Photo credit: the Guardian
A video is currently going viral of a Nigerian politician. The video made by the BBC (Yoruba) is of a Nigerian female politician who recently won elections in the UK.
In the video, the chubby cheeked woman is saying, there was no spending of money before she was elected. In other words, she never had to empower the poor masses.
People have been saying it but I never believed that abroadians are generally stingy. Even, granted that they are stingy in other areas, does it affect politics too!
A beegi, that’s why they can never succeed in these terrains. Haba, someone wants to contest and doesn’t have a formidable war chest.
Tufiakwa!
For a post as insignificant as that of an ordinary councilor, to get picked in the primary election, one must have a godfather. The godfather will bear all the costs.
It starts from paying the school fees of some of his would be constituents’ children, paying the delivery charges of some of their wives since they got them pregnant mistakenly, empowering the constituents themselves, endless donations of ridiculous items like flip flops, kulikuli and gari, and of course, lots and lots of money.
Of course, before our councilor happens to have won the election in an unclean and unclear way, he would have spent so much on party agents and even his constituents.
The godfather will be waiting patiently like the vulture who is described by the popular thriller writer, James Hadley Chase, as a patient bird.
Once their candidates are elected, the vultures in the political godfathers will remain patient as long as their godsons do their wills. But then, this is often not the case.
The godfathers, being traders, will want the choice ministries, in order to recoup their investments as soon as possible. But the politicians will realize that they may not have enough to complete their half hearted programs.
Half hearted because the programs are generally unbefitting of a progressive people. So, they soon fall out of line with their godfathers.
But then, who suffers?
Let those abroadians stay where they are, they are not in a position to understand the way we roll here!
B’omode o j’obi!
Agba o j’oye!!
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