Everybody Must Be A Politician
Every Nigerian must move away from being a suffering spectator to an active participant in the political drama of the most populous black nation. Ordinarily, people form the government by voting their representatives, but after election no one cares about the next developments.
Many will get their voters card but prefer to watch the screen on how the voting exercise is being unveiled. I want to presume that voter’s card is for bureaucratic registration.
Politics goes way beyond mere voting and governance, politics determine the people way of living, their cognition, what they eat, how much they buy products, how many children they give birth to, how they dress etc.
The father of modern Singapore, who transformed the country from a third world country to a developed one, Lee Kwan Yew, said “I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. If we had not intervened on every personal matters, who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.
The above excerpt gives a vivid account of how politics determine everything about the masses, take the recent case of Uganda for example. The government of Uganda recently promulgated a policy on how citizens should dress to their various offices.
Female Officers should dress in a skirt or dress that is not above the knees, with a smart long or short sleeved blouse and should avoid wearing sleeveless. Also, transparent blouses and dresses at work, ensuring that the clothing covers up cleavage, navel, knees and back and are not allowed to have bright coloured hair in form of natural hair, braids and hair extensions. Civil servants should maintain well-groomed, neutral polished nails, Long nails with more than 3cms (1.5in), with bright nail polish or with multi-coloured nail polish are not allowed in public offices. Officials shall keep the facial make-up simple and not exaggerated.
However Male officers are required to dress in neat trousers, long-sleeved shirts, jacket and a tie. Officers will not be allowed to put on open shoes during working hours, except on health grounds/recommendation. Their hair should be well-groomed and generally kept short while tight fitting trousers is not be permitted.
Nigerians know how to channel their agitations to wrong quarters. Have you seen people argue at a Vendor’s Stand? Dear Countrymen, you will know the populace specialise in baseless criticism and futile protest. The Nigerian polity is indifferent to all forms of agitations. Protest can only have effect on people that operate in the realm of conscience.
Am not here to lampoon the government but implore people with “let them do what they like, karma will catch up with them” mentality to devoid their cognition with such dangerous mentality. You will only get what they give you because you don’t know what you ought to get.
Every Nigerians must be part of what they get, I mean we all must be a policy maker. They always take our mumblings for silent agreement thereby making the masses law defaulter. It’s time we left our comfort zone and let them know we own the mandate, without the ruled there is no ruler. We must stop working politically once in every four years.
Check the current administration, pick names at random, and type it to Google for their profile, dear patriotic you will marvel with things like: 2 term Governor, 3 term Senator, 2 term speaker of the house reps, incumbent governor. 2 term senator, 2 term ministers (diff portfolios), 20th Century Bureaucrats, 21st Century policy makers etc.
All these people’s brain are outdated with obsolete ideas. Their overused brain doesn’t inject brilliant innovations in the socio-economic structure of the country.
From onwards, every Nigerian should be involved in every decisions of government, every politically eligible citizen should be active to dictate who to bequeath power to and vice versa.
God bless Nigeria
Solomon Temitope Omotayo writes from Ibadan Oyo State Nigeria