Don’t cry for Kogi

You know when we were little kids they used to tell us about the Phoenix that would rise up from the flames of its demise. This is my thinking as I watch the various videos and news reports depicting the carnage that has enveloped Kogi State, all because of elections.

Just as I was about to start putting my thoughts into this article, the news of the alleged burning of PDP women leader in her house hit the airwaves. I then rushed back to a video posted by Senator Melaye where he was lamenting the killing of his nephew and in a very pained voice cursed the Killers.

Just when you think it cannot get any worse you are hit by these types of demonic things that have happened in Kogi and Bayelsa States and you start pondering if all the advocacy and cry for stability and good governance are really making any impact at all.

The culture of violence and utter disregard for the rule of law is endemic. No camp is innocent as all players never hesitate to contribute their own quota to the violence. It is the one that has lost out that you will hear scream out at the end of the day. Usually, the sore loser.

So, you see my people, we will not cry for Kogi but instead strengthen our resolve to fight for the renaissance that is long overdue. We will not wait for this crop of leaders to come lead us out of the Golgotha but will begin to look within the followership for salvation. Truth is that the very seeds of the rebirth of our almost failed state lays with the followers and not the cancerous leadership who wallow in the shallow believe that they have it all sewn up.

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So, I will not cry for Kogi. I will instead look at the only female candidate with a renewed vigour drawing strength from her tears as she recounts the treatment she suffered in the hands of the thugs that were deployed to not only shame her but to also demean her womanhood.

I will not cry for Kogi for Kogi will live up to its destiny as the epicentre of this contraption leading its healing from the very bowels that birth this nation at the confluence. You see, the violence that mired the Kogi elections is quite symbolic. In my mind’s eyes, it is the very last fall of sycophantic pull on leadership. The awakening has commenced and will definitely sweep away the interim victory dance of the Bello effigy and install in its place a firm and people-centred government of the people.

I will not cry for Kogi because there are no more tears. I cried in Bayelsa, will cry in Edo, cried in Lagos and have been crying in the North East. The tears are never ending but they will dry up one of these days very, very soon. They will dry up and give way to the smile of a winner.

Nigeria will rise from the shambles that is today our lot, and I am very confident of that and this is why I simply refuse to cry for Kogi as we count the body bags and screen the pictures of destroyed infrastructure all in a bid to maintain a faulty status quo.

I cry no more.

By Joseph Edgar…

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