KWARANS MUST PAY FOR THEIR FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY

By AKOGUN IYIOLA OYEDEPO

Twenty-six years of democracy should now be due for review, examination and analysis. An adult of twenty-six, that lives on milk instead of solid food must have had stunted growth, his gory sight will not be appealing. What makes organization, community or nations great, is leadership. Slavery is of different brands and categories, but it means loss of freedom. There is mental slavery, loss of freedom of a prisoner, poverty induced incarceration, etc. If the socio/economic development of Kwara State is sluggish and at big variance with abundant opportunities in human and material resources available in the state; then many people have thus been arrested and there is certainly loss of freedom and prosperity by Kwara and the people of the state. There is no royal way to the development and prosperity of a state. Economic development in Kwara state in the years of democracy, especially in the making of leaders cannot be obtained on the platter of gold. Freedom obtained on platter of gold cannot have a reliable outcome, as it is a fluke. It is in this context that we shall in this write-up examine how the people of Kwara State are often scammed in every successive election.

Politicians brings out baits, people are ensnared and the outcome is this perennial government of underdevelopment. We therefore wish to posit in this article that the promoter of tokenism in the acquisition of political power cannot free the people from the shackle of poverty and wants, they are in fact the reasons for the people’s misery. We therefore need to identify their ways and methods that is fast becoming a political norm much to the freedom and prosperity of the people. This study is important now that our democracy is getting matured by years of experience and the fact that very soon, we are going for another circle of elections. We need to examine the behaviors of seekers of offices and the roles of the people in the making of leaders in the democratic experience of the people of Kwara State in the last twenty-five years.

It was not like this before. And if there were traces of it in the First Republic, it was an aberration. Today, it is a norm. The unwholesome use of money to capture political power have been Kwara brand of politics since the Second Republic. I am often of the opinion that Kwara’s major contribution to Nigeria political mobilization for elections is not in the areas of ideas, philosophy or enduring proud beneficial direction to the welfare of the people; it is money politics. The major strategy of peanuts for votes had its monument erected in Kwara State in the Second Republic. Fetching water for votes, rice for votes, Ankara for votes, semovita for votes, money for votes had its origin here. Whatever people often practice even if it is wrong, becomes part of the belief and lifestyle of the people in whose domain such things are permitted. The belief of politicians and prospective politicians is that; you want to win elections or you want to go into politics! then be loaded with Naira. We exported it from here and it is now a national malaise and tragedy. When it was exported to a place like Ekiti State, former Governor Fayose dignified it with the name, “stomach infrastructure”. Ekiti was once the domain of Awolowo and Michael Ajasin where elections were won by the strengths of ideas, programs and character.

The philosophy of unwholesome use of money in politics rests on some foundations: the people are gullible and therefore deceivable, let us pretend to be their friends and benefactor, and with the deception, rise to political prominence. Secondly, the people are poor, and a token will weaken their antagonism and make them stupid followers. It could also give them what cannot cure their poverty situation and the purveyors of this idea can be sure of their blind loyalty. In fact, the authors of unwholesome use of money in politics call it tested loyalty, but I call it, poverty and ignorance induced loyalty.

But there is the need to identify the content of this approach to politics and politicking. It has much to do with do gooder strategy of gaining attention and support for political promotion. Part of it is the deployment of gifts of various kinds to the people for political support. Such gift could be money that can be as small as one thousand naira or less. It has to do with distribution of materials like hand bags to women, clothes of various kinds, varieties of food items, etc. It also includes political philanthropy like building places of worship, medical outreaches, scholarships, procurement of JAMB forms, etc. All these could not have been questioned if not tied to politics and capturing of State power. After all, there had been many silent and loud philanthropists that did not seek political power. There are so many wealthy men and women like Prince Adedoyin of Agbamu in Kwara State, Mobolaji Bank Anthony in Lagos and the recently demised Alhaji Aminu Dantata of Kano that gave to people not because they seek votes, but because philanthropy to them is giving back to the people from the abundance that God had done for them. Philanthropy that is politically motivated, is business investment.

The sincerity of the politician philanthropist can be gauged through their roles in the development of their Church, Mosques, Communities, etc, prior to their desire to seek public office. We need to know their stand on health, education, unemployment, good governance, environment, insecurity, rural development, etc, before they now take a stint in politics. We really need to study the total life of politician philanthropists before we take their Greek gifts and vote for them. We have been scammed enough by gifts that has not freed us from poverty. Erroneously, we celebrate their kindness and call them “eleyinju anu”, a person of compassion and mercy. May I now invite all of us to study the life and times of these “compassionate” politicians, to know whether indeed they operated government that served the people or merely served themselves. If what is due to the people of Kwara State in twenty-six years of democracy is poverty, disease, hunger, infrastructural deficits in both the urban and rural Kwara; then there is the need to interrogate their fairness and compassion for the people of Kwara State.

