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Nigeria is no doubt experiencing a turbulent democratic dispensation. Politicians are at the time of the year when every whims and caprices of their political game and manoeuvring is on the loose. From one defection to another, to party politics and the game of thrones being witnessed in the National Assembly, there appear to be little or nothing the rest of Nigerians will benefit from these drama, except that we will all scream on social media as usual, and abuse President Muhammadu Buhari for allowing these to happen under his watch.
But many of these happenings are not new at all. If you are a great student of Nigerian politics, you will quickly realise that what happened at the National Assembly on Tuesday was not totally strange. If you cast your mind back to sometime in 2014, this same National Assembly entrance was blocked by men of the Nigerian Police Force under President Goodluck Jonathan, and lawmakers were seeing scaling through the gate of the complex just to gain access.
At the surface of some of these happenings, you would think these politicians are doing these things for the people that they represent. But at the bottom, you would be shocked to know that the games, the drama and every manipulation being witnessed are all to the benefit of the politicians and their cronies. Our political system is designed in such a way that the ordinary people benefit little or nothing from the democratic process. Even on occasions where politicians promised heaven and earth during campaigns, many of them have been witnessed to either fail to fulfill those promises after assuming offices, or deny ever making them.
Everything we see and witness in Nigeria is about three things, maybe more perhaps. It is about: the politician, the political party he or she represents, and those that are in the immediate cycle of the said politician. If we are to even look critically at some of these issues, a politician who abandoned the party, on whose platform they became elected at the slightest of disagreements, how can such be faithful to the people that voted for him or her?
Funny enough, you see many Nigerians, on whose side these politicians are not, taking sides in these dramas. If you probe some of these lawmakers how they spend the monies being allocated to their constituencies, you will be shocked that those monies or a larger trunk of it never get to their people. Many of the communities they claim to represent lack pipe borne water, good schools or some government schools that are already dilapidated, dead community health centres, bad roads and so on. Yet, you see Nigerians taking sides with them, what a shame!
From 1999 when Nigeria returned properly back to a democratic dispensation after those years of Military interruption, till now that President Buhari is in charge of the country’s affairs, one cannot be mistaken if it is concluded that Nigeria’s biggest problems are these rogues that parades themselves as politicians. So, for Nigeria to work for all of us, and not just for the politicians and their families and associates, the rest of us (Nigerians) must be ready to change the system. We need to re-orientate ourselves so that the future of this country can be in safer hands after we have long gone.
The question then is, how can we change the system?
We must begin by first ensuring we stop electing rogue politicians to represent us. Your vote should be given to someone you know that has your interest, the interest of your community and its people, and the interest of the nation at heart, not just any thug who stumbles on political power. Don’t let money make you vote for politicians that are not worth it. Try as much as possible to let your conscience guide you while exercising your voting rights during elections.
Endeavour as much as possible to examine candidate’s track record very well. Look at their antecedents either in the public or private sector before they join politics. Make sure they still have age on their side, and their health condition wouldn’t hinder them from discharging their duties when elected. Any party or politician that is trying to offer you money to get them elected does not have your interest at heart, and that is a clear indication that you should never vote for them at all.
Under no circumstances should you be induced by any form to exercise your voting rights. We as Nigerians must start right now to change this evil trend in our nation’s political process. What we witnessed in the last Ekiti State Gubernatorial elections was far from the ideal. We cannot continue in such a path and then expect this nation to develop beyond where it is right now.
I rest my case.