Honestly, it’s a sad reality that today no political party in Nigeria is on the mission of social salvation rather they unanimously share a common interest of manipulating our interests and mandates in favour of their selfishness thereby exploring our economy and take away all the wealth that is meant to be used for the development of the country and the welfare of the masses. Yet we are here fighting for political parties or candidates with zero ratio of actual political consciousness. This is odd for people who claim to be educated and enlightened to be so naive and gullible.
Unlike the past generation and epoch where politics stood upon the pillar of ideology, well-defined culture, and philosophy, the present generation focuses more extensively on material pillars upon which money becomes the dominant factor when diving into the lake of politics. The differences are easily identifiable for all except if one has no interest in siding with truth and progressive category.
As it is said, politics is a game of interest or game of number or system of execution of policies as Earnest opined. Still, the Nigerian negroid and highly respected politician, Malam Aminu Kano of blessed memory came with “Politics is man management”. And it’s what I subscribe to because his notion wasn’t centered on selfishness by putting the interest of a few parties into consideration above every other matter.
And as of today, the nature of our political climate has witnessed a faulty change by transforming to a hazy and chaotic one simply because both classes are being spiritually destabilized by the introduction of the harmful idea of money politics as a strong base in our political realm. This has also erroneously put us on top of the error spot which created more injuries to the society than healing of the old wounds or filling the old gaps as desired.
Perhaps, the giant political figures of yesterday took politics as an emancipatory machine and positive change machine because they used politics to tackle all the tides, obstacles, and social problems bedeviling their people. Thus, they further considered it as transformative equipment as they efficiently played politics to develop their societies both physically and psychologically. That earned them the unflinching relevance that the majority of our contemporary politicians are craving hardly.
As we can bear witness, of all the durable as well as the social developmental projects we have today are being put in place by those people whom we term as “old generation politicians” yet they are the best of their kind and versions in the eyes of sensible folks and people of discerning mind. They recorded this achievement simply because they were less chauvinistic and they were less indoctrinated by corruption and other maladministration practices which today we see as a blockage to our development. Take the universities out there and gauge them with the contemporary ones; the likes of ABU, ATBU, UNILAG, UNN, and the rest all built by those men of unchallenged reputation and class and their handiworks coupled with their blueprints and master plans can never be matched with those of ours.
Nevertheless, the past political experts and statesmen chose not to be power or money mongers like the irrational thought of which the modern politicians are attached to. Today’s politicians imbibed the retrogressive idea of entrepreneurial politics that forces them to view anything political from the lens of self dream actualization of becoming a billionaire. When they begin to let the whims and intention of joining politics flip their mind, all that hits their thoughts is “political entrepreneurship” whereby they will put some tokens as input and later wickedly plunder our public treasury for their self-enrichment as an output. Nothing radiant hits their minds apart from this.
However, the society wasn’t designated by the past heroes to be in such a haphazard setting. Rather it is being manipulated by the muddy hands of those political entrepreneurs of which they eye nothing in politics rather than wealth. No social development, no human development, and the most regrettable part of the reality no even spiritual development from them. They possess no iota of reason to develop even our economy which may in one way or the other help to extricate us from the shackles of misery rather they give us money plus drugs to sway our attention away from the lane of goodness and positivity.
Meanwhile, the monsters didn’t find it possible to achieve all sorts of evil agenda until when they are done by devastating our strong political culture which recommends good wishes to society above everything should be the aim and objectives of one reason or motive to join politics. They also find this possible only when they substitute the then precious political cultures with fragile and worthless ones of which money politics top the ranking.
However, of all the chaotic political moments we are going through these days, we can’t afford to forget the milestone achievements of our forefathers in politics and in respect to such rattling efforts they have made so far by ensuring the actualization of the grandeur of our institutions. They must take the credit and we should pay them with tributes. Moreover, this can only be made if we are the legitimate children of our dear nation. Our true nationalists deserve every kind of beautiful remarks to be showered upon their departed souls.
Until we throw away the negative political jargon in the name of ideology and consciously replace them with the past developmental ones, then we will forever keep wallowing in the cave of pretense yet craving to have a better chance in a spot where anything that has a nexus with better change will become futile and witness no avail session. We shall remain underdeveloped, unless we make a thorough system overhaul of our modern political machinery and pursuit nstead of money political relevance.
The ” Architects of Old and modern Nigeria ” past figures’ inexplicable terms have achieved greatness and relevance despite being blessed with little resources which they had judiciously applied in making our country what it’s today. And they will keep receiving the credit for their fabulous deeds while laying at their resting positions till no point of stopping. And these money-mongering devils will keep the tempo and gusto of yearning to attain what the latter possessed and they will also keep receiving the perpetual shocks in the world of politics as the price of their sins against the innocent riffraff, Though, above all, God is all-merciful.
The caveat, no matter how awful the weight of Nigeria’s odds incidents look, it’s of great importance for every good citizen to be optimistic about the future of his/her entity, as the theory of nationalism recommends. With hopes and putting them into feasible machines through hard work, dedication, and persistency one day Nigeria will be a great and better terrain again.
I have a better hope for Nigeria!
Yunusa writes from Darazau, Bauchi state.
