Fr. Richard OMOLADE

People band together for various reasons, some commendable, some nefarious.  Truth be told; indeed, the words of our elders are words of wisdom and birds of the same feather flock together. This dictum has been validated again and again in Nigeria recently. Firstly, through the carpet crossing of many politicians from one party to another. Why are they leaving their party, and in some cases the party that incubate them and lunch them into prominence for the party in power? Did they leave for the sake of the people or for their own selfish motives?

From our experiences in this nation, we do not even need to wait to know the answers. The answers are gnawing at us daily in the reckless abandon of many politicians to the resources of the state or in the way to appropriate funds for project they knew would never see the light of day.

Then we have politicians banding together to form their own party supposedly to become a formidable opposition to the untouchable government in power. The men banding together may look formidable, but there is no power in their alliance. The alliance is dead on arrival, because these are politicians of diverse values and often contradicting values. When ego-maniac politicians come together, you know they are not banding together to save the masses but are looking for ways to add another feather to their stain caps. 

The current crop of politicians in Nigeria are not designed to fight for the people, no wonder when they get into power hardly are they seen to implement people-oriented agenda or programmes that enhance the quality of  life of the masses. Politicians will always feed on the wealth of the nations and ride dry-shood on the back of the people, but if they serve their people, Nigerians will not complain. Our leaders metamorphose into tyrants, power mongers, money-glutton, and ideas deficient. Who will save the masses?

Yes, the political climate is always ripe for a willing messiah, but these politicians are dupes, they appear to be for the people, but in reality they are pharaohs positioned to increase the suffering of the Masses. The people, therefore, need a transformative leader, with good structures, clear ideas, and passionate about the masses. We need leaders baked by the law and vowed to uphold and transform the laws of the land from its ineffective existence into a law of action and life. Our current crop of politicians do not fit this bill.

In organized societies, parties have clear values and agenda, while these are changeable sometimes, but core values stay firm and other values are built around it. This does not seem to be the case in Nigeria, where the values of the political parties look identical, and one can hardly differentiate one from another. Consequently, when a politician crosses from one party to another, there is often no conflict, because they are all alike in values and deed. They all think and act alike, “take care of yourself first and if anything is left, leave the crumbs for the masses.”

Governors run to the Senate and some Senators run to be Governors now Governors are running to become the President, yet there is not much going on. As the saying goes, the suffering has become suffering pro max, that is, to its highest value. A Nigerian died recently with stupendous amount of wealth, yet what did he do for the community while alive? His wealth judiciously used would have transformed the entire North.

We are about to enter the eve of election and the scheming has started, that is why politicians are jumping from one party to another.  It is not about the interest of the people, but about political self-preservation. Who then will save the people? At this time, there is no viable options. The people have not learnt to demand accountability from elected officials and the machinery of state does not feel obligated to anyone to give the statement of their stewardship.

In fact, demanding for such accountability is likely to turn you into a marked man, marked for execution or deprivation.  There is no viable opposition group to fight for the people. The people must demand it for themselves. They must start with the grassroots and demand for true dividends of democracy at the ward level and make those unwilling to declare the dividends persona non grata. Only in this way can we crumble all these carpet crossing and coalition of power grabbers.

When people gather to scheme instead of gathering to enhance the quality of life, they are bound to experience their own tower of Babel. Then ultimately, what has brought them together will be their undoing. And those who have crossed over to avoid persecution will themselves face persecution and be oppressed because they will be shown to have no value and no usefulness to society.

In the final analysis, those who will survive the quagmire of Nigeria election will be those who have chosen to serve even when the money is not there to flow into their pockets. These people will be oppressed and still succeed, maligned, but be triumphant, abandoned but embraced by the people. What will be our fate? Let us start now to weed out those without value in our midst.