It was JFK, Jr. that said, “Politics is too important to be left to the politicians”
JFK’s statement is nothing far from the truth. The tragic low turn out of voters in Nigeria’s Governorship elections is not something to brag about. It is indicative of the inherent frustration and disappointment associated with our haphazard brand of democracy. Simply put, most Nigerians feel cheated and robbed in the Presidential Elections held a week earlier. Hence, a low turnout in the elections to choose Governors.
An average Nigerian thinks his vote cannot count. He either offers it for half bag of rice or N5,000. We cannot totally blame them; when you stay too much in darkness, you begin to think it’s light.
Frustrating bottlenecks in our electoral process shouldn’t be an excuse to surrender to governance of mediocrity. Everything affects everyone; directly or indirectly. Even if you’re in the diaspora enjoying ‘good life’, you should be proud to say you’re a Nigerian. Regrettably, many people cannot boldly say this. Why surrender to death, when you have the power to choose life?
Plato said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”. We have the power to change the political landscape of our nation. But we stay home. We complain about how divisive and ineffective politics and politicians in Nigeria are. But we stay home. We watch while media pundits, reporters, and talk show hosts, on the left and the right, bash each party. But we stay home.
Things cannot work this way. If everyone reasoning is in this direction, perhaps our nation will soon be extinct. Everyone must get involved in the process. Simple.
Imagine a so-called cosmopolitan Lagos SateS full of educated and enlightened people, yet leadership is being decided by a few; to make matters worse by thugs and hoodlums. The will of the people has been caged. They have now succumb to the fact that it’s a one man show.
So, people prefer to stay at home rather than wasting their precious time at the polling booth. But it’s not the way – freedom isn’t given, it is taken!. A Nigeria of our dream will not fall on our laps if we don’t fight for it. Blacks could still be slaves in America if Martin Luther King Jr and others didn’t agitate for their freedom from racial abuse and marginalisation.
“The wise that refuse to rule should suffer the rule of idiots” – Socrates.
Be ready to pay dearly with your life, health, work or business if you choose your leaders based on ethnicity, tribe and mediocrity. You’re nothing short of an accomplice. You have successfully just placed the next four of your life to an incompetent pilot.
In Nigeria, we have become a country of citizens disenfranchised with politics. But that is no excuse. It is unconscionable that we continue to rely on politicians and the media to make decisions for us without participating. We cannot continue to complain that we are powerless while millions of us us do not vote. We have all the power when we vote. If we vote en masse and we get involved in politics en masse, then we have the power to make significant changes in our country. We, the people of this naturally blessed country, have the power to form a more perfect union if we get out and vote in every elections for a merit and not for a political party.
I ask again, when is it going to be about the people and not just politics?
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