Rule #1: Service
…Politics as an Industry
Do you remember my brother, Austin Okai’s statement, sometime last year which reads…
“My reward for Politics is not in heaven but here on earth”?
It is funny. Wittingly so. Also, to many cheering crowd, it was “true”. To be fair to him, that is the kind of political mentality many of the men in my generation were born into. The politics of “gather to share”. He was not completely wrong to have learned the message of his time.
He made that comment on his furiousity on the claims that after he had stuck his neck out to build the PDP when others kept quiet, former Governors, Ibro and Wada came to hijack the party by imposing their interests, kit and kins in the chain of command, probably suggesting that Ibro was also foist his own son on the party to run the Guber elections, come 2019.
I do not know if that claim remains intact or have changed. Anything can happen in PDP. They give “automatic” everything.
But, let us talk about something new.
The vibrating mentality in Nigeria political involvement stems from an “interest” seeking participation that is not balanced with service to the people and the system. You hear politicians criticize themselves after rallies, saying, those who graced the occasion were “hired” crowds. That is to say, nobody actually participates politically without getting monetary inducements.
In the case of Kogi state, politics is an “industry”. A giant one. Many illiterates and literates ring their future ambitions around it. The youths are seldom divested into other forms of social entrepreneurship or academic trips. They think, sleep and drink politics.
That is why the polity is so hot and boiling. That is why the indices of political consciousness across board is rife.
In the current Government particularly, some people who premised the former mindset of “My reward for politics is here on earth” are feeling isolated and abandoned. Many do not feel carried along. It is actually some sort of not coming to terms with the “New Direction” principles.
The current Government is not a “tea party” for chops. It is a total overhauling of what politics used to be. In the past Governments, sharing of monies were like Friday Sadaka. It was a come and collect-your-own-state-cake arrangement.
Plenty god fathers were serviced on regular basis with our state’s money. It re-enforced the feeling of “participate to chop”. Everyone who got involved in politics or wanted a way out of poverty looked into politics as an employment.
What Has Changed?
With deliberate strategy which is painstaking, the New Direction Government of Gov. Yahaya Bello has changed that trend. Servicing of god fathers and political hallelujah bands have been replaced with “servicing of the state”. Political reorientation is a fast moving movement.
Patience is tested. Vision is tested. Understanding of the vision is tested. Creativity and survival under sacrificial services is being tested.
Nobody gets any reward they haven’t worked for. Processes and systems are being installed. Command and control structure with the spirit of reward and punishment, which modifies appropriate behavior is under place.
There is an atmosphere of “service” as a condition to be involved. As we can all see, the scandals from reactions from those who have turned against the government for not getting what they expected, which is the culture of the past has concretized my position.
Many youths are currently having their minds disabused from the mentality of seeing politics as a career. They have started looking into other means of survival, which is creating more economic participation in our population. The economy is getting a boast from adjunct contributions from other sectors of the state.
Politicians who also see their interest as their pot bellies are getting expired from the system. Many of them are retiring as it is no longer business as usual. Those who see politics as their only means of survival and resume for work on “political matters” on a daily basis have smelt the “morning coffee” that Kogi has changed.
Critical establishments that were created by politicians which arms the youths with this cantankerous mentality has been collapsed.
As we also hit the elections, the boys would be separated from the men. Gov. Yahaya Bello and his “temple” team are not naive as many thought, neither did they not come with a plan and vision.
It would not have to matter what emotions are distilling, neither would it matter how the streets are grilling their reputation without objectivity, what needs to be done will be done. The will is there. The character is there.
If you’re a youth, become useful creatively, politics is no longer a career or talent in Kogi state. If you doubt Kogi Rebel, ask Cartoon boy.
..Kogi is rising
– Promise Emmanuel (Kogi Rebel)
