larger Save Nigeria Group (SNG). Protest marches were called, the first in Abuja. Most of us were based in Lagos, again, we contributed our monies, volunteers stepped forward. We hired buses, and traveled all night to Abuja to make our voices heard. Soon later, another march occurred in Lagos, and we were there, holding our hands in a gridlock, carrying placards and calling for change in our nation. Divinity smiled on our request, the tense situation was resolved, and our nation heaved a sigh of great relief, for great was the fear in the land. All this under the inspiration, guidance and leadership of the same man, Tunde Bakare, but this time joined and supported by other giants in the land like himself.

This is 2011, we have metamorphosed, from excited youths of the GIC, to Volunteers of the SNG, the challenge of the hour is an election that promises to be a major deciding factor in how our future will be shaped. We desire a future that looks nothing like our very gloomy past. This time around, our leader, the man who inspires us, has teamed up with an old veteran, one who has carried high the banner of honesty, patriotism and integrity in this nation of many perverts. They seek to change the direction and course of our nation. We are now the CPC, we seek progressive and sustainable change in our nation. Will our people not give them the chance?

This is a passionate appeal to all youths of my generation, born between the mid 1970s to the early 1990s, we are the email generation, the facebook generation, the twitter generation. Our past has been that of gloom, deprivation, darkness, stagnation, hunger, strikes, poor education, poor healthcare, little or no recreation opportunities, dilapidated infrastructure. We never knew tertiary institutions where students ate chicken at extremely cheap costs. We never knew a Nigeria in which there were jobs waiting to hire you before you wrote your final project in school. Most of us had our parents and guests shouting "Up NEPA, this child must be a child of light!" at our naming ceremonies. We knew the date of our matriculation but we never could tell when we would graduate. We had little apparatus, scrawny visual aids to make our learning easy. We were taught with tools that had been existent since the days of Awolowo and Zik and Sardauna. We studied at night with candles and lanterns. We have suffered, while our mates in other climes have had such an enabling environment that they have shaped the world in which we live right now. In the next 48 hours, you will cast your vote at your polling booths. Please do not be deceived. Ours is a call of destiny; a call of conscience; a call we have lived and sacrificed for; the call of change in the way our nation and our lives are being run by greedy lions who have cornered the commonwealth of all for their own benefit and that of their own families. Vote for Buhari Bakare. Vote for the CPC. As we speak today, that is the most viable ticket to usher in an era of violence-free revolutionary change in our nation. Some of us are even becoming parents now, the same circumstances we grew up in, are the same our babies are knowing.

God does not come down to change a nation; he raises men who are ready and willing to change the status quo. God does not just choose them arbitrarily either, He chooses conscientious men who have lived by his principles of justice, righteousness, honesty, integrity, prudence, and truth.

This is the encapsulation of the Buhari Bakare 2011 ticket. Seize the opportunity, negotiate for yourself a better future!

Vote BB; Vote CPC!