Nigerian Politicians And Their Crab Mentality

Source: thewillnigeria.com

It was my friend Oyetoro Oluwaseyi in one of his write ups that wrote that 'we are in a country where we politicize everything that happens to us. If water is running on a daily basis in APC's bathroom, PDP is at fault- they are wasting our resources, if water is not running at all in PDP's bathroom, APC is the cause, they have sabotaged all the pipes that supplies water to PDP bathroom'.

If it is APC, then PDP must be the scape Goat. If PDP, then APC must be the invincible hand. Since the return of democracy, political parties have always accused themselves of rigging, what they should have rightly called out-rigging. The Elections has always being a contest of who rig best. What I called the rig, rigger, riggest phenomenon.

I call the above scenario the Crab mentality. If you put several crabs into a bucket and if one of them begins to crawl out, one or more of the other crabs will pull it back and prevent it from escaping. As we approach the General Election, two parties that have consistently throw caution to the wind is the PDP and the APC. The big players within these parties have made it a point of duty to advertise their nuisance value to the populace. The political debate has been reduced to 'the friend of my enemy is my enemy while the enemy of my enemy is my friend' thereby exploiting us politically via our fault lines.

The case of PDP and APC is worth writing a thesis on. PDP has always fed us with lies that APC is an Islamic party that is poised on Islamizing Nigeria. Their argument is weak, callous and often portrays the type of politics we play as a people – the pull him down syndrome. If the military with all its powers couldn't succeed in Islamizing Nigeria, how then can a party under the current democratic dispensation and the multi-diversified nature of Nigeria achieve the same feast? PDP often forget that it was while Obasanjo was in power that he allowed for an autonomous practice of Sharia in some Northern State.

The APC is no different from the PDP. APC is Pot calling Kettle black. The APC has successfully deployed its propaganda tool to win the hearts of Nigerians. Their spokesman- Lai Muhammed never fails in feeding us with the various synonyms of President Jonathan and his presidency. From being a kindergarten President to being incompetent they have often told us that PDP is a bad party while forgetting that they have been the greatest beneficiary of the PDP's implosion to the extent that there's now a thin line between the PDP and the APC in terms of its quality of members. The question I have often ask is whether the APC will be matured enough to manage its success.

It is a known fact that all the political parties in Nigeria are not ideologically driven ( at least for now )and the ordinary citizens argue blindly, fight dirty and waste valuable time reciting the Nation's problems rather than discussing the way forward and providing practical solutions. What we should be clamouring for is a shift from them to us and not a shift from them to them. Many Nigerians are often less concerned about what happens politically while forgetting that these happenings have a direct consequence on our way of life. Just like riot; you don't need to be involved before you are affected.

Written by Oyede Saheed, also known as High-Chief Humanbeing.

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