By Abdulwahab Jemil Lanre.
It is no doubt that the political incongruity of a nation largely affects the citizens in a number of ways. The educational, infrastructural, social welfare to mention a few of the development expected of a nation cannot to an appreciable extent be achieved with an unstable political environment. Relatively speaking, the developing and third world nations have an antecedence of unstable political atmosphere which has for decades affectednay hindered their development. My dear nation Nigeria is a perfect example of that nation that has from time been having issues with an unstable political atmosphere.
Right from independence, we have suffered greatly from leaders that care for their families and their unborn generations. The resources meant for the entirety of the nation's population would be embezzled or mismanaged by public office holders, instead of being punished by law the citizens would rather pay for it, even with their blood in some cases. Yes their blood I said. I know you will be wondering how possible this could be, but let me quickly refresh your memory with the not too long pension fund that was mismanaged by a public office holder which directly or indirectly led to the death of many pensioners who could not get money on time to access good medical treatment. Have these people not paid with their blood for the mistake of just one public office holder?
Politics in my country has appeared to be the most 'lucrative business' where everyone wants to venture into for no other reason in most cases rather than to make cool money. This quick way of making money has made politics a do or die affair for most politicians, they can go the extra mile to win an election by investing much more money in electioneering processes and at times instigate some youths popularly referred to as 'political thugs' to cause chaos in their respective immediate environment, all for their selfish interest.
These people have successfully caused differences amongst the masses with religious and tribal sentiments. The average man from far eastern part of the country has been structured by these sets of individual with their gimmicks to perceive the man from the northern part as a fundamentalist, on the other hand the man from north perceives the easterners as people who are not patriotic and hence unfit to rule the nation. The westerners have always been sitting on the fence claiming to be diplomatic but this to me appears hypocritic in nature, because there are certain issues one has to frown at for the progress of a state. All of these politicians have successfully done but the question citizens should ask is, how possible is it for that politician in your region who condemned the other man from another region to still be in the same political party without differences? The answer is simple, they have successfully distracted your attention from governance and engaged you into social media war with people from other regions. This you'll be busy with and before you realize it, he or she has completedhis/her tenure. They will come back home again to feed you with lies and tricks, put token in your pocket, you vote for them and they travel back to live the next four years with the same men they have turned your back away from.
We as citizens have failed to ask questions about what governance is, and don't care about how our resources are being managed. In most cases we are so much concerned about our three square meals and I tell you that your rights democratically goes beyond you eating three times a day. The generations before ours neglected governance and that is why we have to live this way today. The most alarming thing now is that our generation is as well neglecting this and instead most youths have resorted to all manner of illegal ways to make money. Rituals have now become common place and the question is what are we leaving for the coming generation? We failed to understand that the system is indirectly turning everyone into a thief, because everything doesn't follow normal protocol again, you have to bribe people to get things done, I owe no one apology for this as it happens almost everywhere in the country.
The just concluded Ekiti gubernatorial elections has answer to most of the points raised above. People had to settle for a one term former governor that was rejected four years ago just for tokens. This is a testament to the fact that people do not even know what they want for themselves and their generations yet to come. People see governance as something meant for some sets in the society or the elites so to say, not until we see it as everyone's responsibility, things won't get any better.
Nigeria is a nation that bleeds and needs the attention of her citizens to as a matter of urgency stand up to their feet and fight for the future of the nation. We don't necessarily need to engage ourselves in physical battle with these people, but I tell you with your PVC you have a lot of changes to make. It's a tough decision to make but we all know that nothing good comes easy, and in the end we'll all be the hero and more importantly we'll have something meaningful to keep for the generations yet unborn.
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