This will be one of my more serious posts, I hope. Erm... Where do I start. Okay. Yesterday a friend of mine posted an endorsement of the PDP as his status on FaceBook. So I asked him a few questions trying to find out why he supports the party, and he said I was asking JAMB questions! Well it shouldn't be too surprising, but it makes me think - do we as Nigerians (yes I am Nigerian no matter how little I like that) really have any idea what we're doing where politics and government are concerned.
In developed democracies, political parties are all (ostensibly) aiming at improving the country, and in that regard Nigeria is no different (even though our improvements are more ostensible than most). But political affiliations are (supposed to be) formed on the basis of ideological differences. For example in the USA Republicans tend to be more conservative - anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-stem cell research, basically against thing that they see as 'unnatural'. Democrats, on the other hand are more liberal and tend to believe people should have a choice to live and act as they please within the confines of sensible law. Maybe I went too far by comparing America to Nigeria, but it makes it much easier to get my point across.
Since 1999 I haven't heard a single political group differ on a specific idea. Political affiliations have been formed (and broken) on the bases of joining the winning team, running ticket guarantees, and that old frenemy money. People like Atiku hop from one party to another looking for a platform on which to run for government positions and have the effrontery to call themselves leaders. It's a vile and disgusting system which doesn't look like changing any time soon, as the leviathan which is the PDP still has a stranglehold on power that it is very unwilling to relinquish.
But I'm just ranting really, and my anger is nothing to those who run the country, which is one reason why I choose not to live there. Madness runs through the political spine of the nation, and if it doesn't get sanitised (and I mean that in two ways - made sane and cleansed) soon Nigeria is in danger of never reaching its potential as a nation, or even worse of splitting apart (although some, like me, are ambivalent about how bad it would really be).
I for one, think that if political posts weren't so financially rewarding only those with a real desire to change things would run for office. The problem faced now is since the people who are in office are there for the monetary gains, there's really no way of correcting that. In the US and Britain politicians are usually well off, but the richest make most of their fortune outside politics (authoring, business, investment and inheritance are just a few more common means).
I think I'll just stop. I hate getting drawn into discussing Nigerian politics. It always ends up upsetting me, because it's such a mess and I don't see it getting better. Even the 'good' politicians suffer from being in a... minority isn't quite the word. I crave your indulgence to coin the word minutity (minute entity) to describe how few reasonably honest politicians we have in 'our beloved country'. Which brings me to my final thought. It's good to be patriotic and all that, but if I'm to be honest with myself, I don't love Nigeria, and I have no desire to work to make her better. It may seem like a bad thing to say, but I'm only being honest.
The end.
You are on point. People can keep kidding themselves about Voting and RSVPing rubbish. Unlike you though, I still like being Nigerian, nothing would change that, and I'd rather see the country change other than crash.
ReplyDelete