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#ChildrensDay: For Your Children, Get Your PVC!

Dearest readers, there’s something about watching children squeak excitedly as they bounce on the balls of their feet: you feel a sudden urge to protect them. That is why as we celebrate our children, we must spare no effort in securing their future.

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Gentle readers,

Happy Children’s Day to you and yours.

Isn’t this the time of the month when we buy those bicycles we have long promised our children? Take them to amusement parks to have a swell time? Or give them all the sweets, chocolates – everything they ask for – even if it’ll cost us an arm and a leg, because, isn’t today their day?

It’s also the time when we are most nudged to the fact that our kids are the future – of our society, the nation, and the world at large, and we must do whatever it is in our power to protect them.

Pardon me if this isn’t the kind of letter you are expecting to read from me this day. But, dearest, I cannot help myself. My little cousin is spending a couple of days with me. He is 9. I watched him dress up this morning, thrilled to participate in the games his school set up for the students. “We will match today,” he says. The way his eyes widened with glee and the excitement that formed the words he spoke are still imprinted in my memory. In many ways, he is shielded from the aberrations of our country and society at large.

Dearest readers, there’s something about watching children squeak excitedly as they bounce on the balls of their feet: you feel a sudden urge to protect them. But I am suddenly reminded that come 2023, if (God forbid) we vote in another set of inept and unsympathetic leaders, my now 9-year-old cousin would be 18 – a full-blown adult – before we get another chance as citizens to steer the wheel of our country in what we’d consider to be the right direction.

When we collect 2 dericas of rice, 1 mudu of milk, and 10 thousand naira to vote for a candidate. When we vote for a candidate just because we practice the same religion, or come from the same tribe or ethnicity, we not only do ourselves and our nation a great injustice, we sacrifice the future of our children. 8 years is a long long time to pay for a derica of rice. A 12-year-old would be 20. A 20-year-old would be 28. Your newly-born baby would be 8 years of age, perhaps ready to move into secondary school. See? The ripple effects are far too great to play ten-ten with.

That is why as we celebrate our children, we must spare no effort in securing their future. One way to do this is to get our PVC and ensure that we get the next 8-year-rule right by voting for a candidate with a good and proven track record in governance and politics.

Don’t be apathetic towards the leadership of this country; it affects every facet of our economy. It affects you, me, our children, and those unborn. For your children, get your PVC today.

If you are not sure of how to register for your PVC, visit www.inecnigeria.org

 

Yours,

(Pray tell, need I write ‘Lady Whistledown’?)

 

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Photo by Kindel Media/Pexels

Editor at BellaNaija Features. And writing beautiful stories of places, things, and people like you. Reach out to me, I don't bite: [email protected] | Instagram @oluwadunsin___ | Twitter @duunsin.

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