LEAVE POLITICS FOR POLITICIANS

Government is too big and

too important to be left to

the Politicians” ~ Chester Bowles (1901 – 1986)

I totally ascribe to this quote credited to Chester Bliss Bowles the former Governor of Connecticut (1949 – 1951), a Liberal Democrat, an American Diplomat and Politician. Many have justified the entrance of all sorts of fellows to the political arena on Charles De Gaulle (1890 – 1970) quote “I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians” but we quickly forget that Charles De Gaulle had a Military background and was perhaps justifying his own entry into Politics, that is a subject of another day's discussion.

Government and not politics is too serious a matter to be left to the Politicians. But Politics should be left for the Politicians. Agreed we are all Political Animals but there are those whose singular passion is service, they live, eat, breathe talk and sleep service, they are professional politicians whose only trade in life is Politics and some had been on it from childhood. They are the NPN, UPN, NPP, PRP or GNPP card carrying members. They were either in the NRC or SDP under Babangida's two party system. what happened to these class of politicians that today we have more of interlopers dotting the political landscape? 

The damage done to the psyche of Politicians by the Buhari/Idiagbon administration will be an interesting aspect to study for political analyst and future politicians for a long time to come. For those not familiar with the History. The Military struck midnight of December 31, 1983 sacking the NPN led Government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and installed Major General Muhammadu Buhari (then GOC 3^rd Division, Jos) as Head of State. Forget the fact that all of the excuses given by the Military for their intervention became worse under the Military and the Military's own failures led to many successful and unsuccessful coups and counter coups which led to the rise of IBB and eventually Abacha. a process that led to the loss of many fine officers, which again is  a subject of another day’s discussion.

In my own humble submission, Politics and Politicians paid the highest price for the Military interregnum. One of the high points of the Buhari/Idiagbon Administration was the trial and conviction of many Politicians who were said to have illegally enriched themselves or their political parties. (if Buhari was to try those who call themselves politicians now, we won't have enough prisons to put them). Politicians like Lateef Jakande, Chief Solomon Lar, Jim Nwobodo, Ambrose Ali, Pa Adekunle Ajasin etc were jailed for ridiculous number of years and a great number of them never recovered from that experience and died soon afterwards. E no finish, e no finish... (Apology to the Late Pan Africanist Musical Icon Fela Anikulapo Kuti)

IBB aka Maradona  took over and announced a Transition Timetable that he kept in the breach, he kept changing the rules of the game and in the process many committed politicians became disillusioned and lost faith in politics. That was not worst part, IBB went on to conduct an Election adjudged to be the Freest and Fairest in our Nations History but Annulled it and stepped aside leaving the Country in a limbo. E no finish, e no finish... .
The Abacha years were even worse for Politicians as many more lost their lives and many were clamped in detention. Their psyche was further assaulted as Five Political Parties - Parties the Late Bola Ige described as Five Leprous fingers of one hand - adopted the late maximum ruler as their sole Presidential candidate - This writer voiced his dissent then in  a small letter to Tell Magazine with the caption "Nigeria is not Gambia" - Abacha's determination to transmute to a Civilian President was only stopped by his death - May his Soul Rest In Peace.

from the foregoing it was easy to understand why many politicians found it difficult to believe that the Abdulsalami Abubakar transition will end in a realistic handover as a result many adopted the siddon look attitude as the non politicians took the stage in 1999 and many are still there.

Who are these non politicians? They are People whose main objective in politics is money and nothing else, people who were motivated to join politics because all else failed, people who were propped into politics by their godfathers who saw in them an avenue for wealth or to cover old sins, sons or daughters entrusted with political office because of their father or mother, People who find politics the easiest way to make money, the list is endless

They are failed Lawyers, Bankers, Doctors, Engineers, Architects, Surveyors, School drop outs, touts etc who parade our political landscape. They dominate the field right now and they are making it impossible for the politicians to do their job. We do not contest their involvement in Governance but we protest their running for public office. They can be Ministers, Commissioners, SSA’s and SA’s etc, but to run for office as Chairman, Governor, Lawmaker at the Federal or State level, we say a capital NO, they are the "Ninety percent of the politicians that give the other Ten percent a bad reputation" according to Henry Kissinger. It is time to change the tide at the Local, State and Federal Level. Politicians must make concerted effort to ensure that only tested and trusted Politicians take the reins of Power, the onus is on them to redeem their profession and chase away the charlatans, 2015 is around the corner.