POWER is sweet, it confers lots of privileges. It can be hallucinating and it can make the humblest of humans to become rabid. For people like us who have not been in power, it is difficult to understand what makes people change the moment they get to the corridors of power.
If a society is bad, it is the duty of her citizens to help rescue it from the stranglehold of evil forces. A society on the decline can take her citizens down the drain. It is capable of eroding their dignity and humanity. Sometimes I imagine what life is like in Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria.
“Politicians don’t build nation; they plunder resources of their nations. It is statesmen that develop nations; and a nation without statesmen is doomed. Nigeria’s enormous oil wealth is the reason for the struggle for control of political power. All offices from presidency to local government chairman have been monetised. Those who get votes are people who have money to pay for the votes.”
The strongest pillars of any society are the citizens. No nation can rise beyond the quality and value of her citizens. A nation of corrupt people can only raise corrupt leaders, a people that are morally depraved can only make morally depraved and bankrupt society. Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed because of their names, but the depravity of the people.
As we March towards 2023, have we all agreed that the brightest criminals in our midst will rule us forever? The people who sold public assets to their friends and cronies and pocketed the money and the ones that colonise the states they were privileged to govern and turned our common heritage into their daily revenue sources?
How on earth can somebody share $25,000 or $40,000 to each delegate just for inducement, in a nation where our university system has been under lock and key for the last four months. Manufacturers are seriously complaining that politicians have mopped up dollars in the system. One successful political criminal can meet the demands of ASUU.
We are at a critical point in our journey as a nation, and we must make concerted efforts to change the narrative. If we miss it in 2023, the consequences may be dire. This great nation must not fail.
I am surprised that all APC presidential aspirants have ideas that can get us out of the woods, and I wonder why they have not deemed it fit to assist the president with it. If these men and one woman are that good, why is it that the APC administration has not been able to provide security of persons and properties to Nigerians? Our hospitals are not working, our roads are death traps, there are no jobs and majority of our youths are idle. The educational system is in shambles. The serial deceit of the political elites will not work this time. Nigerians, please be wise.
According to Pastor Tunde Bakare, experience is not a prerequisite for the office, because experienced people brought us into the mess we find ourselves today. The present ruling class have actually forfeited their right to rule. They are clueless, inept and highly corrupt. Their only legacy is untold hardship on the masses of our people. No government has been able to solve just one challenge our country faces.
“When the locusts arrive, you cannot beat them and you can’t outsmart or stop them. They will plunder, loot, and bastardise what is left. We cannot escape what is looming, because with APC and PDP presidential primaries, head or tail, the tossed coin will produce the same outcome. Whoever emerges, we are doomed. The two candidates are anti-masses, anti-poor capitalist politicians.”
Politicians don’t build nation; they plunder resources of their nations. It is statesmen that develop nations; and a nation without statesmen is doomed. Nigeria’s enormous oil wealth is the reason for the struggle for control of political power. All offices from presidency to local government chairman have been monetised. Those who get votes are people who have money to pay for the votes.
In corruption 101, corrupt politicians were settling followers in naira, now it is in dollars. In the presidential primaries: APC and PDP, it was high-stake political horse-trading and inducement of delegates. A person who gets to office through a corrupt means cannot fight corruption. If you are thinking the way I am thinking, you will know that the locusts are fast approaching, what we have under PDP and the last seven years of President Buhari’s administration, are just the nursery rhymes of corruption. The real thing is about to happen, if we are not careful.
When the locusts arrive, you cannot beat them and you can’t outsmart or stop them. They will plunder, loot, and bastardise what is left. We cannot escape what is looming, because with APC and PDP presidential primaries, head or tail, the tossed coin will produce the same outcome. Whoever emerges, we are doomed. The two candidates are anti-masses, anti-poor capitalist politicians.
Though there’s no genuine mass political platform for ordinary people of Nigeria, Peter Obi seem to provide a ray of hope. He has good financial management acumen and a sound knowledge of how to build strong and virile economy. I enjoin Nigerian working masses, activists, progressives and youth to join hands with him. We need a third force, let the world know that something good can come out of Nigeria.
The locusts must not be allowed to land!
Amechi, a trade unionist and pro-democracy activist, lives in Lagos.
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