The level of poverty is a design of the political elites to keep
using these voters when they are needed. We all remember how CACOVID food
supplies were hoarded, and they wanted us to be begging for it. We are so
blessed, we should not be thinking of what to eat tomorrow, yet we lack food. A
serious government will create an enabling environment for the private sector
to boom or provide jobs or government support for people without jobs. In other
places, there are food banks here and there and not having something to eat is
almost a matter of choice. We should learn that every kobo spent by these
contenders to get this office are not for charitable causes, they will be
recovered in multiple folds when they get the position they so crave.
These primary elections have revealed to us that we are in a pseudo-democracy.
The best rainmakers won in the primaries. We can blame the delegates, but what
justification do we have when these delegates reflect what many Nigerians
exhibit daily? Most of us complain when we are not in that position of
authority but once we get there, we change. Many Nigerians will use their position
of authority to get what they want at the Police Stations, at the Local
government, in their school, in their immediate community, even in the courts, and
this is exactly what these aspirants have done.
Atiku and Tinubu have many things in common. They both vacated
their last office on the same day over 15 years ago and both have questionable wealth.
No doubt they are political allies who have used their past positions in public
offices to create businesses that rake in big money for them. Both have been
accused of tax default or fraud over the years. Does their inexplicable wealth
ever bother us? Both will come on air tomorrow to castigate the party of the
other and how much destruction the party of the other has pilled on Nigerians while
pretending that their emergence in the first place is flawless. Party delegates
have laughed to the bank and given us the highest bidders in their respective
parties. Governors and lawmakers have cut their own deals too. On election day
more dollars will put one of them in charge (I hope not) and we go again,
complaining for years. If the vote buying at the primaries are exterminated and
cut off, better aspirants at primaries will mean absence of vote buying at the
general election. We cannot continue to complain of the same thing every four
years and do nothing about it. Many wanted these parties to field Peter Obi and
Yemi Osinbajo, but the war chest goes beyond the good intent of good men.
It is true that developed nations must have gone through their
own difficult moments to nurture and perfect their democracies. But it is also
true that we can learn from their mistakes and leapfrog their formative era errors,
but we choose to wallow in our own misery. Its criminal that our political
elites have weaponised poverty to be able to use it against us. The ugliest financial
crimes are here, and the law enforcement have chosen to take a nap. Politicians
at that level will not overtly share money at the event and the presence of law
enforcement agents will achieve very little. Get the names of delegates and
investigate them. If we choose to turn a blind eye, we will keep complaining for
decades. We need to fight this electoral crime if we need this nation to
progress, else these modern-day neo-colonialists and imperialists will keep us
subdued and colonised for a long time. If the Professor is also guilty, let
there be consequences for actions. We need to save an atrophying nation.
