It beats my imagination that people act stereotypical politically, especially in these times of highly indubitable social economic quagmires and palpable propinquity to perdition, occasioned by political leaderships that has either been too blind or too deliberate at failing to steer the ship of state aright. Several reasons may account for this mentality, such as loyalty, partisanship, tribe, religion, relationship, patronage, etc. It may be apt to say that none of the above suffices for the adamant and stereotypical behaviours of Nigerians in the vexed issue of political leadership choices. It is like desiring to eat one’s cake and having it still.
When any or all of those possible reasons supersedes the expectation to let love lead, which presupposes diligent and undeniable attention to serving the people, then something is definitely wrong. Political office power is, perhaps, next to God’s power. When properly used, people are drawn to ease of life. However this hasn’t ever been the case, because ambitions has never been matched with capacities to deliver. The ambitions of the black man seems to be a predicate of his might. Howbeit, might is not right. This was very well understood by several great personalities, and strong warnings were issued in that regard. T.H. White was very empathic when he stated that, “Might does not make right! Right makes right”. Knowing the rightfulness of changing the false inclinations to suppress right with might, George Haven Putnam said, “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, do our duty as we understand it”.
How can one know that something is not working or even workable and yet chose to continue in the same status quo? Is it that we are cursed against best practices, inspite of our very well known exposure round the world? Concerning the most referenced democratic nation in the world, USA, are we not witnesses to the seeming rotation of powers between the two dominant political parties there, basically in attempts to empower the best candidate of that time, assessed personality-wise? Unless and until the ambitions of political office seekers aligns with the people’s expectations, it serves no humane purpose and therefore of no good purpose. This hasn’t seemed to be realized by those who choose to be stereotypes, else they would not continue in their near mundane acts of abetting and aiding the enthronement and retention of misfits in power.
The tragedy now, with regards to the unfortunate trend, is the penchant of the self-serving politicians to perpetuate themselves in government, as perhaps it were a life contract. How else could it be explained that our political office holders are solely interested in retaining themselves in office? We are in a dispensation where people use the legislative arm or other juicy positions to aspire to become governors, finish eight straight terms (no matter how woeful the performance) and begin life retirement right in the legislative arm. Almost all Governors now retires to Senate, yet nothing better had ever been the lot since that craze.
There is therefore a compelling, absolute and urgent need to reverse the ugly trend of electing people into positions when it is clear that nothing good has come out from previous ones or could come out from their enthronements. Antecedents, track records and vision ought to be our guiding principles for supporting aspirants, but that doesn’t seem to be our political practice, hence the continuous decline of growth and developments. When someone served in a political office and fails to make positive impact, what then is the rationale for his re-empowering, or is failure meant to be compensated?
So, wherein lies the necessity of the fight for our principals. If it is loyalty, it has boundaries. The loyalty one exercises to a principal, if at cross purposes to the people’s good, development and future becomes an act of wickedness. When loyalty to an individual runs contrary to national pledges, it is pure lack of patriotism. So, our many frontiers and pushers to retain the political Methuselah’s are best described as unpatriotic. Those who so do on the basis of tribe, religion, patronage and other primordial sentiments only depicts their gullibility. We do not need such sentiments to attract good governance. A good leader can come from any tribe, religion or background. That one is from same tribe or religion doesn’t guarantee that he can deliver on needed dividends.
Again, one very ugly factor is party affiliations craze. That your local champions are members of party A should not foreclose your acceptance of other superior candidates from other parties. The people directing your political interests are most times acting on monetary inducements and on big time cash outs. We saw how it played out recently during the primaries. Now, the various party ‘workers’ are waiting for their cash outs, to begin elections. On the contrary, those really wishing the country well are already sacrificing to enthrone true leadership. So, why seek to empower one who does not have the mindset to build, but rather with thievery antecedents. In any case, if parties had no proclivities for shutting the door to their best candidates, it wouldn’t have been so much of an issue to be partisan. The transactional politics that played out saw the scheming out of the bests in the two hitherto bigger political parties; APC and PDP. This may not also have been ruled out with the smaller parties, though not much publicity is ever given them. This is however, where the party that produced Mr Peter Obi deserves so much accolades and respect. Mr Peter Obi had opted out of PDP when it became very clear that they are out for buying of the delegates against picking one that is most fit and credible. And, being one whose time had come, he became a ready bride for several other parties, until he settled for the Labour Party.
For now, Peter Obi’s aspiration has assumed a movement. His presence in the political scene has changed the rhythm. For the first time since the advent of the democratic governance in 1999, voters apathy has been killed. It is so much so now that voters card demands as means of identification is fast becoming the order if the day. Even churches and mosques are making it a condition for entry. This is a very timely revolution in our political leadership choices build up. With Peter Obi, the question is, why not if not a paradigm shift towards ensuring that we institute a new order? Peter Obi no doubt is a gift to Nigeria and he must not be allowed to slip away on the basis of complacency on anyone’s part. Everyone must be empowered to exercise their civic responsibilities of voting. The surge concerning voter’s registration reveals that what was hitherto on ground was a child’s play. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC must ensure that no one is denied registration, by doing its best in terms of making things work for those registering. The long awaited time for a new order has come!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Clement Uwayah, a political analyst, writes from Delta State, Nigeria.
