Echoes Of The Past

The past can predict the future, and it doesn't necessarily have to be the same or exact story. There might be different triggers, processes, or outcomes, but if we look deeply, we can see traces of history in so many things happening around the world today. I strongly believe that one of the purposes of documenting history is for us to learn from our past and avoid repeating mistakes, but it's the other way around today. A lot of people only study history to promote tribalism, racism, conflict, and other terrible things; we no longer care about preventing our previous mistakes from happening again.

There was a terrible event that had to do with the killing of a particular tribe some time ago in Nigeria, and while I was condemning the act during a chat among some men, someone said that tribe doesn't deserve pity because they were responsible for the death of another tribe some decades ago. I was speechless and couldn't contribute to that conversation anymore. If the man really knew history, he would realize that the aftermath of the event back then didn't end well because it only got bloody. Condemning the act wasn't because I was taking sides; I just didn't want history to repeat itself.

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There is an adage that says, "lightning doesn't strike a spot twice," but not anymore. It's surprising that lightning now strikes a spot more than twice; we've seen terrible events recurring, and yet, we bother more about winning arguments and pushing blame rather than preventing these things from happening again.

You will agree with me that there is nothing new happening today that hasn't happened before, excluding the technological space where new things keep happening every day. COVID-19, for instance, wasn't the first virus to cause havoc across the globe; we've had several diseases in the past that led to the death of many people.

A war breaking out today won't be the first for mankind; several wars have passed, but the consequences today will be far deadlier because people now possess advanced technology for combat. It won't be the first time we are experiencing inflation, crypto dips, or bad governance; many historical events have repeated themselves, whether with human involvement or not.

There are so many historical events likely to reoccur, and one that bothers me a lot is Nigerians making the regular mistake in the next presidential election. We've always had terrible government, but the current one turned out to be something many people didn't expect. It's not the first time we've experienced the manipulation of election results, but many Nigerians made it possible by selling their voting rights, and it's now a regular thing.

A lot of people would have thought that the hardship we faced in the past few years was enough to teach us lessons, but we don't learn from history. There are still millions of people who wouldn't hesitate to sell their votes in the next election, meaning we will still be stuck in bad governance till 2031 or beyond.

I remember watching people doing a rally to praise the current president for the tremendous job he is doing, and I couldn't figure out what exactly. The press decided to interview some of these patriotic Nigerians, and unfortunately for the organizers of the rally, one of the people participating was asked to mention some of the good things he loved about the current government, and he started lamenting about the hardship in the country. They had to quickly cut the interview because the man must have forgotten what's on his script.

If people can come out to still praise the president in all of this chaos happening, I can't imagine the number of mistakes we are bound to make in the next election.
Selling of votes, stealing of ballots, and causing havoc at polling units by the citizens will still happen instead of joining hands and putting our religious and tribal conflicts, aside.

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I just hope that before February 2027, which is less than two years from now, Nigerians will have realized that we need to do better. Getting some cups of rice, groundnut oil, bread, and cash just to sell votes isn't worth going through a severe four years of hardship. If we do the right thing once, the next four years would be a great relief for us all.

_{All Image Are Mine.}