Source: Greg Baker

THE SUBTERFUGES OF THE POLITICIANS IN PRE-ELECTION PERIODS IN NIGERIA.

by SHABA MAFU.

One of the common characteristics of politicians in Nigeria is their programmed and conscious deceitfulness of the general public, the voting populace. What amazes me is the ease of success they normally achieve during the periodic festivals of lies and deceit. I may truly wonder whether it is an oath they secretly undertake that they must be unrepentant liars. Jocularly, someone said that they are like some of the Nigeria Police personnel who engrave bribery and corruption as part of their Curriculum, and statutory responsibilities.

If one goes through some roads in Lagos State at present, especially the Trunk C roads which belong to the Local Government and LCDAs, one would observe some construction works going on there. It baffles a reasonable person to observe that it is only when elections of whatever sort are coming up, that these so-called infrastructural developments begin to resurrect. The construction of these infrastructure is usually in tandem with the printing and campaign posters of those intending electoral positions in all the nooks and crannies of a mega-city. Did I just say a mega-city? Whether there is an actual correlation between the political positions contested for at different levels in the polity, these politicians work in synergy, in subterfuge to earn their ‘victories’ in next elections through well-coordinated deceptive programmes to hoodwink the electorates.

They would begin with the road constructions. Later, it will be graduated to sharing of gifts (conscience-destroying bribes), returning of out-of-school children back to school, paying both WAEC and NECO fees for those whose lives were originally mortgaged by the same politicians, through their penury-inflicting policies. All the piety displayed by most Nigerian politicians are only bracketed in hypocrisy and self-righteousness. They ventilate deadly political gimmicks to perpetually enslave the already decapitated and battered electorates.

Unless there is a synergy, yes, synergy and mass mobilization like the #ENDSARS protests among the enslaved, to demand their freedom through legitimate participation in the electoral processes, most Nigerian politicians are not ready to jettison this age-long, fertile political crookedness. Every adult should exercise his civic rights of the suffrage to vote out or bar deceivers from gaining power. We must endeavor to get our Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), participate in non-violent electoral processes, monitor all the processes and ensure transparency of the entire system. The electorates must be wary of their enemies who wake up for spontaneous road constructions as a deceptive means to garner votes for their selfish ambitions. The issue of collecting bribes should be consciously and vehemently resisted even though the electorates have been made poor so that they could not be able to resist the temptation of accepting bribes.

Unless we elect to take our destinies in our own hands, these so-called people’s representatives will continue to wet our sacred heads with fermented urine at all times.