EXAMINING OUR POLITICIANS
The Oasis Reporters
May 11, 2018
The domain of politics is as onto a big market place where the marketers display their wares. In the market place you could find the good, the bad and the ugly, all doing business. One must therefore have the capacity to identify exactly who to do business with. This post tries to examine what the driving force is that is
propelling people to politics.
To be examined are those who go into politics for purely altruistic reasons, those who see politics as means to certain ends, there are also those to be described as political rascals, those who are into it as a past time and who have nothing to lose by going into it.
It is important to know why you are casting your vote for a particular candidate as against another. Our politicians are gifted in making flowery speeches as well as bogus promises which waste no time in sweeping many undiscerning voters off their feet only for them to discover rather too late that they have been duped. As mentioned and discussed in an earlier post, all political parties are presumably good platforms on which politicians can quest for power. The problem though lies in the characters who make the players in the parties. Good and well focused people can turn around the dwindling fortunes of a weak political party much in the same manner as unfocused people lacking in character can ruin an otherwise good political party. The most important asset in a politician is the content of his/her character.
It is difficult, if not impossible to even suggest in percentage terms in a country like ours people who are driven by purely altruistic reasons to play politics. To belong to this category of politicians, one must be connected directly to the people on who’s behalf he is politicking. Such must know the totality of the problems and needs of those on whose behalf
he is acting.
Knowing all these, the politician must have the capacity to articulate these and to present same strongly and convincingly to the body having the powers to act on such presentation. The presentation must also be designed as to secure the support of his colleagues.
Situating this in the context of what we see playing out in our National and State Assemblies where while important debates are going on many of the seats are empty and of the few occupied, some members will be busy sleeping. The altruistic politician will usually be keeping his constituents fully briefed regarding the progress or otherwise of the promises he made to them in the course of campaigning. This breeds trust and confidence between the politician and his constituents.
There are also politician who force themselves onto the political stage in pursuit of personal ends. This class of politicians usually deploy deception to have their way. They include those ready to promise creating heaven on earth. Their language is always sweet to the ears and in so doing sweep the unsuspecting electorate off their feet and getting them to cast their votes for such. The moment they are declared winners in the elections they are done with you the electorate. They set about strategizing to meet the ends they seek. Such will hardly re-connect with those who voted for them.
Incidentally you may never be able to identify such politicians until they have betrayed your trust. It is evident that these type of politicians abound in Kaduna from the very top to the bottom. Just deploy the totality of the travails the population in Kaduna State is going through as a matrix and you get the point I am making. As it were, there is absolutely nothing you can do about the situation since the Constitution has made the procedures for a recall virtually impossible to effect. The only option for the electorate is to wait until the tenure expires.
Let us examine those described as political rascals. These are those who having gotten to positions of authority, turn their arsenals against the very electorate that voted them to power. The political rascals do not see any value in the people who voted for them. Their policies and programmes are largely anti-people. In our Kaduna State we have had so much of this rascality demonstrated by demolition of people’s homes, the use of thugs to attack peaceful meetings, unjust sacking of civil servants without paying their entitlements and which is worse, turning the democratic space to a dictatorship.
The power to overthrow this dictatorship is with us and in our PVCs. It is in realising this that the dictator is resorting to imposing candidates on the electorate and declaring results drawn up in Sir Kashim Ibrahim House. The electorate must remain vigilant during elections.
Last but by no means least are those politicians who have nothing to lose by going into politics. To this class of politicians, politics is akin to Naija or Naira Bet. These politicians usually would gamble their way up the politicsl stage and if the succeed they represent only their narrow self interest without caring about those who voted them to power. The electorate has a duty to ensure that they screen anybody throwing himself/herself up to represent them. The pedigree and character of the individual is very important.
The level of material poverty in our society is one factor that politicians of all classes are exploiting to have their way in politics. Money is freely used as inducements for votes. Collecting monies from political office seekers translates to sacrificing your tomorrow for today. I am urging the electorate to place a greater premium on the worth of their PVCs. Those yet to register must do so now as the exercise is ongoing, do not miss out. It is by participating in the electoral process that you can install the government of your dream.
Written by Col. Gora Dauda (rtd)
