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MAKING MY VOTE COUNT

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By Mallam Abdul Okwechime.
The drama started on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Very early, around 8 am on the day, Dana Airline sent a message that my scheduled 2.35 pm flight for the same Thursday had been postponed to the following day, Friday, February 24, 2023, at 8.50 am.
So I rescheduled and adjusted all other plans. About 10. pm on the same Thursday, another message came from Dana Airlines again, for another, time, postponement, to 4.50 pm. I still complied.
Like they say in Lagos, ‘m’o’gentle”. Then, came the shocker; at 10 am on Friday, February 24, a day before the General Elections, Dana struck, and the 4.50 pm flight had been outrightly cancelled.
I was traumatised. I tried getting onto other Airlines. Impossible. All were fully booked or cancelled. My booking agent thought it was sabotage, to stop people from coming into Lagos to vote. This wasn’t the time for conspiracy theories.
I tried to reach out to some of my colleagues to see if, by any chance, there could be a way out. Dele Alake wasn’t picking up his calls. Koguna Danladi Bako gave a widow’s mite. Blessyn Okpowo, my brother, not a member of the PCC, couldn’t bless me, this time.
Ali Ali couldn’t believe it was happening,   he rushed into the Mosque for the JUMMA’AT Service and promised to get back after prayers. I am sure he prayed for me. That’s all I needed. I got to my Director in the Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, Adebayo Onanuga, who was already in Lagos and preparing to head to Ijebu-Ode, his voting location.
He gave me a typical editor’s directive, “your best option is to hit the road”. This time was already 1. pm on Friday, February 24, 2023, a day before d-day. That ended the rigmarole. I took off to the Abuja-Lagos Motor Park, Jabi, Abuja. At 4 pm I was seated in a Toyota Sienna Bus, waiting for two more passengers to fill up the available sellable seats. Long story short, the bus carrying seven of us including the driver, departed Jabi, Abuja, at exactly 6 pm, heading to Lagos, and very much aware of the movements restrictions that would commence by 12 .01am early morning of Friday, as part of the National Elections Safety measures.
Just immediately after the midnight hour, the roads became infested with security operatives. The checkpoints manned by soldiers were more in number and surprisingly more humane in dealing with road users.
They, after the usual profiling, let you move on, usually saying, “go on, go and vote”, as if rehearsed. It clearly showed that this election 2023, meant the whole world to all Nigerians. The police were characteristically more verbose in their approach, always trying to remind you of the IGP’s directive of no movement after 12 midnight until 6 pm after the voting exercise.
However, they too, with a little more persuasion from us and convictions on their part, let us go. Surprisingly it was at a military checkpoint situated at the Odogbolu Town Junction, that we experienced the most delay.
The young soldier kept reminding us of how painful he felt leaving his family, to be on checkpoint duty on a windy cold morning as that, just to prevent people like us from breaking a “simple directive”, to stay at home, which made us pay for his pain.
He kept us waiting from 5 am till 7 am when we suddenly realised he had a superior officer leading that operation, a Brigadier-General, seated in the military camouflage vehicle parked a stone’s throw away from the roadblock. We went to him and without much ado, he told them to allow us “to go and vote”. We finally got into Lagos by 8 am.
With a few more roadblocks and a plea with our Toyota Sienna bus driver, Mr Francis, a very garrulous fellow, to drop us at our respective final destinations, beyond his designated Jibowu, Lagos Garage, I was at my Onikan, Lagos Island East, LCDA by 9 am. I got accredited and voted by 11 am.
As it’s customary, I had to wait by my F1 Ward, Polling Unit, Opposite the former Onikan Health Centre now Onikan General Hospital, till 5 pm for the announcement of the results.
This comes with some light refreshments for your party officers and loyalists on the ground, also waiting for the results announcements. This entirely, is the contribution of the party elder, in this case, me, at every polling unit. It’s not a task but morally justifiable.
At 6.30 pm when I finally headed home, I was barely able to carry myself, completely exhausted.
But I was fulfilled. I had voted for a new leader in my country. I had voted for someone whose, failure to so do, would have haunted me all my life. I have voted for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Above all, I have voted for a “Renewed Hope” In Nigeria.
*Mallam Okwechime Abdul*

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