I have friends here who have been very silent about the leadership failure going on under Tinubu’s APC. They actually know the truth but can’t speak anymore as a result of the shame that followed their choice in the last rigged presidential election in which INEC was seen to be clearly involved in allowing rigging to happen right from and with the preparation of that election. Their calm pretentious silence that they hope would be seen as act of maturity doesn’t make them any better than the touts who came all out to attack voters. If someone realizes that he made a mistake in his choice, he would have long apologized and started working against the mistake made, but in this case it is not a case of mistake. It is intentional. Most of these ones only did the bad support for bad leadership as a trade for something they themselves and a few people know. I too know what a few of them traded. I am not talking about the very ignorant peasants on the street who do not know better than they have been indoctrinated to act. I am talking about the very enlightened amongst us who influence other weaker people to vote where they want. We are about to go into another election and they are thinking about how to resume again, but not sure how the people will face their hypocrisy. They are studying and calculating. They are doing charity. Some have built structures for the poor. Some are giving out free food. Some are beginning to sit out with the very societally debased around them to have them feel cared about.
Why would someone destroy the lives of people around them and later hope to use charity to kill the bad impression they generated for themselves? Why do the people fall victims each time? But that is what these people do and the victims gladly welcome new oppressors every 4 years. You make some gains from bad politics and then turn around to show pity for those suffering as a result of the bad influence on poor voters. Someone once asked me if a single vote of his is enough to do the damage we see. I didn’t need to waste much time responding because sincere person should know how, especially when it is the publicly declared vote of a person who many highly ignorant and semiliterate persons around, look up to for direction. We need to be sincere with our intentions for the people. Truly, if we get all the money, build all the houses with it, drive all the big cars with it, etc, the status we later assume do not free us from the consequences when they eventually visit. I have lived long enough observing lives to know that it always comes around back to us. Some Nigerians say, “we do not fear the death, we fear poverty more.” My dear, there are experiences even in ‘wealth’ that are worse than poverty. If you have a family you care so much about, do right to people around you. I don’t mean that you should only make them feel temporarily good, but I mean we should make the right decisions about them. The right decisions do not always create good feelings in the short term. Many people who accepted “quick’ N5000 to vote wrong in the past elections from the people you backed, are in a far multiple times deeper life sufferings than that N5000 can ever solve.