In
rivers and bad governments the lightest things swim at the top — Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790), American scientist and philosopher.
Nigeria’s elections are always a period of hemorrhage,
seasons of internecine bloodletting, that, strangely, does not bring down our
population. Just do a study of our cyclical polls. None came and went away
without taking away precious souls. They have all soaked us in blood either
before, during or after the ballot. Even the June 12, 1993 presidential contest
we celebrate didn’t consummate its benignity. It wasn't allowed to.
The
vampires showed up to ruin the chance to dance. They annulled what Providence
offers only once in a lifetime. What we got on the proverbial silver platter,
we have since been looking for in a golden platter. It’s been quite an
agonizing quest, made unbearable by the high toll in the lives we lose when we
blow the whistle for electioneering.
Unfortunately, and tragically so, what we get at the end of
each exercise, mostly incompetent and self-serving politicians and office
holders, does not justify the enormous resources we load into the project. You
go into an enterprise to return with profit and fulfillment. But Nigerians have
been repeatedly outwitted, shortchanged. We heed the call of the authorities
and the political lords to sacrifice our precious time, to set aside the work
that earns us the little to live on and to brave the inclement elements of
nature and those posed by hoodlums and uniformed men and all we harvest are
death of dear ones and a parasitic club of men and women. We never get what we
are promised, either by those who run a term or two. It isn’t remunerative
business, receiving dross, loss and curse after you have pumped much into the
deal in fervid hope of mouth-watering returns. Why must we experience such
grief at the threshold of potential joy?
The 2019 election is gone, or substantially gone; but it is
a spectre that has thrown itself into our future. That is to say that poll
violence and the (s)election will go on leave now, to resurface when we are set
for the ballot in four years.
But the good news is that these recurring demons, abiku and
ogbanje spirits, are not invincible. We can exorcise them if we degrade public
office and politics as a haven of prosperity.
The weapon to deploy in our fight against
murderous politics and thieving political office holders is to abolish wages
for them altogether. The spirit of do-or-die in political contests arises from
the backward mentality that political office is worth dying for because it is
the god that drives society’s resources. So, why won’t you worship it and fall
at its feet for survival? Why won’t you seek to invest your blood in it? Why
won’t you thrash the Spiritual injunction and then begin to seek first the
political kingdom so that all other things shall be added to you?
The way out, as I proposed sometime ago, is to
disincentivise politics and its so-called spoils by making public office
disagreeable to those whose goal is to make a fortune and not to serve. Some
concerned citizens whose position matches this view suggest we drastically
reduce the pay and allowances of our politicians. But I want us to go beyond
this pay-cut option, because in my opinion it only addresses the issue halfway,
not dealing it a deathblow.
Secondly, it opens the way for abuse and underhand
bargain with the civil servants for doctoring of figures in respect of the
office holders’ wages. Thirdly, there will be hardly resistible clamour for
salary increase to reflect ‘economic realities’ as we often put it.
To eliminate these foreseeable challenges, we should aim for
a system that 'de-wages' all political office holders, from the presidency and
aides and federal cabinet down to the governors and their ruling paraphernalia
with the local council administration. They all should be sustained by the
state. Our tax would maintain them and their families. Their school-age
children will attend public schools. They and their families will be barred
from seeking medicare abroad or in private facilities here in Nigeria. The
state will be responsible for all the basic needs of their families during and
after their tenure.
They would not have to be anxious about their future or that
of their dependents after such a selfless service to the people. It is such
fear of the future, the uncertainty of the years that would follow your
alienation from office, that creates the cradle of corrupt enrichment in
politics and the civil service. But in
the system we are proposing, the state would look after the public officer who
has sacrificed for the people. The state will be there for them.
Naturally, there won’t be luxury and free money in that
regime of selflessness of work for the people. It is the fantasy about the
state’s bottomless wealth being the property of the political office holder
that is responsible for the violence that accompanies our elections and
politics.
We call it the spoils of office. But they are the catalysts
that call forth the bantamweight of our society to aim for leadership. These
sybaritic adventurers don't give us our best. They throw up the barbarian for
the noble work of the land, bringing out the truth of Benjamin Franklin’s
remark: the lightest personalities are always in charge. Their heedless hunt
for spoils of war and office delivers nothing but violence and stunted growth.
Let’s save the nation by denying them a foothold in the future.
*Mr. Ojewale writes from Ogun State
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