"It is high time the Nigerian youths and ordinary citizenry begin a movement to rescue their future from these elite scavengers who call themselves indispensable politicians, otherwise the nation is doomed to perpetual failure." ............................................POLITICS OF THE ELITE................................... "With remarkably few exceptions Nigerian politi-cians are a greedy and self-serving bunch. Rather than form alliances as a result of believing in the same principles they only consider what they can gain by being in agreement on a particular issue. They don’t even agree along party lines. They are friends and partners only as long as they conform to a sharing formula. The moment there is disagreement on sharing, the war starts. They have no plan to uplift the citizenry, no focus on national development and no commitment to any known philosophy – just a strong objective to loot! They ignore the ultimate goal of good governance which is the overall well-being of society based upon efficient allocation of scarce resources. They use every means available to enrich them-selves, dispense favours to their cronies and cling onto power. As a result the nation’s wealth simply shifts from one politician to another with every new political office holder becoming a multi-millionaire. Political parties parade seasoned crooks who in the attempt to succeed stop short at nothing. Politicians have rendered the institutions of state unworkable, handcuffed the EFCC, emasculated the ICPC, plea bargained prosecution away, pardoned themselves when convicted, and ensured that the Nigerian Police Force and general public are impotent. Nigerian poli-tics is big busi-ness where consideration for the ethics of democracy and citizen’s welfare are of little consequence. Despite the economy under-performing and the nation increasingly immersing itself in debt, our political office holders earn amongst the highest wages in the world and carry their cronies along for the ride. There is a particular governor who apart from a Commissioner of Information also “employs” a Special Adviser on Media Affairs, Personal Assistant on Public Relations, Director of Press, Senior Special Assistant on Publicity, Press Secretary and a Media Consultant!. Politics has become the business of the elite sharing the national cake in an environment where the support and participation of the people is increasingly of little significance. Today’s political actors do not seek office in order to serve but rather to be served. They are quick to find ways to loot the treasury and discuss non-issues, yet extremely slow to attend to important matters. Late Senator Chuba Okadigbo was quoted as saying “when you stay awake and hear the subjects of discussion, you’ll cry for the nation”. The number of senators sleeping in the upper house during sittings is only slightly less than the number who don’t bother to turn up at all. Even this figure is dwarfed by the number of Representatives who have never contributed to any debate in the House. It is easy to agree with those analysts who have defined Nigeria as a nation where the players in the power game serve up a three-course meal of magic, deceit and lies. The magic comes from the magical election results continuously served up by an incompetent INEC. The deceit comes from all the electoral promises which were never intended to be fulfilled. And the outright lies come from saying whatever is necessary to remain in power. The first thing any Nigerian politician must learn is how to lie truthfully. Perhaps this is why they have handicapped our police force from having access to polygraph (lie detector) machines. A lie detector test would surely let us know who really won the election at the Governors’ Forum. Is it a lie that the war between the Governors’ Forum and the Presidency isn’t because of the Nigerian electorate but about the desire of the centre to cling to power at all costs? Is it a lie that the budget war about constituency projects was all about what comes to legislators in the budget and had little to do with benefits to the people? Is it a lie that the on-going war between the Rivers State legislators and the governor isn’t about benefits to the taxpayer it is a choreographed power tussle? Is it a lie that Patience Jonathan’s involvement in the matter isn’t about the welfare of Rivers State people it is about fighting political enemies who want to stop her from continuing her ungraceful first ladyship? It’s increasingly apparent that our politicians concern themselves with only their problems and have completely lost focus. The in-fighting within the PDP and breakaway faction of the party isn’t about the wellbeing of Nigerians. It’s simply a positioning and repositioning to lay hands on the national cake in 2015. The show of shame going on in Taraba State has nothing to do with the constitution or with the interests of the long suffering citizens of Taraba, it’s is simply a scheme to side line political opponents. Foisting an ailing man on the state is simply an act by the same sort of selfish politicians who were around Umaru Yar’adua and didn’t want him out of office when it was obvious he was incapacitated. It is painful to see a nation touted to be haven of all manner of potentials and blessed with so many human and mineral resources suffer in the hands of an ignoble few who refer to themselves as politicians and leaders. Nigerians are no fools. They know who is serving their interest. Any politician who performs creditably in office should normally have nothing to fear about re-election. Normally they should only ask themselves whether truthfully in their consciences they have delivered on their promises. However, success in Nigerian politics of the elite isn’t about performance; it is about how much you sow either in resources or violence to diminish your opponent. This is why even failures in office cannot be removed when seeking re-election. Everything possible is going wrong in Nigeria and our youths who own the future are compliant in this political mess. They allow them-selves to be used by these no good politicians to kill, maim and destroy. It is high time the Nigerian youths and ordinary citizenry begin a movement to rescue their future from these elite scavengers who call themselves indispensable politicians, otherwise the nation is doomed to perpetual failure.".....**** Eugene Enahoro
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 21:33:19 +0000
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