This is IWAYA: concluding Episodes

This is IWAYA

Episode 10

What i know is that, though it is not easy, but it is not impossible. We will continue to cast our votes for our own person until our votes count.

Thank God voter’s card registration is still out. We must make this happen and we must now.

 We must get our PVC now because YOUTHS MUST TAKE OVER!”

(This got a new trend on social media. The youths took it up; every one of them with the hash tag ‘#YouthMustTakeOver’.

 They took the bold step to register for their voter’s card. Some young adults joined them and this was gaining more attention.


Iwaya voters card registration

“This is where you start seeing the problem. This is my life and i can choose to live it the way i like but then, i have rights and one of them is to vote and to be voted for. And in case you have forgotten, nobody will pay me for voting or will they? Who are the they? I am just trying to exercise my rights and so i want to vote. Even with the little time i have for myself, i still have to squeeze out time to register for my voters card,  only to get to the center at 8o’clock in the morning and find a large crowd (pregnant women, old, physically challenged and young ones). At that time of the morning, i can already see 1234 number of people on the list and the most annoying thing is that, they have just two people registering. Can I be that patient to wait? Something that they will not give me money for, why should i kill myself on it? Something that even after my stress to get this and that, my vote will not still count, then why bother? Is this not Iwaya? (He hissed). If not for those stupid bank people, why will i even bother myself again? See, i logout! I will register later” PhilipBet and so many youths couldn’t stop facing this. PhilipBet was already loosing hope of registering; “if i get a place with less crowd, i will register” he said to his friend who asked him about his PVC.

Truly, he did get a center with less crowd and this was because people didn’t know about center that much.

So happy to hear that there is a center with less crowd, PhilipBet got up as early as possible the next day to get registered. He got there at around 8am and truely, there was no crowd this time. He was the number 14 to write the name on the list. So joyous, he took his phone and started telling as many as possible to come make use of this opportunity and many young ones turned up that day.

The officials came in at around nine (9am) and put up some serious actions to show how serious they were. But for about three hours, they didn’t call anyone in. All we were told was that they were updating their system. What can we do? We waited until they were done updating.
12 noon, the updating was updated but they shocked us with a news.

Episode 11

“we couldn’t finish registering those that came yesterday and we promised them that they will be the first to register today, so we will be starting with them” an official came telling us this.

 It was really true as some of them bore witness. “we are just about 20 or thereabout” one of them said.

What can we do? We allowed them get theirs done first.

At around 2pm, our number one hasn’t been called still. How can we explain this? So we got up and questioned them only for us to know that they have been doing dubious works calling in their candidate.  “How can just 20 people have .... “ we questioned. We raised our voice. We protested; we started aluta but then, they changed the story. They said:

“ Afterall, this is IWAYA town, if you are not from this town,you cannot register. We must first attend to OUR PEOPLE” they said.

We protested the more and after much shouting and vibrations, they started number one by 3pm and they couldn’t do much because they were closing by 5pm.

“Thank God i had mine done that day. The lady behind me later told me that she couldn’t finish her registration because the laptop switched off while she was registering” PhilipBet said jokingly to his friend Chisom.

Imagine, where do we start fighting this political demon when even PVC registration is painted black? How can the number 14th person on the list have himself registered in the evening? Do you now see we need a fresh blood to lead Iwaya?  As for me, as long i am still being called PhilipBet, i believe in a new Iwaya and i will make it happen. What about you?

Fifteen years down the line

"PhilipBet at last! PhilipBet at last! PhilipBet at last!"
All over the social media. Everyone joyfully twittering others sharing.

The young and old; the rich and the incumbent rich, male and female cannot stop shouting for joy about the success of the result of the just concluded election. If you call it battle, you are taking it for granted because it was actually a war.

Even in streets, you will see people drumming and dancing, free transportation was possible that day. So IWAYA people can be so generous? Someone even celebrated this day by tracking a long distance you can ever imagine to wish the incoming governance well. What a spirit! The excitement is really at its peak

"I really appreciate everyone for this great step taken. It is now that my dream came through and this is the first battle i fight and i will eventually win. Though it almost happened again that we almost lost this, but thanks to every citizen who fight for what they want. At first, i challenged a lecturer for failing me but instead of getting a better result i deserved, i was punished and later, i got to realize that the so called lecturer paid his way to win- the power of money in a country blindfolded by corruption. But then, as from that day, the lecturer didn't fail any student again. So let me say i pay the price for a better result.

Secondly, i contested for the student union president and i won but on the day of my inauguration, i was denied what was mine. It was later i discovered that the main reason for this was because the cultist who came visiting me and i rejected their request went ahead to threaten the school management and they couldn't help but to look for a legal reason to disqualify me coupled with the fact that most of those lecturers don't want me in too. So i lost that duty to my running mate. But then, this birthed a journey to a new IWAYA. We started a journey because of this 15years ago and now, we are reaping what we've sown.

I didn't know where the strength came from. Even in the midst of several opposition, i had this strong motivation.
As the elected President of IWAYA, i pledge allegiance to the great IWAYA that we will take this country to our dream land. If we can come this far, we can go that far!!!

PhilipBet: is it easy?
People of IWAYA : not at all
PhilipBet: but is it impossible?
People of IWAYA: still not at all

The END

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