The unwholesome use of money for political ascendency have created psychological defeat for good but not rich people that could have provided servant leadership in politics. When you want to be governor, Senator, House of Representatives member, House of Assembly member, they ask you whether you have N6b, N3b, N2b and N1b respectively. This type of money is scaring to talented, knowledgeable and service oriented people; hence they are psychologically defeated and the ground is yielded to those that are rich in money, but are deficient in knowledge and integrity. We need to know that whoever spends such humongous amount to acquire political power, may wish to serve him or herself more than others. And I have earlier called it political investment. The outcome of this scenario is weaponization of poverty as a royal way to political leadership and promotion of underdevelopment in a state that is so much endowed with abundant human and natural resources. If therefore parents cannot feed their children, pay the school fees of their wards and children, the cause is this weaponization of poverty through unwholesome use of money in politics. Many people now turn to street beggars or executive beggars, take to criminality, japa syndrome which make our children to embrace a physical possession of their persons in foreign land. The cause of all these is better traced to bad leadership that inappropriate use of money throws up. We, through this unwholesome use of money and materials in politics, produce leaders that are not agents of prosperity, they give us what we do not need. They neglect our needs and, in most cases, are not innovative and cannot think out of the box to create a prosperous Kwara State.

It should be noted that I have been talking about the unwholesome use of money in politics. This is because in any human endeavor, the use of money is cardinal, and politics is not an exception. Money is actually needed in politics to sensitize, mobilize and organize the people around a vision or programs. And to break the use of money to its good uses, one can talk of organizing the party, transportation, erection of bill boards, printing of documents of various types, organizing campaign rallies, town hall meetings, logistic for movements, etc. But this does not include financial inducements of security and INEC officers before, during and after elections, distribution of clothes and food items to voters, vote buying, or bribing delegates in intra party elections, etc. If money is used for enlightenment and advocacy on Party programs and manifesto, no qualm.

Yes, money is important in politics but when it is spent the way it has always been done in Nigeria and Kwara State in particular, it is called cash and carry politics. It treats voters as commodity to be purchased and deployed for self-political glorification. We have seen its result in stunted development and poverty. In some other democracies, people pay for their freedom and the prosperity of their countries and the society. This is not a thing that is strange to Nigeria before it was truncated by these money bags. The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo was not a Party of money bags. What that party lacked in humongous financial resources, it had in the skills of organization, making members of the party financially responsible, making members to be party workers in mobilization of electorates, vision and manifesto that spoke to the interests of the electorates. They also have the science of financial management.

What I know is that, leaders and members of that Party were not distributing rice, beans, semo or Ankara. And this was the nature of the Parties of the First Republic and to some extent, Second Republic. Theirs was appropriate use of money for political effects. If I did not know what went on at the National level of UPN, I know that the whole struggle of Chief JS Olawoyin was not built on personal financial worth. It was soaked in integrity and skill of sensitization, mobilization and organization. If he could make it to the second place in a keenly contested gubernatorial election in 1979, and his UPN almost halved the membership of Kwara State House of Assembly between 1979-1983; then the way we use money for politics today, is a matter for serious concern. If money bag was needed to contest gubernatorial election of UPN in 1983, Chief CO Adebayo would not be qualified. Those were days when money was raised through members’ contributions, dinners, appeal to believers in the party programs and manifesto and communities that believe in the integrity of party candidates. People must pay for good governance.

What produced Jakande of Lagos, Bola Ige of Oyo, Ajasin of Ondo, Balarebe of Kaduna, Rimi of Kano, Barkin Zuwo of Kano, Solomon Lar of Plateau, Mbakiwe of Imo, Aper Aku of Benue, and many others in 1979 was not deep purse but rather, character, credibility and integrity of leaders. Kwarans must pay for their freedom and the prosperity of their state.

Let us examine the example of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America. That was a man who before he was elected as President only worth the sum of $1.3m, with the credibility of his message, he was even able to raise from the rich and the poor, the sum of $778,642,962m. In the recent history of fund-raising for elections in USA, he was the biggest fund raiser.

In the gubernatorial election of 2003, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, a sacked Secretary to the Government of Kano State, defeated the incumbent governor with the strength of his character and probably, quality of his message to the people of Kano State. The victory of Otooge in 2019 in Kwara State was not strictly based on money. Persons contesting offices need not take ownership of their candidacy. Such people seek public office presumably for public advantage. If the contestants have good programs, plans, and manifesto that is well sold to the people, voters should take ownership of the programs and the candidates. This will not make it a private investment; but general or public investments on which serious expectations can be built. Kwarans must invest in who govern them.

How will this be? It will be when we reject imposition of those that will govern us whether from within or without. An imposed candidates are usually not in the best interest of the people, but in the interest of the impostors. It will be, if people are ready to shun taking peanut for crucial political decisions to elect leaders. It will be if many take the illicit money and you do not vote for them. It will be if you can contribute as small as five hundred naira to sponsor your Councillors, honorable and the governors. It will be, if we imbibe the philosophy of volunteerism, which means, “if I have no money to give, I can give my sweat and my wisdom, my skill and my services” It is only when such are done that we pay for our freedom and the prosperity of our state. One thing I know is this, and it is immutable; if we do not drop our belief in inappropriate use of money in politics and invest in good governance, competent leaders that will give us good governance will never emerge till the end of time.