By A. A. Mshelia

A friend of mine, who is a journalist, visited me during the festive season on his way to a state that shares borderlands with Gombe. While we drove into town to have some fresh air and to show him around, unlike him, he was quiet and worried. I asked him what could be the reason? He answered me with some few fretful questions: is APC the only political party presently in Gombe State? How possible is it to have only one political party having their flyers, posters, flags and billboards across the state? What about the faceless posters and billboards I see torn all over the state capital?

I smiled and I asked him to open his phone and read from Google the definition of the word democracy. Below was the exact definition he read to my hearing, "Democratic leadership, which is also commonly known as participative leadership, is about letting multiple people participate in the decision-making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of contexts, from businesses to schools to governments".

Having read that, I smiled and I told him the question he needed to ask was whether democracy still thrives in the state or it has been murdered a long time ago, awaiting its funeral? He asked me to explain, but I told him to do investigative journalism, and find out for himself why this is so.

Two days later, he shared some disturbing videos of campaigns by the ruling party. Having watched those videos, I almost broke into pieces. It suddenly dawned on me that democracy has been long lifeless before we all knew about it. We are at the moment in a despotic and totalitarian system of leadership. I shared the videos with my lawyer, some leaders of the said party at the national level and some high-ranking associates in the States and asked them the repercussions of those contents and I was knocked for six to hear the degree of the contagion in those videos.

Writing about such a noxious state of affairs is definitely a waste of time. It took me days to recuperate from this life's coercions and other things I heard the led telling their followers to do to fellow citizens in their quest for power in those obnoxious videos. Words like gobble them if they..., deal with them if they..., scratch their bodies if they... by force or money we will win the elections, and one could see these innocent youths yelling on the top of their voices in agreement to this catastrophe and calamity that will soon come upon the people if care is not taken.

The truth still remains, posters, flyers and billboards will not be on the line in February to vote, humans will and their votes will be a statement of their fate.

We hope democracy is brought back to life in Gombe State as soon as possible before we lose total hope of the future that lies ahead of us.

Let's all ponder on this question as we head to the polls in a couple of days, does democracy still thrive in our state or has it long been murdered and awaiting its funeral?

The power to resuscitate our state lies on our thumbs.