By Prof. Terhemba Shija
It is baffling how the allure of politics has taken the shine off every other vocation in the country now. Nigerian politics is very lucrative and much adored above every career, in spite of the spectre of corruption associated with it. Young people now wish to begin their careers in partisan politics or retire into one political office or the other.
Noble professionals like those in the military, law, medicine, engineering, architecture, academics and so on are all neck-deep involved in politics, without which they risk being ignored. They speak the language of politics, walk the paths of partisanship, chant the mantras of deceit and sing the panegyrics of sychophancy in order to grow on their jobs.
Nigerian politics is a mob exercise. Individuals who join are absorbed from their personal weaknesses and acquire a new outlook of strength and righteousness. . They seem to speak more confidently about honour and patriotism than everyoneelse. Even certified corrupt politicians speak more convincingly about the anti-corruption fight than innocent citizens.
Those who appear neutral in the political environment are the foolish ones who are either ignorant or stoic about their career growth. It is politics that now creates our country’s billionaires and not production or provision of service. Our yearly roll-call of National Award winners are simply a parade of the most vicious and transactional politicians. Our country hardly ever recognises, for instance, the best teachers or the most dedicated doctors or the most daring firemen or the most ingenious inventors and so on in our hall of fame.
That notwithstanding, my concern here is the absence of standards in measuring the success of individuals that merit national growth. Politics is an arbitrary game. It determines its heroes or villains with no known fixed parameters. As such, honour and glory are negotiated and bought by the masters of the game or by the wealthiest of its participants. In the complex multicultural and multilingual atmosphere of Nigeria the idea of giving honour and glory to people becomes even more intriguing.
A few weeks ago, I watched on television the Red-cap solidarity of the South-East Senators agitating for the immortalisation of the late Professor Humphery Nwosu. As National chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission that conducted the June 12 1993 elections regarded to be the freest and fairest in Nigerian history, the late Professor certainly deserves a place in the hall of honour, regardless the annulment of the results of the election by the then President Babangida.
However the politics of this action was rather condescending and unstrategic to produce any results, particularly as our country appears to have no fixed standards. The move failed because the South-East Senators got no support from their colleagues from the other geopolitical zones. Perhaps they forgot that the parliament was a marketplace where trade by barter is conducted. Nobody goes there empty handed, nor is anybody expected to return home empty-handed.
It could have been a golden opportunity for Senators from the North-central, for instance, to also rally around the names of Dr Iyorchia Ayu and Ameh Ebute, the highest elected political office holders at the time. If the past is being resuscitated and burnished, why would the politicians of the Northcentral forget their own at this moment of national memorial s? How on earth would anyone leave out Benue and particularly Dr Iyorchia Ayu in the politics of June 12?
The Ibo Senators did not need to portray themselves as sectional jingoists, striving hard all by themselves to elevate their well deserved tribesman to National honour. They needed the votes of Senators from other zones to realise this ambition. Professor Nwosu was not a lone player in the affairs of Nigeria in the era of June 12. They should have sought to appeal to the sensibilities of the North Central Senators and brokered a deal.
But the question is are the Senators of the Northcentral region really aware that they possess some political commodities of value that can be offered as a trade in for Prof Humphery Nwosu’s honour? With its multicultural and multilingual composition, is the Northcentral region united enough in the first place to have a consensus on who its heroes are or whether they should be honoured?
Let me hear your opinions on this matter in the comments section, please.
