POLITICS IN THE WORLD :NIGERIA AS A CASE STUDY - VOTE WISELY THIS TIME

NIGERIA MANDATE 2019. A WAKE UP CALL TO THE YOUTHS

As I write, I am a member of several youth movements, either directly or honorarily. We have seen people ranging from those professing the best solutions to problems to those that stop just short of being ridiculous. One would expect that with the proliferation of such groups, there would arise an immediate magic and that could be waved across the District to wipe away her woes. Politics , however, is not magic. It is a game; a game of intellect, of numbers , of participation, of persuasion. Politics is a game of suggestion, of insinuation, of association. If you do not understand the logic of the game, no amount of wailing will make you a winner!
Recently I learnt of the case of a young man who virtually frittered his life away gambling, spending everything he had and ever earned on gambling. Deep in the abyss of penury, he was offered a lifeline to rehabilitate him, in form of funds. Rather than get some wise investment route to which to channel the money however, the young man withdrew from the society, started living under a bridge where he all his life gambled, studying the figures on the scoreboard. Asked what he wanted to make of the figures, he replied that he was studying to understand the algorithms behind the lottery jackpot so he could win once he cracked the code!
The case of many youths is not far from that of the inveterate gambler! We repeat the same cycle over and over again but expect a different result! I will try to cite examples close to home so we don’t have to stray too far. Start a whatsapp group right now, give it a good name that will catch even flies and publish the group link. In a matter of minutes, you will begin to see adverts on your group from die hard desperadoes seeking to swindle other members of the group, promising some bitcoin deal or cheap data. You will see members whose only ideal for joining the group is to publish their amateur poetry, religious literature or some local news that they compiled. Some join just so they could read headlines published by wannabe newsmen and in fact, some do not even know why they join. The most unfortunate, however, are those who join groups because they assume that entitles them to some sort of political booty to be later shared. In all of these cases, the hallmark of inveterate gambler is their propensity to exit and join groups at short intervals; like their unfortunate progenitors in the Nigeria political sphere always hopping from one political party to another, the inveterate gambler is always moving but never arriving anywhere. Little wonder why such youths often end up at the scum end of politics.
The other arm of the blame lies on proponents of these groups , and by the word ‘group’ I will now not confine myself to virtual groups but even political and pseudo-political organizations. Many a time, movements are formed just because of personal dissatisfaction of particular individuals with some status quo. When the situation that informed their dissatisfaction changes however, their attitude changes as well and the group they have convened slowly falls apart. I need not mention that the All Progressives Congress is a ready example of such groups, at the National level.

The problem with the youths of today is not just the greed of the grey haired but also the unpreparedness and unseriousness of the upcoming. Many a time we have shown ourselves to be no better than we are called, in the choice of clothes we wear, the choice of music we listen to, the choice of leisure activities we engage, the choice of friends we keep, even the lifestyle decisions we make. I will not blame a generation of elders who are afraid of entrusting the future of our land in the hands of rag-wearing, body bleaching, tattoo donning, hemp smoking, codeine imbibing, perhaps even cocaine sniffing youths who cannot construct simple English sentences without pausing to take a breath – or a stick of cigarette- just to fill in the empty gap in their intellects. Never has any sane democracy rewarded such unseriousness with success.
The challenge we face today as youths is breaking away from the stem of loss of focus planted over time by greedy opportunists who only see politics as a means to enrich themselves . This clear derailment from the essence of life has nurtured the seed of greed and quest for quick riches in even our youths, which has since sprouted and grown disturbing roots. One needs only to look at our entertainment industry to see what has befallen us as a generation; music has metamorphosed from a vehicle for the transmission of morals (remember the days of Onyeka Onwenu, I. K. Dairo, et al?) to the exact opposite; the veneration of immorality! The screen gods and role models of Nigerian youths today are morally bankrupt iconoclasts who hop from one marriage bed to another in search of a missing grail! One needs not mention that a product of such a pack can only be a reflection of the old order, or perhaps worse! We have walked away from our political paradise by the choices we made over time! Perhaps the elders were right afterall, that we were not ready.
Unfortunately, when the subject of politics is broached among the decent few, the mere mention of the word sends shivers down many spines. We get too careful over our lives that we shake the dust off our shoes and run to take cover in our respective comfort zones; our offices, living rooms, churches, books, televisions, or between the legs of our spouses! Who wants to die for a course that will give him or her nothing in return? We prefer to abandon the crucial subject of how we are governed to the pack of brigands that perennially emerge from the slime ridden gruel of morally bankrupt figures who are cruel and daring enough to play bloody game! These same gnomes later emerge from their holes to lure our children, decent and indecent alike with the left overs of the Nigerian booty they share in their secret meetings. The rag-wearing, body bleaching, tattoo donning, hemp smoking, codeine imbibing, perhaps even cocaine sniffing youths then take to the streets, chanting, "Power" or any such other slogans they have been bribed or drugged to chant. Those who are daring and gullible enough are handed guns and other lethal weapons with which to fight their kinsmen and peers for reasons they cannot justify.

The elections come and go, the cycle continues and the nation suffers.
While all these happen, those who have fled to their comfort zones churns out political ideas and analysis, making predictions from scraps of information they pick up from slices of bulletin they manage to grab between the lucid intervals of the power holding company. We theorise, condemn, analyse and agitate behind television screens and on social media and become even more famous twitters than Donald Trump! Others, desiring to be different from others, almost ruin the foundation of the gates of Heaven with their hoarse cries that God should intervene and perhaps kill their leaders! God, I am afraid, is not a politician; politics is a human phenomenon. No one plays politics in heaven. When a people refuses to rise up to determine how it would be ruled, God will not come down to cast ballot papers- indeed INEC does not count prayer points!

Dear youths of this generation, the time has come for us to rid our ranks of the unprepared and the unserious. Mixed grills of badly assorted ingredients never make good sauce! It’s time to have groups with strict rules dispassionately enforced; groups with sane minds whose discussions focus on nation building and civic responsibilities, rather than champions league and bitcoins! Such groups need to draft written laws, popularly agreed upon and be willing to assert the written laws where necessary; that will help keep out the political prostitutes. *Constructively engage the few of the older generation who have distinguished themselves by the sincerity of their love for our land. Discuss issues with them and learn from them, as leadership answers to mentorship. Draft personal mission statements and work towards achieving them.
Dear electorate we need at a time like this to move from mere wishful thinking to taking actions. By all means, join political parties and distinguish yourselves by the quality of contributions you make, not by the volume of liquor you consume. You can only become politically relevant by the level of your participation, not by criticisms on social media. If you need to, start your own political movement: by all means, get out of that comfort zone!
Finally, the Independent National Electoral Commission’s continuous voter registration is still on. Register as a voter and be willing, when the elections come, not only to vote but also to monitor the counting process.
Be fair and transparent enough for our better tomorrow.
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