CHANGE is one thing that is inevitable in life. From birth to death, man continues to change, either for good or for bad. If he grows up to imbibe the fear of God in his ways, he lives well, but where he adopts to live by his own ways, he lives at his own peril. When man refuses to accept change, change forces itself on him. It is same with the life of any nation and Nigeria appears to be on the brink of a big change.

When the change in the date for the elections was announced last month, it looked like March 28 will not come, but tomorrow; we shall be casting our votes. Many of us have travelled to our registration points to contribute to change using our votes, while many others who wanted to vote has been disenfranchised, as they just could not find their PVCs. It is too late now to write or shout, but just to pray and watch. Those of us who have our PVCs are praying that the INEC officials arrive early, Card Readers function well, peace be maintained, the miscreants be well managed, and that politicians and their agents comport themselves during and after the polls.

Prayers are needed because there is cause for worry and concern, over likely clashes between rival parties in spite of the accord signed by the party leaders in January in Abuja, what role the military will play, during this election, as politicians continued to plot the down fall of each other, during their campaigns .They remained either oblivious of, or deliberately ignored the fact the change has occurred in the polity which simply put, is that Nigerians shall demand change in how we are governed, and hold political office holders accountable from henceforth.

Our politicians and leaders have excelled each other across party lines, in doing what they know how to do best- living large, and impoverishing the people that voted them into positions of power and privilege. The result is that today, you could not ordinarily, differentiate between a PDP and an APC governor except in what they wore, and what they shouted during their campaigns. While PDP shouted “Power”, APC shouted “Change” but they are all stupendously rich people, who talked anyhow to anybody, changed   parties at their convenience, paid little respect to rules only when it suits them, generally proud and arrogant persons, with a common condescending attitude in their dealings with others. Since they have refused to change, change will foist itself on them, and this is the people’s time and chance!

A few observable positive changes from the campaigns so far include that more and more people including our youths are realizing the that the real power lies in their voting, and ensuring that their votes count; that people must change themselves before they can effectively change any system, or our nation for the common good; that the opinion of our citizens in the diaspora must count now and in the future; And that political violence will no longer be tolerated as Nigerians are now ready to kill and bury do-or die politics.

The dwindling national fortunes from oil earnings due to the fall in global oil prices will make governance more challenging, and rough, and Nigerians will hold their leaders responsible for any further hardships in the years ahead. It will never be business as usual again for our politicians. We are hopeful that March 28 will bring change and real change indeed to the way governance is ran, and our focus is now on those things that could truncate the expected results of this election. The recent Federal High Court judgment in Lagos, restraining the President and Commander in Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces from deploying soldiers for elections, could complicate matters if not properly handled, and can be exploited by some politicians to foment violence and trouble during and after elections, knowing the limitations of our police.

There is therefore a high possibility that anything can happen during and after this election if nothing is done by those concerned to effectively keep the peace especially in and around known violence flash points in the country, irrespective of who wins.

If one of the reported advantages of the Card Reader is that it will authenticate PVCs and report same to a central collation control, there is no reason for people to hang around polling boots after voting. This is to avoid overcrowding the area, and creating a conducive atmosphere for trouble and mischief makers.

It also depends on the peculiar circumstances in any particular polling boot. All steps should be taken by everyone to make the work of the law enforcement agencies and agents easier and less complicated, during and after the polls. The law enforcement agents must on their own conduct themselves in a manner that is above board. They must remain alert and not allow themselves to be distracted by whatever, near the polling boots, and results collation centres. All our efforts now should be to ensure a violence-free, fair elections and credible polls in order to encourage the two contestants, GEJ and GMB and their respective teams to accept any verdict that the polls may return.

They have respectively worked doggedly, and fought gallantly, criss- crossed the whole nation across religious and ethnic lines to woo voters. We appreciate them immensely, and hope that each of them will accept the result of this election. We have entered the period when the full impact of the peace accord will be expected to bear on the contestants. Since in any contest, a party must emerge the winner, one group will win in this election, while the other should embrace the result and work to win in 2019.

Where any of them feels shortchanged in any manner, our laws are there for such a candidate to head to the court to obtain redress, and not incite violence in order to ventilate his anger, disappointments and frustrations. No blood of a Nigeria is worth the political ambition of any man, or party, now and in the future.

Mr. Clement Udegbe, a legal practitioner, wrote from Lagos.