Before I give this opinion which is exclusively mine, along
with its inherent faults and misgivings, I will wish to make a few observations
about politics as I see it, in the African and indeed Nigerian context. It is
one that has endured years upon years of careful and insightful observation,
analysis and judgement. Like the foregoing, this opinion is all mine, and may
not come across as agreeable to any other person.
One of the foremost
things I have come to notice about our brand of politics is that it is of the
roughest, dirtiest and most aggressive colouring. It is one characterized by
the worst form of campaign of calumny, integrity smear and mudslinging. The
spirit of sportsmanship and wholesome competition which ought to be a permanent
feature is either present as a façade or completely missing altogether. Another
pertinent fact is the desperation with which aspirants jostle for political
positions, which raises the pertinent question of whether they really understand
the concept of leadership through the telescope of servitude and delayed
gratification. This fact is aptly evidenced in the extent to which some of them
go to score lame political points-blackmail, murder, intimidation,
assassination, and every imaginable ill in the book-some are even experts at
inventing newer and phenomenal methods of subjugating both opponents and
electorate to their whims. Looking at international best practices and the
style employed by our bigger ‘developed’ brothers, it is a lot of wonder what
is happening to us.
It will be
impossible to run through this opinion of mine without grazing the subject of
the 2015 elections and the way it turned out. Now, make no mistake about it, I
am one of those who were summarily tired of the outgoing administration and I
have my personal reasons which in am not prepared to delve into, for the
purpose of the focus of this piece. My grouse is, with the statements and
utterances of the president-elect, and what was recorded in the wake of the
landslide victory he achieved, just imagine how it would have turned out, had
the opposite been the case. There were incidents of assassinations in cold
blood. A Resident Electoral Commissioner was roasted alive in his house in the
wake of the victory. I do not care under what premise this happened. Must it be
all about force, more force, violence and more aggression? All the time? The
fact that the current president is being considered for a Peace Prize should
not gladden any sensible, progressive Nigerian heart, if you ask me. Peace
Prize for conceding defeat? What should he have done naturally? This is
actually a pointer to what we weigh in the eyes of the West; they do not expect
anything better from us. As a matter of fact, that is the premise on which the ill-fated
prediction of Nigeria’s break-up was hinged. Personally, I believe that things
went the way they did because of the fervent and painstaking prayers of common
Nigerians who knew what chaos and anarchy would spell for the nation; not
because the president was a saint.
We were just dusting
our knees from pouring a horde of supplication to God Almighty for a peaceful
electioneering process, when there came this drums of war once again from the
West: the Oba had threatened to drown the Igbos in the lagoon if they refused
to vote his candidate come April 11. Now I have heard various interpretations
and counter-statements saying he was misquoted, and all what not; all I know is
there can be no smoke without fire. This has nothing to do with the fact that I
am Igbo; it is about the proper thing to do. What gives one person the right,
under the kind of system we operate, to dictate to the other how to exercise
his franchise? I do not imagine that such a right exists, anywhere in the land
of reason and righteousness.
The way threats of death and dying, especially of the most
horrific definitions, accompanies our politics and politicking is very
disturbing, to say the least. We need rigorous and aggressive orientation, and
fast too.
Ogbonna Nnaemeka Henry
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