To our strange redeemers

My dear favoured Nigerian politician, come, let us reason together. Let us for once brainstorm on the pitiable plights of the common man, whose needs you are supposed to serve. One is talking about the beggar in the street, the orphans, the homeless and of course, the overtaxed breadwinner who has to pay more for fuel in an oil-rich country and has sleepless nights worrying about exorbitant transport fares, high costs of foods, rent, children’s school fees, essential goods and services. Now is the time to feel their pains and find solutions to them.

Welcome on board, Mister billionaire politician, let us analyse the travails of the common man; the voiceless victims of your gargantuan greed, to whom you return for votes during the electioneering campaigns with fanciful promises. One is talking about the flotsam and the jetsam of our society- whose wishes have withered in the heat of your unceasing graft; whose dreams have been aborted by the haunting hands of Greed.

Oh yes, Greed – that seemingly intractable virus gnawing at the very fabric of our fragile unity. One is talking about Greed, the master magician changing and camouflaging with the chameleonic candour from agbada to khaki and back again. Greed, doing the dance of the demons that makes angels to cry and the hearts of our patriots to bleed.  The arbiter that becomes the usurper, whose green fire after every feast of fraud purifies neither our farms nor our fields. And the strange redeemers garbed in gabardines of growing graft, in a land so richly endowed and blessed by God, yet, so brazenly and callously impoverished by our masquerading messiahs of Greed.

My dear reader, part of what you have just read is a snippet of the introduction to my collection of poems titled: ‘Petals and Thorns-Truth and Blood’ as compiled way back in 1994. They were written over a period of 18 years, from the Second Republic right to the tail end of military dictatorship. Worthy of note is that many of them were published then in the ‘Nigerian Herald’, in Ilorin, Kwara state under my poetry column (‘Poem of the Week’) on Saturdays.

The million-naira question is this: Is the quality of life of the average Nigerian, going by the Human Development Index (HDI) based on access to nutritious and affordable food, decent shelter, quality education and healthcare delivery and stable electric power supply any better as today, in 2026 in the 21st Century Nigeria, than it was when these poems were written decades ago? The answer is a patently obvious ‘no!’

Sadly, the common connecting theme and chord  is the greed of not a few of our political leaders, and the deafening applause of mediocrity by their mentally mesmerised hero-worshippers. Truth has been painted in colours of cash and kind, and it has become increasingly difficult for our jobless youth to tell the difference between right and wrong and between our heroes and our foes.

Similarly, in the cheating chess game of sapping survival the ogre of corruption dons many colours. This recurring ugly decimal in our yet-to-be-balanced socio-political equation, more than six decades of our political independence is a clear indictment on the ruling class and the aberrant political structure under which they operate. That is by mindlessly oppressing the poor and going Scot-free!

In fact, according to a research paper titled: ‘Of Politics and Politicians In Nigeria: The Human and Social Governance Consequences’ published in January 2020 as a Project: by Okechukwu Dominic Nwankwo’s Lab (Psychology and Human Behaviour) et al the findings were saddening.

It stated that: ‘The human/social governance consequences were: Social polarisation, disappointed governance, loss of confidence in electoral system, corruption, poor societal development, misguided rule of law, exponential unemployment, poor standard of living, misguided life virtue, and embarrassing Judiciary.

Proffered recommendations were improved political value system, proactive Judiciary, accountable politics/politicians, and stopping irresponsible political extravagant lifestyle.’

The pain however, is that as the election year of 2027 comes closer by the day, the desperate political predators keep leaving the substance (of good governance) to chasing the shadows (of self-aggrandisement). That clearly shows that party politics in Nigeria has been turned into a worse-case jungle scenario of the Charles Darwin Principle of Survival of the Fittest.

Sadly, as it plays out in the jungle system some of our politicians act as the Cuckoo Bees which are well-known as traitorous usurpers. They can sell their souls to the devil and keep betraying their brothers to get to power. Others care little or nothing about morals and humanity. In their scheme to get the juiciest political positions come the next dispensation. They are ready to behave like the Black Mamba, the Puffer -fish, the Indian Saw-Scaled Viper or even the Cape Buffalo to silence every form of opposition. To these ruthless oppressors, driven by the Machiavellian principle, the end justifies the means. These are characterised by the brick-bats within the weakened People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which has led to the emergence of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Unfortunately, these power-poaching politicians would still have willing tools amongst the ignorant and the poor members of the Nigerian society to carry out their dastardly acts.

But yours truly is hereby saying that we should not allow ourselves to be used as cannon fodders only to be discarded ignominiously as overused sponges .

Now, is therefore, the right time for enlightened and concerned Nigerians to raise our choral song of sanity against our common enemies of ignorance and want visited on us by the Greed of the self-appointed few.  Let us say a concerted “no” against high costs of the nomination forms by the different political parties. That is the root cause of the high cost of running government in the country.

Also, let us raise our voices against the huge pay-package of elected politicians and political appointees. It must be drastically scaled down equivalent to the civil salary scales, in tandem with the harsh economic realities on ground. That perhaps, explains why yours truly has been calling for Volunteers In Government (ViG) so that politicians are placed on the equivalent of civil service salary scale.

Our political leaders should stop living large in the midst of mass poverty and hunger. It is inimical to the economic growth of a country currently groaning under the huge debt profile, both at the state and federal government levels.

And coming to the content of character of our future pilots, they must be people who understand the nitty-gritty of selfless leadership. They must be willing to be guided by the compass of vision, character, courage, commitment, humility and honesty of purpose against the storms of Greed. They should be prepared for constructive criticism.

Our leaders should therefore, not mount the pedestal of political power with any ethnic or religious agenda to drag us deeper into the mud and mire of political instability, divisive tendencies worsening disunity.

We desire and indeed deserve leaders who are patriotic, passionate, visionary about connecting Nigerians to our God-given natural endowments. They should always be driven by the national interest.

Methinks that we have had enough of the strange redeemers.