By Zik Gbemre
We have established before now that the observed voting pattern in Nigeria, is never really about who will lead well, or who actually has what it takes to deliver good governance in the interest of the general populace. The voting pattern is about who is our brother/sister (from the same ethnicity or religious background), or who is our Oga/boss (from who all sorts of goodies and monetary gains that are expected to flow). Some even vote because it is either a ‘broom’ or an ‘umbrella’ – not because they know the character or the capacity of the politician in question. That is why the issue of ‘vote buying’ is very predominant’ in this part of the world. The electorates are left to remain poor by the political class, so that during elections they can use monetary items as bait to have them vote according their preferred pattern. That is the pathetic situation we find across the nation, especially in the rural areas. So, even when the people know within themselves that those vying for one political portfolio or the other, are of questionable characters and without integrity, they still blindly vote for them according to either of the described pattern above. What that leaves us with are political office holders who practically do not understand what it really means to serve the public. That is why all we have had, especially since the current democratic dispensation, are public office holders who are best described as ‘Public Masters’ and not ‘Public Officers’ like we see in developed societies.
The man aspiring to be elected is to foot the bills of his followers and pay their rents, pay their medical bills, pay for the cost of vehicles maintenance, pay for the cost of fueling their cars, pay their children school fees, pay rents for them, give them monthly allowance and all that; His only interested in one thing – and that is gain political power by all means necessary. When the candidate eventually wins in an election, he will start taking bribes, kick back, steal public funds by all means – just to RECOUP all his expenses. So, such a politician cannot be advised or called to order, to lead well. This culture of the ‘public officers must settle’, has made nonsense of our political development and electioneering process. With such practices, there will not be evident performance and good governance.
The Nigerian Presidential System is not only too expensive to maintain, it also encourages corruption to thrive at a large scale. It has made politicians, to either borrow money or be sponsored by the few rich men and political fathers, who would obviously in turn want a double, or even triple of their so called ‘political investments’. At the end of the day, the prevailing governance and management/appropriation of our collective wealth as a people, are not channeled to address people-oriented needs but rather, the selfish needs and desires of these ‘political juggernauts’. In other words, our Nigerian-styled of Presidential System of government was structured to keep credible people away/out of their reach, so that ‘political crooks’ would remain and be recycled within the country’s political space. We must stop the pretense and stop kidding ourselves – hoping that things will change. There is no way things can change if the current political structure and way of doing politics in the country does not change.
For one to be elected a State Governor of a State, the applicant should be able to have political structures in all the Local Government Areas and Wards. It requires a lot of money to fix these political structures in place in a country like Nigeria, especially with the high level of poverty and many tribes and languages. So, to stand a good chance to win an election, one must look for money to be able to go around for campaigns, or you look for money bags to sponsor you, but who will later dictate for the Governor. That means one leads to be super rich or be financed by another who is superrich, to stand a chance to be elected. And of course, those that gave their money for that person to be elected would want to be paid back in many folds. How do we expect a person with great ideas of what it means to govern, but the person is without money and finance, to be able to get money to run for election in all the wards of his State? If he/she is financed by another person, then he/she will be dictated by the said godfathers/financier who will practically be in charge of governance, and not the actual person sitting on the seat of Government. These are bare facts. It is the same in all the elected positions of public offices across the country. From the Office of Councilors, Local Government Chairmen, State and Federal Assemblies, up to the State Governors and to the Office of the President. We can see that our Presidential system of government promotes corruption and with this, there cannot be accountability and transparency in Government.
Politics in Nigeria has been turned into an ‘Enterprise’ of some sort and the Nigerian politicians are the Entrepreneurs. So, it will be difficult for us to have free and fair elections in the country. All we will keep having are people who would like to win elections by all means possible, and they really don’t care how they get to that public office. Let us not pretend about this. For it is the realities on ground. Do we call these Nigerian Politicians – Political Entrepreneurs or Political Investors?
Winning elections in Nigeria is never based on the strength of massive campaigns, and it is not about being popular. It is not about talking sincerely, nor is it about campaigning from village to towns and cities, or from ward to ward, local government area to local government area. It is not about having good manifestos. It is all about the cash you get to use in buying powerful power brokers because it is all about “money politics” in Nigeria. I do not blame the politicians for all of this though. It is the followers, who often times pressurize the political aspirants to foot their family bills – from rent, clothing, fueling vehicles, allowances, and what have you. And in this part of the world, footing such family bills of another, is also known as ‘kolanut wedge’, whenever they go for their consultations. The aspiring candidates seeking to be elected will be forced to take a lot of financial responsibilities of people who troop around that person. And in most cases, the aspiring candidate is forced to take loans to satisfy these demands. If not, the followers will term him a failure. And before you know it, they will run to the candidate that has the cash to share and foot their family bills. All at expense of good governance. And like we said earlier, once the person is elected, the first point of call is to try and recoup/recover all that he had spent to get to power. This is of course leads to high level of corrupt practices in his government, and not being able to represent the interest of the general people.
Seriously, the cost implications of Nigeria’s type of democracy, has never done us any good as a developing nation. All we have seen is a widening great divide between the government and the governed; the poor and the rich; the haves and the have not. The enrichment of the few persons in government circles have made going to politics to seek for elective positions as a career; to be the surest and quickest way to accumulate wealth. Hence, the issue of ‘service’ does not come to mind by our ‘professional politicians.’ They are too busy filling their pockets and satisfying the interests of those that put them in power.
Zik Gbemre.
National Coordinator
Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)
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