Fola Ojo
It was a move I personally and fervently considered over the years. It remains a lodestone in the chambers of my heart. The draw may be withering off as a result of extant environmental toxicity in Nigeria, but the dream is far from being peremptorily interred in the capsular of abandonment. I have always been an unapologetic advocate of relentlessly coaxing able, available, and good people to run for political offices. This gospel I am noted for in my orbit of influence.
I have no penchant for encouraging a pool of characters who will use the cover of public service to steal public funds. I am wired to garner Nigerians with hearts of steel to help resuscitate a nation in a coma. It is my belief that if the nation has any chance of getting rescued from the jaws of incompetence, from the grips of incognisance, and the grab of gangsterism and hooliganism that are special traits of many who parade themselves in the purlieu of power, this move is one of the ways out. Men without integrity in power have flipped Nigeria into a dysfunctional and decrepit piece of crap and scraps that needs fixing.
It is easy to conceive a mental image of the direction of a country by assessing the characters of people running for office. Successful malodorous candidates become policymakers, lawmakers, and executors of regulations that guide a country. Anywhere criminals and analphabets run government ship, the nation becomes an object of global ridicule, and the ship in no time torpedoes even in calm waters. Author Ayn Rand said in “Atlas Shrugged”, “The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it”. I agree with Rand. Is it not then true that not running for office is a subtle approval and permission for evil in power and government to continue?
Each time I remember the loud charge that came from Anglo-Irish philosopher, Edmund Burke, who said, ‘those who will say nothing in the face of tyranny must endure the rule of idiots,’ a nudge comes bubbling in my spirit to run for political office. It is not only Burke’s words of wisdom that launch an intestinal surge, whenever the poetic line that reads thus, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” some anomalous actions and indignant inactions of people in power enrage me into wanting to head out to any party secretariat in Abuja, pick up a form, and run for office. That is how great nations get good men galvanised to run for office.
Why will any patriot not want to run for office when public servants are looting loud and lousy, and the ogres are stealing black-and-blue? Why will any lover of the country not want to run when Nigeria, a nation that has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, the 6th largest producer of petroleum in the world, the 8th largest exporter and 10th largest proven reserves is unable to feed her citizens? Why will any patriot not want to run when you stumble on the history that after independence in 1960, 15% of Nigerians were considered poor; in 1980, 28%; in 1985, 46%; in 1996 the poverty scale went up to 66%, and today Nigeria is considered the poverty capital of the world with 120 million people categorised as poor? Why will anyone not be driven to run for office when it is confirmed that, in spite of the country’s vast oil wealth, 71% of the population live on less than $1 a day, 92% on less than $2 a day, and about 120 million human beings will go to bed hungry tonight while men with power live large?
It’s no news that nations borrow to build a future. A good example is the US now in debt to the tune of about $18 trillion to construct their tomorrow. But in the last decade in Nigeria, men in power have borrowed to destroy the future and destiny of their children. Nigeria’s debt stock as of August this year was N35.5tn. Domestic debt accounts for about 70% of the total debt. Debt servicing takes a chunk of the government budget, 1.8tn in 2017; N2.1tn and N2.2tn in 2018 and 2019 respectively. The government has also said it will spend N3.5trillion of the 2021 budget on debt servicing. For every N1 earned, experts have told us that 68k is for debt servicing. When you find your country deeply immersed in the valley of the shadow of debt without a commensurate measure of results on the ground, why will you not want to consider running for office to help right many weird wrongs? Why will you not want to run for office to effect positive changes?
Now, this is the caveat regarding Nigeria. The reality on the ground is that running for office is another totally different beastly beast. A big bulk of those duelling for power are mean and menacing thugs. With very negligible and minimal exceptions, you’ve got to be a thug to be on top in Nigeria. You must be masterful with machetes, artful with guns, skilful with cudgels and cutlasses, and riotous with voodoo and juju. A nation this big, this blessed, this bountiful, this brimmed-up with intellectuals in men and women of substance, sagacity, and decency, yet swimming in desecrating rivers of thuggery, mockery, and ridiculosity.
If good people keep shirk from running, there will be the continuation of the many depravities that have become the haranguing hallmarks of our government. Every level of our government will be annoyingly and frustratingly inundated with corrupt men and women. Crooked men will hold on to positions of leadership, and characters whose hearts embrace the evil of corruption; who have their minds set on self and not on the well-being and welfare of those they were called to serve, will be in control forever. The truth about Nigeria is that good people will show up and be counted. They will neither vote nor ask to be voted for. If a few do run, they will never win. Now, you know where Nigeria is heading.
