For The Game's Own Sake

Dear Readers,

This article did not start as this article. It started as something written with little understanding of its topic. The two-part franchise of Robert Downey Junior’s Sherlock Holmes left in my head a saying, a saying that has taken me a while to understand in relation to the topic. That saying is the key to really understanding this message. This message represents a destination reached on an odyssey that began with no destination in mind. Popular psychology tells us that it is human nature to blame someone else whenever something goes wrong. As a matter of fact, this axiom has been accepted so far back, that one of the first proverbs I clearly remember growing up is that “a bad workman always blames his tools”. The object of interest in this article might be a bit boring to you due to its almost nauseating omnipresence on campus, but bear with me. What I must speak on is the nature of elections and what I think is an erroneous understanding of politics; campus or otherwise. 

Another popular saying I grew up hearing says “politics is a dirty game”. A particularly hot-blooded anger overtook me at the time I discovered how obnoxiously true this saying was and still is. This anger is what led to the angry musings that would have been this article. Those musings after being stewed by time eventually metamorphosed into my new understanding of things. This new understanding is this: No politician is going to save you. The very game of politics is unfortunately super rigged. The main reason I say it is rigged, especially in Nigeria, is that politics has been reduced to campaigns and negotiations to bring to power, show off power, stay in power and prove who has power. Many a time, we blame the leaders -our politicians- for this rigging. And yet another saying will show us where the blame really lies. Let me apologize for misleading you. Nigerian politics is just good advertisement, at least according to Samuel Johnson in 1759 :“Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it has therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises, and by eloquence, sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic. Promises, large promises, is the soul of advertising”

My next saying is a paraphrasing of a saying of unclear origin, “When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.” - Louis Nizer or yoruba people. A politician in today’s Nigeria is a shameless person. They show up with all the promises they can make us swallow, only to follow it up with absolutely terrible or even non-existent delivery. In other words, everyone knows that today’s average Nigerian politician is only stuffy when it comes to being puffy. They bloviate and blow up themselves so much with so much money and support from quarters bought with money. They magnify small achievements as guarantees for delivery of big promises. The issue is not about these ones, as I said, EVERYONE KNOWS that the average Nigerian politician is full of superheated air. They have no matter when it comes to what matters.

The question we are forgetting is this, who is the referee for the dirty game called politics? Are they dirty too? And for the answer, well, cast your mind back to those four fingers… Yes, you, in fact, we are the dirty referee. We are the referees that let the game be lost to everyone and no one. We operate based on democracy; government of the people, for the people and by the people, according to Abraham Lincoln. This means in a football match, the politicians may be the players, the Ronaldo and Messi. In that same football match, we -the people- are the ball (government of the people, the people being governed, just like the ball is driven here and there), the spectators (government for the people, those entertained or hurt by the players actions) and the referees (government by the people, the walking, living law books guiding the game, the beginning and end to the politics game). Twenty-two men running on a football pitch in all the right ways but without any ball, referee or/and spectators will be declared to be either crazy, practicing or suffering from some problem not already covered by the former explanations.

My point is this, we the people have forgotten our power, we have forgotten our identity. The government is US. The Face of Pre-clinicals for my set was not the only preclinical student in my set, neither was he the leader of all preclinical students. No matter the matter, the people will always have their power. Why? A country is its people, not its leaders. A class refers to the students, not its representative. The student union, University of Ibadan is each and every one of its members, not HOST and his team or whoever goes in next. 

The identity issue is a big deal for a simple reason, no unity. One of the biggest tools a desperate orator or public figure can use is division. A lady about to be sentenced for a big crime paints her crime as a response to victimization by “the patriarchy” and voila, every unthinking feminist, male or female is on her side. A losing politician turns to nepotism usually as a last-ditch effort; USUALLY. The thing is though, a body; be it a class or a state, should not see elected leaders as everyone’s daddy and EVERYONE’S MIND. The aforementioned saying was used by this writer as a juxtaposition of Nigerian politics at university or national level. That saying talks about how today’s advertisements are for those who peruse without thought, going by impressions made rather than actual fact and substance. An organization or body with a political component should have a care system isolated from it’s political system. This limits how much power politics holds over the vital things needed in that system. This way, an elected leader then becomes a problem solver, a moderator and a face for the collective voice. Even then, a leader’s every action, especially problem-solving and decision making, all their actions are subject to review and scrutiny. A clear-cut job description helps to make it clear where who is wanting and what we should do about it. It is sad that it is not so. I walk around and see dead unions, discordant associations, disjointed halls and a voicelessly noisy Nigeria.

The first step to stepping up is why I wrote this letter. A call to action. Sense is not usually too hard to spot, hence the reason that debates are useful. They evaluate each contestant’s actual knowledge of the issues we task them with solving. Since sense is not hard to spot, those who see sense will see each other and can then be the seeds of a more unified and self-aware body. What am I saying? Think for yourself. Elections are not like buying a new detergent or a better brand of shoe. Think about who to vote, evaluate each contestant, do not be part of unthinking rabble swept off their feet in a deluge of bants and purposeless, uneducated chatter. Find sense, look at histories and evaluate well. Hearsay gets many people nowhere when it comes to making good decisions. It’s hard, it’s not easy, still, I would much rather that those with educated and proven opinions on each contestant be the few who vote than for everyone to go in with a simple “she’s my friend, please vote for her” being their entire decision-making process.

That saying from the Sherlock Holmes movie goes, “…played the game for the game’s own sake”. Unfortunately, not everyone is the eccentric Sherlock, playing the game with the pure motive of what the game is meant to be and how it should be played. We have been looking for “a new Nigeria” since Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan. We may not find it anytime soon. A new Nigeria needs new Nigerians and the last time Nigerians got a comprehensive upgrade as far as discipline is concerned seems to be back at Abacha’s War Against Indiscipline. If a new Nigeria, a new electorate, cannot emerge without someone to hold a whip over our heads, we may wait a very long time for that new Nigeria. Remember, any leader is usually just you and me. The leaders are simply magnified reflections of ourselves. Our politicians will not save us, NO! If change will happen, we must save our politicians.

Salami Wisdom