Save for uncertainties, we may end up in the pool of same tragic mistakes again. Because, with the current trends, it is obvious we are yet to wake from slumbers.
It is also ridiculous to assume that government is wholly our problems. No, we contribute tremendously as well. Take a look at this. An elderly woman was returning from the farm with loads of farm produce on her head. It was so weighty that she barely look at her sides. On coming to the outskirt of the community, a young girl saw her. She pitied and decide to help. But, a great energy is required if the hefty basket must be raised. The woman on the other hand never believed it that way. Probably because she had carried it for a while.
To her, the young girl may not be capable enough to carry her most precious farm produce. Besides, she (the young girl) sees her severally as she returns from the farm, why is she offering to help now?
Finally, the woman deliberately asked for what the young girl enclosed her hands with in case things go contrary.
The story above superlatively fits in as engagements between the people and their leader nowadays. Like the old woman, we are not perturbed by aspirant’s propositions to assuage the menacing challenges. Instead, we see politics materialistically. Some do the extraordinary by ensnaring aspirant to financial extortion with totems. Most disgustingly, we seek for philanthropic antecedent rather than genuine heart. The ‘who-you-help’ syndrome had beclouded our sense of reasoning. And we wallow endlessly in the same poignant boo-boos.
Where is the sanctity of truth? Where is that ingenuity of mind been stern to drive home good legacies? Do we realize that we are here because of our inability to think beyond the ideology of philanthropic antecedent?
Aspirants cum politicians on the other hand had taken an immeasurable advantage of these norms. They start doing well only when they harbor political ambition. Because, it’s the surest realistic path to their dreams. As a matter of fact, those with real desire to serve, those pained by the inflicted injuries, the shackles of poverty and the hovering despondency are regarded as flatulent preachers. But politicians and selfishly minded elements, who have at one point or the other thrown a paltry N500 Naira to them are the genuine minds.
Because of the barefaced audacity in politics, I have never been thus involved until the last election. And what motivated me was a dreamer who appeared on the bearing of politics for the first time.
During my stays at home, I went to a rally venue in my community. To shorten the story, after the usual mendacity, the community was given the sum of twenty thousand Naira only (N20,000). With total dismay, I left the venue. Imagine, a community of about two thousand persons sharing N20, 000. As if that’s not all, I was told that the sound systems and the canopies were rented and must be settled from the same money.
Why are we here Kogites? Can’t we reject these scrappy and be definite for a better Kogi state?
Even though some aspirants don’t have genuine source of income, they go about throwing monies. Yet, on their faces, you see desperation boldly written. Per adventure, the mandate is not forth coming, they seek to get it by hook or crook. That is why the celebration of democracy is perpetually in tension between life and death. The anxieties alone is capable of sending one to early grave.
A governorship aspirant recently came under duress for selling jobs to his clans- The same who you help syndrome.
To them, his is not qualify to govern the state because he monetized the opportunity he should have thrown open to his people. A round of applause! Governance begin at our respective homes. It’s also said that a man is a product of the environment. In the Holy book, similar things were also said. So, as apt as this may seem, the governorship aspirant should bear in mind that, the same way he sold the opportunity to his people (whether it is true or not) that they have to pay to secure a job, that way every possible opportunities to better Kogi state will likely be sold. Let me also salute his courage to challenge the political brigands in the ruling party. It’s worth noting, even though the current hemisphere elucidate inclusiveness of all and sundry due to the lingering internal crisis, thank you sir.
To the masses, before identifying who is qualified and who is not, we must first of all come to term with the common agendas- salvaging Kogi state. On this note, I will emphatically depict that, between the society, its challenges and the government are various entities that must interwove in order to secure a common habitual bonds. Hence, if an aspirant has proven his correlative competence on these cores, he should be given the chance regardless of his philanthropic antecedents. Moreover, philanthropy can be circumstantial, reliant on the initiator. In short, we all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other’s happiness and not by each other’s misery. But the unwavering impediment is circumstance. Therefore, the fact that one is unable to affect certain narrative at a particular time does not necessarily justify his inability to lead the people. Let us hunt for INTEGRITY rather than material gains. If possible we must look out for such who hardly afford three square meal but has unyielding heart to lead the people. We have heard stories of some past American presidents who governed the entire US distinctively, yet they were seasoned debtors.
I have said this often, philanthropists cannot govern Kogi state. And those of us fully engrossed with it as prerequisites are simply asking them to go to the office and recover what they have given us in the course of humanitarianism. We are simply saying, we don’t want infrastructure, we don’t want social welfare and we don’t want security. In a nutshell, we are asking them to give us our future and that of our unborn children. By doing so, we have not only thwarted the sanctity of humanism, we are saying that power is restricted to the elites.
The acts of willful giving must not be varied with politicking. According to Anne Frank, no one has ever become poor by giving. Martin Luther King jnr also said, somewhere along the way, we must learn that there is nothing greater than to do something for others. I won’t forget Ronald Reagan who said we can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. We must not trade what’s supposedly the essence of human existence for things we obviously don’t deserve.
It is appalling that the self-acclaimed political pundits seeking philanthropist for office of governance have not learnt their lessons. They’ve perhaps ignore the sagas surrounding the current governor and his intimate friend cum chief of staff. How they rose to so much wealth within the shortest time in public service, their philanthropic antecedents and the wafting deplorability in Kogi state.
I was told that the greatest teacher is experience. But in our case, gullibility is the order of the day. We have chosen self-contentment while crumbs prevail. We are not daunted by the fact that the unrestrained politicos had taken pro of our easy contentment and have continually used diminutive to take everything from us. Now, this is where the foolishness resides. We have over 50 aspirants jostling for the number one seat. Each with his own supporters, and different motives that is deceitfully geared towards the supposed fonts. As things stand, we may end up with over hundred aspirants before November second. But that is not my headache. My headache lies in our inability to identify our problem via its causes.
As a matter of fact, how do we know the competent hands when we don’t know the cause of the problems we hope to solve? How do we hope to solve the general problem if we are not united against it? Instead of throwing our support behind one person, knowing very Well that two persons cannot be governor at once, everyone want to rule. Armed rubber wants to be governor. The mentally imbalance wants to be governor. Even those who kidnapped the state for Bello to kill want to impose their offspring. Some aspirants want to ride on the popularity of their father. Go closer to some of them, Bello’s inability to pay salaries is the common chorus in their songs. And they wear some messianic looks as if what they leverage on is the solutions Kogites had longed for. Unfortunately, the efficacy is a divided house against a formidable structure.
Oh yes!
In case you don’t know, Bello has the 25 assembly seats in his pocket. He has almost all the monarchs in his palm. The LG chairmen, etc are in his political box. Therefore, what he needs to win the next election is not necessarily a campaign in Kogi state, but the consent of the cabals at the federal level. However, the needs for unity is unexplainable if we must oust Bello at the poll. This is what I don’t see coming soon because of diverse interests.
God Bless Kogi State
– John Paul
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