Discussion Time at House of ABSOL is the time to delve into topical issues and matters around but not limited to life, love, relationship, sex, career development, marriage, politics, religion, finances and so on. It is usually a period of enlightenment and this time, we decided to go political as politics is now everywhere in Nigeria. Below is how the discussion went down at the level of HOUSE OF ABSOL on the 19th of June, 2022.
Thank you for having me for this discussion.
I'm really excited to be here and to share my thoughts on this esteemed group. I hope that we would have a really engaging and informative session. To the topic, "Politics and Me"
Firstly, WHAT IS POLITICS?
Politics is defined as the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power.
WHY DO WE NEED POLITICS?
Humans are social animals. Being social animals mean we have to relate amongst ourselves and cooperate in groups. To effectively cooperate we need to have an organised structure or hierarchy of leadership. To effectively organise and create a leadership structure, we need to negotiate amongst ourselves to select who the leaders are and their hierarchy. The struggle to fulfil this evolutionary tasks of organising ourselves as social animals is what gave rise to the art of politics
WHY DO I NEED TO PARTAKE IN POLITICS?
Like I said we are social animals, meaning that we would always be bound to a structure. Whether we decide to partake or not, we would be part of the structure and leadership hierarchy negotiated by others. Hence, it is important that you as an individual partake in the negotiation of the leadership hierarchy that is implemented on your behalf.
The next thing I will be discussing is THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF POLITICS
The idea of politics has not always been as we know it now. The primitive society was a hunter-gathering one. However, as humans moved from hunter-gathering societies into city dwellers, the leadership hierarchy became stricter. To illustrate this better, the difference between the Israelite society from the exodus to judges and then the Israelite society is born in the book of 1st Samuel. Apologies that I am bringing in a religious book, I just want to use it for an illustration. Basically, there was a change in leadership structure. From exodus to judges, the Israelites were ruled by people who carried religious mandates. But by 1st Samuel, they asked for a king and they got Saul which is a political mandate. This scenario was not only in Israel, it happened in all societies, as people became established city dwellers just like the Israelites after wandering in the desert, societies consolidated political authority with kings.
Under a monarchial system, politics even though prominent was limited. This is because the apex seat and most times noble seats were confined to families. Hence, if your family can't be kings or Nobles, you had no business playing politics. Only those who are entitled to the seat can hold the seat. Consider game of thrones, no matter how skilled you are, if you don't belong to any of the 7 houses, you can't rule no matter how intelligent you are. Although, people can jump this rule and circumvent it. If you have great military power, you can create another leadership line using military force. But during this era, the average man has no business with politics.
But this changed in the late 1700s with the French Revolution. During the enlightenment, philosophers like Kant, Descartes, Jean Jacque Rosseau and others started asking questions about the morality of kingship and monarchy. People like Thomas Paine wrote great treatises such as Common sense and Rights of man as a critique of the system of kingship.
For the first time ever people saw no need to be ruled by kings and for people to be entitled to rule just because of the family they were born. The French people beheaded King Louis XVI and rejected monarchy. The American Revolution was a revolt against the British monarchy. That was the inspiration behind Thomas Jefferson's "All men were born free and created equal".
With the elimination of monarchy, a system of suffrage was proposed and implemented. Nobody has a divine right to leadership, if you want to be our leader, we have to vote you in. This was the revolutionary moment when politics was transformed. From this moment upward, the average man ceased to have no business in politics, now the average man must now partake in politics and consent to who rules them. This was the Eureka moment
After this transformation, the average man became a full political participant. And there was no in-between. You can either consent by participating in the process or consent with your silence.
Now, we are moving from a distant analogy to the political system in Nigeria
But before I do that. Bringing the common man into politics opened up the chance for new brands of thinkers. Different ideologies sprang up to explain the political process and system of government to the average person. Hence, the birth of political ideologies. Communism, socialism, capitalism and whatever.
The question, therefore, is how do we transform this historical knowledge of why politics concerns us into taking action in Nigeria?
Karl Marx wrote, "Philosophers have interpreted the world (in many ways), the point is to change it"
We have established that we must participate in politics. Why because those who are in power have a mandate to implement policies that affect us. It doesn't matter what we think, power is the ability to effect changes, unless we are in power or we negotiate power changes, those in power will continue to effect changes whether for our good or for their own good
People have been participating but it seems nothing is working.
Firstly, after the French Revolution, there was a boom in political ideologies. Hence, the active ingredient of political development is ideology. I am not preaching any ideology but people must read and debate from ideological grounds. That's when our participation will be meaningful However, we must also not be carried away by ideologies.
"Theory without practice is dead, and practice without theory is blind" This exactly is the problem with politics in Africa as a whole. In the words of Professor Lumumba. "In Africa, those who have ideas don't have power and those who have power don't have ideas".
In Nigeria, those who have the ideas and substance to develop the country do not know how to win political power. In contrast, those who have mastered the art of winning power are bereft of Ideas. Therefore, our task as young people is to strike a balance. We need a new breed of people who have the strategies that can win power and who are well equipped with ideas to transform the country.
With the way things are, if you don't have these 2 skills, you will either be a joker and failure while contesting or you win and perform woefully. We need to learn from the bad boys who can win power. Elections in Nigeria are every 4 years, but the process of the election has a span of 4 years. Those who will contest or become delegates in 202 have started planning.
In 2019, we started 3rd force, we went back to sleep again till 2022 and we started shouting again. But during that period we were on sleep, PDP and APC have been doing meetings for 4 years. We want a quick fix because we are lazy to build. We need to start working to build political structures. Don't be deceived that the people are the structure. APC and PDP meetings in my ward are always full to the brim. The people there are humans and not animals
So we need to have real footing on the ground. If we want to partake in politics, it is beyond PVC. Being just a voter is a bad use of political participation. Why? Because you are technically forced to vote for people who some others have decided are fit to contest
As a personal view, I feel you should be more interested in getting your favourite person to the ballot rather than choosing who to vote on the ballot. This is why political participation at the local level is needed. Start from your unit or your ward. How many of us know 10 people that will be voting in the same polling unit as us? If we don't know them, how do you convince them to vote for you in the face of vote-buying?
We have also been making mistakes. We have been focusing too much on who becomes the president but we've forgotten that the president is also aided by a system of irresponsible senators, House of Representatives members and house of assembly members. How do we intend to change this? Because getting responsible and people with ideas into these posts is the real structure
I would be rounding off the discussion with these closing remarks.
We have established that as political animals, we are bound to be ruled as a group, we can't escape it. We must strike a balance between ideology and being politically savvy to win elections. Finally, that effective political participation is not only voting but rather, active participation in the process of selection
I would like to appreciate everyone for their attention and ask if anyone has questions
© Production of House of ABSOL, 2022
