For the sake of our
nation exposed to insecurity by absence of governance, the time has
come for us to differentiate between a political jobber and a statesman. A political
jobber is a merchant who buys and sells loyalty in order to be in
power. He does not care about the morality of his means.
He would, therefore,
do everything to win an election or be declared the winner. His sole and ultimate
objective is access to power and to the perks of office. But the ultimate
aim of a statesman is not power. It is service of the common good. And even if he plans
to win an election, he does not transgress the boundaries of morality. He is fair in running
for office and fair in running the office. He works for the good of the
nation and for the good of its citizens.
Rather than use or
threaten to use violence, he shares his vision with the citizens, respects
their right to share or repudiate the vision, and their right to decide through
an electoral process free of fraud or coercion. Political jobbers
manipulate the electoral process.*Cardinal Okogie |
Statesmen respect its
integrity. The choice before Nigerians in the 2019 elections, therefore,
is that of choosing between political jobbers and statesmen. And, for the
sake of our nation, we must make a right choice this time around.
Boko Haram continues
to bomb, herdsmen continue to murder, while parties stage congresses and
primaries, their members unleashing thugs on one another and on us.
Silence is reasoned
discourse, but loud is the sound of gunfire.
And as the year 2019
approaches like a fast-moving train, we the people are chained to the rail line
by violent and deceitful politicians. Our politicians threaten our
peace. Outwitting and
outfoxing each other within their parties, emerging through a nomination
process that breaches all tenets of democracy, candidates without democratic
credentials prepare to rob us of our votes.
Recycled, packaged and
repackaged, like fake products, they tell lies, they make false promises,
promises they have neither the capacity nor the intention to fulfill.
Parties insult our
intelligence by imposing utterly incompetent and unworthy candidates on us and
ask us to choose the lesser of two evils.
But the lesser of two
evils is evil, and no upright person will choose what is evil, not even the
lesser of two.
Our psyche as a nation
was militarised when young and immature men, wearing army uniforms and holding
guns and bullets, shot their way into power.
Our multiethnic land
lost her innocence when they resorted to ethnic cleansing, leading us into a
totally avoidable war.
At the end of the
first and second rounds of bloodshed, they declared: no victor, no
vanquished. But the wounds remain.
They held us hostage
from 1966-79, and from 1983-99, pretending they were endowed with the sagacity
of statesmen.
Their
antipathy for democracy destroyed its institutions, instituting
violence and lawlessness as means of getting into power.
Then they were young
men in ages twenties and thirties.
Now they are
grandfathers, kings and kingmakers. After brutalising the nation,
they refused to show remorse and they refuse to quit the stage.
Nursing their illusion
of integrity, of being sole proprietors of patriotism, they put on the toga of
infallibility.
But they would have
been unable to hold us hostage without the collaboration of civilians with whom
they enter into friendship of convenience, civilians whom they use
and trash like paper towels in an era of politics without principle.
Who then can say there
are no kingmakers? They are still alive. Call them by any other
name, a spade is still a spade.
Do we still wonder why
our country has been damaged? Should it be otherwise
where selection is election?
Would it be different
when democracy has been turned into the government of godfathers, kings and
kingmakers, for godfathers, kings and kingmakers, by godfathers, kings and
kingmakers?
Now, therefore, is the
time to advise ourselves to break away from this unhelpful past and paralyzing
present, and embrace a future of sanity and decency in politics.
Our voices must unite
in persuading yesterday’s warlords and their civilian friends of today to quit
the stage and allow a truly democratic culture to emerge in 2019.
For where no one
manipulates the democratic process, even if you are not elected, you have not
lost, because your fundamental rights as a citizen are protected.
For the sake of our
nation, let us, in 2019, practice true democracy, disband an oligarchy of kings
and kingmakers, free ourselves from politicians who, for decades, have held us
hostage.
For the sake of our
nation, let us, as a people, insist on internal democracy within the
parties, on a nationally-televised debate among contenders for various offices,
especially the presidency, and let us insist on a credible electoral process.
Such will be for the
good of our children and our children’s children.
For the sake of our
nation, we are watching and waiting.
*Cardinal Okogie is
Archbishop emeritus of Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos
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