#BlogFeature - Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

  
The article below is written by one of my BlogFeature writers Toyin Femi-Akinlade and once again, she's written a beautiful piece stemmed from a true life experience. Enjoy, learn and share. 

So it's exactly five days to the mother of all elections in our dear country and I decided to engage my older daughters aged 7years 2months and 5 years 6months respectively (you will soon understand why I am stating their ages like this) in a political discourse of sorts. The following conversation thus ensued between us.

' Who knows what is happening this Saturday?' I quizzed

'Election', screamed the older one in delight.

Pleased, I quizzed even further,

' So who are you going to vote for?'

Excitedly, the younger one replied,

'I'm going to vote for Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Buhari and Ashafa', she said.

'Huh? You can only vote for either Goodluck or Buhari, not both of them'. I said trying to enlighten her to which she said,

'Ehn I will vote for Goodluck'.

'Why?'

'Because he's my friend'.

'Your friend?'

'Yes now'

'But he doesn't even know you'

'Yes I'll still vote for him even though he doesn't know me'.

Sigh.

'Why do you want to vote for PDP and not APC? You know Goodluck is in PDP'? I said to her while trying to gauge her response. Imagine my shock when she replied me confidently by saying,

'I will vote for PDP because PDP starts with power and ends with party and I loveeeee parties' she says waltzing away in a funny dance.

I couldn't help thinking and muttering under my breath in Yoruba, 

'Ha mo ti bi eleyi na' meaning this is one genius of a child (I think? 😁)

'Okay. So why do you want to vote for Ashafa?'

'I always see his face on the walls when we are going to school (referring to his campaign posters) and I just like him'.

So I move on to my older daughter who didn't quite appreciate my disturbance as she was engrossed in her story book.

'Madam, so who are you going to vote for?'

'Munmy I am not yet 18, I cannot vote!'she said with a hint of irritation in her voice.

'Yes I know but assuming you could vote, who will you vote for?'

'Buhari', she said

'Why?'

'Because Raheem said Jonathan  likes jollof and he is a thief so I won't vote for him'.

Ha omo yi ma pa mi! This child don't kill me! I thought out loud to myself while making a mental note to ask her teacher who Raheem is to have such a strong 'political' influence on my daughter.

On a final note I then asked both of them?

'Who is going to be the next President of Nigeria?'

Each of them excitedly shouted the names of their preferred candidate.

'Who is going to be the next governor of Lagos State?'

'Ambode', they both said.

To say I was shocked beyond words will be an understatement. I never knew I had such politically active and conscious daughters. While still reeling in my shock, the younger one walks up to me, gives me an attitude and in a shoki dance stance says to me or us rather (her sister and I)

' I no fit shout o, na Jona'.

I fainted, woke up by myself and fainted again within the space of five seconds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Article by Toyin Femi-Akinlade

Twitter: @y_toyin