A new dawn.

The atmosphere is filled with election aura. Anywhere you go to, all you could see around are posters of contesting candidates of different political parties. It's that season yet again when different politicians come with the promise of heaven on earth. It's a ritual once in every four years.

Source

John was at a Newspapers stand, going through the headline when he saw a headline that read;

"If you vote for me, you are voting for a better future for yourself and generations yet unborn. I will provide employment, infrastructure, strong economy, end insecurity of lives and properties and make our State prosper again"

All these promises are not new to John. All the previous Governors of the State promised even better governance to the people. It has become a regular trademark for politicians to throw such deciets at the people to get their votes and once they are in office, they forget all they promised.

If the past Governors had fulfilled their promises, the State wouldn't have been where it is today. There are thousands of out of school children in the street. The roads are bad, electricity is not stable, unemployment is on the high side. The worst of it all, people keep dying in the hands of bandits and terrorists. A town not accessible to politicians to bring good governance to the people is accessible to them for campaign.

Due to these reasons, political apathy is on the increase. John would rather stay at home to sleep and eat with his family rather than wasting his time to cast his vote - he had been doing it for about two decades - without seeing any developmental results. He left the Newspapers stand disappointed yet again with the candidates. He vowed not to waste his time to exercise his franchise again.

I would rather be counting the grains of rice in a bag instead of wasting my time to queue to vote. John vowed.

Few weeks later, with the gubernatorial election remaining two weeks, there were four political parties contesting for the election. The candidates with their entourage are taking their time to take their campaigns to the people. In any of such visit, the governorship candidate makes promises and end the campaign with the donation of certain amount of money to the people. This is considered as vote buying by many but the candidates try to outshine one another in doing this.

Watching one of such televised campaign visit by a candidate, John said to his wife;

See them!. They are giving money and pieces of cloths to people. I can bet you that what they are getting now is their democratic benefits for the next four years. I am done with any future participation in this charade called elections or democracy. I don't even know which is better between military rule and this so called democracy.

In her response, Bridget encouraged her husband not to give up.

Developed democracies like America started from somewhere and build on their gains for successive years running into centuries before getting to where they are today. We are a young democracy and I believe we will keep improving and building on our gains. In my opinion, the worst democracy is better than the best military dictatorship.

They were on this review of the live campaign on the television when Japheth, their family friend knocked and enter. He brought a reminder of a candidate he had talked about to John few days earlier.

Let's give our support to Barrister Peter of the PPP party. His manifesto is rich. He is ready to address the very fundamental issue militating against our development. I have a soft copy of it here. I will give you to go through.

Barrister Peter wasn't seen as a top contender due to his stance of not inducing voter's decisions with money and some other materials. The mind of the people had been abused to believe that only the candidate that share money are the ones that have the love of the people at heart. John felt the people won't support Barrister Peter for this reason.

Do you think Barrister stand a chance? Electorates value politicians that trade their votes for money. To be candid with you, even if Peter is voted into power, the experience of the past isn't giving me any hope that he will be better.

The trio spent more minutes to discuss the election issues and at the end of it, Bridget aligned with Japheth in supporting Barrister Peter. John on his own part was adamant and he stood his ground of not voting any candidate.
The awareness for the candidacy of Peter kept increasing with more people believing in his manifesto. After two weeks intense campaign, he won the election with a slight margin. This was a surprise to many including John who had expected the money bags to win.

Congratulations is in order for all of us. This is a new dawn for our State" Bridget assured her husband.

In what has become a culture for every loser in an election, the runner up of the gubernatorial election and candidate of AA party accused the electoral commission of malpractice and he instituted a court case against the process.
The election tribunal strike out the petition but the AA candidate proceeded to appeal the judgement in a higher court.

The case was pending when Barrister Peter was sworn in as the executive Governor of Adavi State. In his inaugural speech, he reassured the people of his commitment to delivering good leadership to the people. He agreed that the expectations are high but he sought the support of everyone to make a change.

Source

He hit the ground running immediately. He instituted many reforms starting from the judiciary, the police and other institutions of government. He was able to combat crimes and gain the trust of the people barely six months in office.
He revitalise the industrial sector of the economy and thousands of youths including John's immediate younger brother, who had graduated for years without job, were employed. There was a social security for the senior citizens and John's mother was a beneficiary just like other senior citizens.

Electricity improved tremendously and other infrastructures like accessible roads, housing scheme for residents, hospitals and host of others were either renovated or built afresh. Workers salaries that were hitherto paid in percentages received attention and the workers began to get their full salaries. He drew direct investments to the state in two years more than what had been recorded in the previous 20 years. Education wasn't left behind and in two years, the State moved from 20th position to 2nd position in students performances.

These success stories was so enormous that AA party chieftains and leaders convinced their candidate to withdraw his case from court which he eventually did.

In his third year anniversary, John bought a gift for his wife for insisting on the emergence of Barrister Peter.

I am short of words to express how happy I am. I thought it's a mirage to get a good leader but Barrister has proven to me that it takes someone who is committed to make a change no matter how bastardised the system had been. I am highly impressed.

John promised to join others to support the reelection bid of the Governor to serve his second and last term in office to set a strong foundation for his successors to build on.

Henceforth, I will continue to tell people not to give up on an electoral system. The more the participation and awareness, the more the improvements.

Barrister Peter changed the leadership narratives of Adavi State for better and majority of the people were highly impressed with his government.

A new dawn indeed, it was.