The third part of the divide are strong willed, patient and optimistic that things will turn around for good. It is true that we can’t go on killing reality on the table of mere optimism, but they are the true believers. They don’t care who is at the helm of affairs, all they want is to experience the much touted change that drove them out en masse to vote in a new party at the last election.
They want to see those who have ruined the country brought to book. They want a system where the rich and the poor would be treated equally. Where no poor man would be sentenced to jail for petty thieving while the public servant, who has embezzled enough money to last four generations, buys his way out. Their pride is seeing on the front pages of newspapers that Mr. So-So has been sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for corruption and diversion of public funds for personal use.
Having invested in the future of their children, the parents want to see their investments settle into a good job so as to cater for their needs at old age. That is why the third side of the divide went to vote. They want the government to tackle unemployment. They are tired of still fending for the child-adults who are yet to find their feet.
Like Oliver Twist, they want more. They want more than the just the promises. They want action. Like young men/women who have spent their whole lives attached to romantic movies of forever-after, they demand action. They need a change of scenery. They want the change to move from a noun to a verb. They need PMB to take charge and fulfil his campaign promises. They need him to lead from the frontline and deliver Nigeria from the shackles of Boko Haram.
They want him to cage unemployment and kill corruption that is gradually draining the country. They don’t care if he belongs to the All Progressives Congress, APC, or he is from the defunct Action Group. They voted their conscience and not for ethnic or religious reasons. They didn’t care if Buhari is from the smallest tribe in the country. They just wanted change. A change from what they had experienced for sixteen years.
Most of them might have had their doubts, about the recycling process in the polity— the old guards coming back— but the choice was really between the devil and the deep blue sea and only time will tell if they made the right choice.
They had to make a choice and they did. They will live the outcome. No matter how long it takes. To them, four years is stone’s throw away. They don’t change party because they have got none. They are not blinded by politics. They don’t share any goodies as they are not affiliated to political parties. They don’t switch sides. They don’t decamp.
They are patiently waiting on the sidelines, like they have been doing, to see what will become of this administration. They are the third part of the divide. Make them regret their actions, and they won’t hesitate to put another man at the helm if they are not satisfied with this change. They want a better life. They are the true believers.
Written by Akinleye Olusegun
Follow him on Twitter: @mypenspeaks
