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Olayide Olaosebikan is a United Kingdom-based Nigerian. A
Lecturer and Management Consultant by, he is also a politician of the Action
Congress interested in becoming the next governor of Ogun State – the seat
currently occupied by Gbenga Daniel of the People’s Democratic Party.

But for the nature of our politics and the culture of the
practitioners therein, Olaosebikan’s ambition would not have courted my
curiosity. After all, he is a Nigerian eminently qualified and constitutionally
empowered to so aspire. However, owing to the obtainments in Nigeria’s
political landscape; and the dramatis personae involved in the political
theatrics of, especially, the Gateway State, where so many questions remain
unanswered and so many issues remain unresolved, seeing trouble and
determinedly walking into it on the part of the aspirant could not go
unquestioned.

I wanted to be educated on what he wanted in Oke Mosan, that
committing his hard-earned resources to a project like this should be his next
cherished ambition.

Looking rather un-flustered, Olaosebikan determinedly began to
reel out what he has in store for his people and why he is the “right man for
the job.” Good talk; lofty aspiration; it seemed. But are these ingredients
enough to prepare a broth in a land where stuffers, snatchers and vampires who
have tasted power have become so engrossed in it that exiting will be the last
word in their political bible? Maybe! Maybe not! So, I got rather confused, not
convinced! On a personal note, I have on several occasions wondered why we are
so blest as a country and as a people.

With each passing day, credible people move away from politics
for fear of dear lives, thereby leaving the stage for mediocres and political
never-do-wells to thrive. Fifty years after independent nationhood, Nigeria
remains a country where people with genuine interests are not only shortchanged
but are crudely dealt with for daring to be patriotic. It is only the more
fortunate ones who end up as exiles.

Without doubt, politics is all about issues. It is about
morality and credibility. Above all, it is about loyalty to the country, not to
any particular individual, however strong or powerful. Put succinctly, it is
all about a leader’s ability to match words with action.

However, in our own clime, politics has gone beyond being the
survival of the fittest. It is now the exclusive preserve of the meanest and
the crudest. Mere men with narrow loyalty have taken positions and, as such,
the more one is at home with Nigeria’s political abracadabra, the easier the
success. Here, it is the unrighteous who is able to maintain his rule while the
virtuous can only go a-grieving. That is why it has become practically
difficult for the Olaosebikans of this world to challenge the status quo.

Oscar Wilde might have had Nigeria at the back of his mind when
he described democracy as nothing other than the “bludgeoning of the people, by
the people, for the people.” Here, political vipers and backstabbers who only
politic for self-serving interests thrive, while patriotic citizens are reduced
to mere means to self-satisfying ends.

Will Nigerians ever learn some lessons about history? Michael
Ani left the electoral stage without using his experience to advise Nigerians
on how to get it right. Victor Ovie-Whiskey, Eme Awa and Ephraim Akpata all
died without muttering or uttering a word with regard to what actually went
wrong; or why they went wrong in the first place.

While no one seems to know the whereabouts of Abel Goubadia,
Humphrey Nwosu is still alive, but more as an outsider in power than one man
sure enough of himself to sincerely convince Nigerians that he actually knew what
his job as umpire entailed during Nigeria’s trying times.

As a way of getting out of the woods, we are being advised to
vote and make our votes count. We are being asked to vote and jealously guide
our votes. Wait a minute: with the way politics is being played in Nigeria, is
any politician worth dying for? In any case, how do we protect ourselves from
hoodlums and assassins who daily taunt us with guns and allied weapons? For
instance, if we protect our votes, how do we protect the vote-protectors from the
ravaging guns of those who are ready to do anything to ruin everything?

Not that alone, “can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”
The galling truth is that, in our own country, while the ruling party is
disorganized and willing to self-destruct, the opposition is grossly loose,
particularly scattered and practically unfocused.

But things cannot continue this way. There is an urgent need to
carry on board credible and competent people. They need to be encouraged, not
scared. They need to be empowered, not emptied.

Essentially, there is an urgent need for sincere soul searching.
As such, even while we can do nothing about the past other than classifying it
as a bucket of ashes, we need to carry it along with us even as we strive to
build a future where our votes will not only count but also be seen to have
counted.

May God save us from the hands of our rulers!

Komolafe writes in from
Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State