Someone once defined politics as the art of looking for problems, finding them everywhere, misdiagnosing them, and applying the wrong remedies. The unpredictability of politics and the ruthlessness of many politicians are factors that make the playing field very slippery and muddy. But I still love the art and science of politics. I love to argue and break it all down into intellectual debates. Politics is like an always fresh and always perfumed river that flows through all living beings. Politics is both the fallopian tubes and the womb of government. We were all created for politics.
Politics moves everything on the face of the earth. Only the dead are not directly or indirectly engaged in politics. The pious clergy play the game. The most royal kings and queens in their palaces have a lingering penchant for her. Politics runs the banking institutions, boosts the business of the oil corporations, trudges in the large financial markets run by lawyers, and bolsters the small roadside markets run by illiterates. The whole of life comes alive as a result of the fuel and fire of politics.
However, in Nigeria, the active, elective and practical aspects of politics are sworn off areas for many. Good people are put off by the deliberately misleading lies that politicians have to tell to gain power. The dying man wants power. The sick salivate after her. The dead in ideas want the mallet of authority. The fool fights to snatch the hammer from the wise. When he does, the wise man takes his place in the congregation of fools. Men with avant-garde gifts, who can handle the economy with ease, are on the fringes of active politics. Insiders with a great deal of knowledge of the practicalities of good governance are daily on the run across this sickly, sick terrain. What mind in its right mind has the strength for the deliberately deceitful antics and maddening maneuvers orchestrated by politicians? I do not. Politics makes it possible to hang petty thieves and elect greedy thieves to public office.
All over the world, politics is tough. The ‘take it down’ syndrome is thorny. Your past in the last 40 years can be unearthed for your scrutiny. His private stay becomes public knowledge. And your academic incursion or the lack of it is thrown in your face to diminish your wits. Physical bare-knuckle fights and the staccato of shooting games are part of the territorial recklessness of the world of politics. Your friends will be with you at sunrise and against you at sunset. Who is really your friend in the corridors of politics? You may never know.
The walls of your home must be fortified, otherwise some night visitors will come to break down your doors, even if they are made of steel. If they manage to enter your palace, your soul prematurely departs from your charred or mutilated body as a result of the meanness unleashed by hired assassins. So you end up gnashing your teeth at the devil in Gehenna, or singing a lullaby with the angels of God in Elysium. In Nigeria, precious lives have been wasted because of politics. Blood has been spilled because of power. A politician has just been beheaded in Imo State and the gruesome video capture of the savagery shared on social media can make a fluffy heart slide into eternal unconsciousness.
I am not a prophet of doom and gloom. far from there Look what will happen between now and the end of February before the Nigerian presidential election. Souls brimming with life today may not live to see the election being held. The drive for power is driving many political gladiators to seek elective office by any means necessary. Any potential brake on your ambition is stopped. There is no messiah in Nigerian politics, my friends. Every politician is guilty.
About 10 years ago, a pharmacist friend in Atlanta dumped his 401K retirement funds for a couple hundred thousand dollars on Nigerian politics. His governor promised him heaven and earth. And typical of politicians, the governor reneged when he won the elections. My friend almost made an unscheduled visit to heaven as a result of heart disease that came from the governor’s deception. Since then, he has refused to visit Nigeria after the incident that nearly killed him.
Politicians will torpedo your ship and laugh at you as you sink and stink. What you won in 10 years you lose in one day. If you work for the cruel and follow the path of truth in the government, you will be reported to their evil charmers. Your closest friend can become your toughest adversary due to power. Politicians can offer you as a sacrifice on the altar of manipulation to appropriate authority. Your blood is the gold and silver they seek. Do you think you know them and that’s why you’re trusting? Do you think they will do well is that why you backed them? When they get energy, you will discover their true colors.
With them, you’re doing business between people who don’t care about anyone but themselves. They are not in power because of you. They are for themselves. The promises that politicians make are useless until they are fulfilled. And 98 percent of their promises are not kept. The game of politics is a dog-eat-dog battleground. And you’re not sure about the dog that will eat you and spit you out. I know you love active and elective politics. Me too. But be wise and make your brain work. What you like will not kill you. What you salivate for will not snuff out life in your last breath.
I see many young people in Nigeria getting into food fights over who will become president. I’m watching these kids put their necks on the line, and it’s all in the public domain for politicians. They are already fighting their friends and making enemies of them. As I write this article, I am mediating between a young man and his mother who are embroiled in a huge fight because they disagree over who will be the next president of Nigeria. The love of a stranger that will make you fight with your mother is a false love. Before you risk your life for politicians, think carefully about whether it’s worth the risk. Politicians will kick you out. You need a home to return to and a mother’s comforting embrace to support you in true love. No politician should replace a mother’s love in the heart of her child. Anyone who plans his life around the promises of politicians could have his life shattered. This is a sermon on the mount for those fanatical types who cling to the helm of politicians’ garments that are as unstable as water by design. Politicians are not who they say they are. They are the vulpines. They are vultures. they are poisons When they become kings; your Israel will know that you have Saul as king.
Twitter: @Folaojotweet
