Animals In Politics

By UbongAbasi Ise

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind?” – Matthew 11:7

To the youths, and those that still see themselves as youths, I have these facts to tell you in case no one told you before. If you could see yourself the way your political leaders look at you, certainly you wouldn’t want to go to them.

The relationship between the political ruling class and the governed in our clime is like oil and water; they can never mix. When you go out to cheer and support your political leaders to get favours, understand that they are not dignifying you as humans who get sense. They only see you as faceless crowd that confer upon them popularity. They would say, “Oh! See the crowd, see the support!” Your face and your name don’t matter. Behind the façade of their smiles and agreeable gestures, these political overlords see you as being lower than animals. If someone that is counting millions of Naira would pay group of supporters N1,000 to N2,000 each as a reward for coming out to spend full day to cheer them under scotching sun, then turn out to be feeding their German shepherd or Border Collie breeds of dogs with the minimum of N10,000 to N20,000 each per day, you could understand that they value their domestic animals far more than their human supporters.

That aside, let’s consider the fundamentals: the underlying logic is that it is natural for every political leader to feel like a god in human fresh because they have powers and wherewithal to offer solutions to anthropical problems. Like gods, the political leaders need worshipers to flock around them. And none of them would be in a good mood having sensed that people are not encircling them like flies wherever they go. They need crowd around them so as to luxuriate in the blaze of popularity and of power. They have subterranean belief that their subjects need them to meet all their cravings. Like gods, this ruling class see themselves as the givers of wealth; providers of good roads, healthcare, security, education, shelter and food to the masses. Hence, they need to be adored and be worshipped at all times.

Yes, popularity is an essential ingredient in the career of a politician. There is hardly any politician in power that would not be in a vile mood having realized that people are no longer knocking at their gates or stay in waits for them in their offices. It is this mass following that inspire wild supercilious sense in them. It thrills them when people scramble for crumbs fallen from their tables and then sing their praises to high heavens. They feel like god. What they desire most is the crowd of worshippers around them, and would not value individuation. Whatever peanuts they give out is for crowd maintenance and sustained support. To this end, the Maintain Peace Movement (MPM), whatever that is, is the archetypal of crowd maintaining stratagem as was witnessed at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium on Friday 19^th November 2021.

To be plain, the MPM is designed to preserve the status quo in Akwa Ibom State for the interest of the power that be. Its progenitors claim there is peace in the state, hence it is necessary to maintain it beyond the present administration under Governor Udom Emmanuel. To maintain peace, they moralize that a cultist or a man from occult group should not succeed the incumbent governor. But why do they apparently guard against the emergence of a cultist or occultist as a governor? Because the government run by a cultist or occultist could only prosper their fellow members at the expense of the masses.

They could be right anyway. An occult man, for example, is commonly believed to sacrifice something valuable in return of their fortunes. Therefore they prosper the hard way. This could form the basis of their selfishness. It is often rumored that it is very hard to get favours from an occult man. He has sacrificed something in return of his fortunes, the same thing you the people have, but you lack the idea or direction of what you should do with what you have. If he had given something in return of his powers and prosperity, and you are withholding yours, then why should you share in his fortunes? This appears to be the reason the politicians who belong to occult world don’t help or agree to your proposal. They would give you excuse one way or the other. You keep on going to their offices; they are too busy for you. You can’t remember the number of times you wait at the visitors’ room sleeping all day just to see them for few couples of minutes. If they want to dash you peanuts, you must be in the crowd where the news of their fake generosity spreads like wildfire. They can only genuinely empower few powerful individuals that could give them troubles or those that ‘belong’ to their secret system, who would in turn preach their benefactors’ generosity and their down-to-earth qualities to all and sundry.

If Akwa Ibom is not currently governed by men of the confraternity and there is blissful peace in the state as touted by the apostles of Maintain Peace Movement, why is lack of job opportunities still an intractable problem for the youths, with Akwa Ibom always recurring in the report of Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as one of the top states with highest rate of unemployment despite windfall of various income subheads earned by the state? Could it be a systematic handiwork to vitiate opportunities in order to manage who prosper and who does not?

How could we describe a government that seeks to splurge about N16 billion on unpopular worship centre project while such amount of money could have been used for the establishment of several agro-allied industries to help absorb the unemployed population? Does this government know that a jobless man is a devil’s workshop, that could breach any peace around him?

Could we still believe that we have angels in charge of this government? A government that overlook students scholarships and bursaries for over six years.

Does peace means tears to the retirees? Is it the reason the pensioners under the auspices of Retired Primary School Teachers and Next of Kin of Deceased Teachers cried their eyes out and protested a day before the MPM jamboree over the non-payment of their pension arrears and gratuity amounting to over N28.8 billion? Where is peace when these aged persons could not take care of their families? Where is peace when they could not afford drugs for the treatment of their ailments? Where is peace when deprivations stare boldly at their faces?

And where is peace when various roads projects are abandoned and left to entrap road users for criminals in rural areas? An environment that is not conducive cannot guarantee peace.

Yes, the presence of conflict could be the absence of peace, but the absence of conflict does not mean there is peace where people suffer in silence.

There is apparently no peace to maintain. The MPM is highly politicized machinery devised to bring out a successor that would maintain the way things are going on in the state beyond 2023. MPM’s management does not extend to members of other political parties except to those in the PDP fold. It seems like a tool to exclude unwanted elements from the gubernatorial race. As the next election calendar year is fast approaching, it could be a time for the populace to make it right or make more mistakes. I know some people believe they learn from mistakes and therefore make more mistakes to learn from them. In 2023, it is left for the youths to use their brain because, according to a wise saying, “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”