With the ongoing elections, Nigerians are facing one of the toughest challenges in their quest for consolidation and sustenance of the modest political gains achieved since civilian rule was reintroduced in 1999. In other words, form March 28, they would engage in a peaceful and orderly selection of political office holders that would manage the country’s affairs at various levels from May 29 until 2019. Expectedly, the electioneering campaigns, especially the presidential, have been particularly fierce, brutal and bruising.

In case you are wondering why some of them will run away before May 29, 2015, consider this. On that day, the man who had been surrounded by tough-looking security people will find himself alone with the people he had ruled for eight years. Only God can save him if he still owes civil servants three or four months’ salary, as well as local contractors who might never get paid.

Let us celebrate good men. Chukwuma Azuonye, poet, scholar, and belletrist; one of the most versatile and most sophisticated intellectuals of his generation in Nigeria, belongs squarely to that”interstial” generation in Nigeria: that is how I describe that group of people born between 1945 and 1955; between the end of World War II and the formal transition towards decolonization in Africa in the 20h century.

The Bible says that on that day of judgment , there shall be gnashing of teeth. Some will embrace weeping and wailing and mourning seeking to soothe their troubled souls. March 28 is a judgment day without the crushing unforgiving finality of the biblical last day.

Just picture this scene. A bus full of people of different ages and nationalities, is parked at the slope of a hill, a few meters from the sea. The sea waves are gentle as they caress the base of the hill. The sea looks calm but deep.