I am a professional politician

A young man walked into my office recently and introduced himself to me. He was beaming with smiles as he told me that he was my student years back in secondary school. When I asked him about his profession and where he was practicing it I when shocked at the reply he gave. “ I […]

A young man walked into my office recently and introduced himself to me. He was beaming with smiles as he told me that he was my student years back in secondary school. When I asked him about his profession and where he was practicing it I when shocked at the reply he gave. “ I am an honorable”. “Okay you won an election into an office?” “Not really but I will soon be one. I am a politician”.  “You are a politician at the age of 25? Okay what do you do daily? When you wake up in the morning, from Monday to Friday, where do you go to? I know that during electioneering campaigns you people move from town to town, village to village, house to house, room to room. But when the elections are over what do you do?” He looked at me in amazement. Then he found his voice. “Well, I am overlooking so many options. They will soon dissolve the current local government council executives and appoint new ones. That was the agreement we had with the governor before the elections. I will get a position there as a supervisory council or an adviser to the Chairman on something”. I then asked him, which school he attended after secondary school? He only attended a weekend programme at a state polytechnic where he got a certificate in secretarial studies. And after that, what else have you done? He got himself attached to a local politician as an ardent follower. He informed me that daily they would go out with the man. They were his boys. He would feed them, buy them drinks and give them some cash handout once in a while. He ended his speech by saying that the politician whom he called ‘the leader’ is a very nice and generous person. That was where I got livid.
A young man who at that age stopped being productive and decided to spend his life hanging around another person, man or woman, whom he calls a leader because he receives food, drinks and handout, is dangerous. He is an easy tool for political violence. He is a ready hand for blackmail jobs. He calls this man a good and generous man but in his laziness and ignorance, he never notices that all the man’s children both young and old were safely kept away from his political career. The children are in various protected school environments and most of them are safe outside this country. The man is the only one who is brave enough to be in this jungle of politics in Nigeria to hunt for funds. His real family is in Europe. He gets the money by way of corruption and embezzlement from government circle in Nigeria and runs abroad to live his life with his family there. The cohort of dangerous men and women whom he has armed with dangerous weapons during elections are left behind here to cause havoc in the cities and villages.
 The next danger is the fact that this young man may eventually become a Local Government Councilor, or even chairman. What value will he bring into governance? His educational background is faulty and he has not displayed any degree of patriotism. When he eventually becomes councilor or even chairman, he will simply be a rubber stamp for the leader who makes it possible. But what preparations has he done to become a leader in the system?
In the Nigerian democratic system, there are many unprepared people like that who happen to find themselves in the political arena. What are they doing there? Many of them add no value to the deepening democratic practice or governance since they do not even understand what the whole process is about. The only understandable language is opportunity to be in charge of state fund. The practice of abandoning the local government administration to the decision of the political money bags and leaders has killed the system. In most local government councils in Nigeria, especially in the states that are majorly rural, the offices exist only on paper. The executive members rarely go to the offices. In many local government areas, developments stopped a long time ago. The sharing of the local government funds is done in the homes of chairmen and if the godfather is at home, it is done there. It is a total disaster that needs to be arrested. But with this kind of my young man angling to become a councilor or chairman of a local council, what good can one expect? What value will he bring to the local government administration? 
Most of those who are driving our democratic experience are in need of good lectures in governance and administration. Many do not know when politicking ends and governance begins. When you realize where they are coming from politically and economically, you will know why they take political differences to mean personal enmity and hatred. This is because while the rest of the schooled and educated mankind takes politicking to be a process, they take it to mean life and death. For them it means life and death because they have nothing else to do than to hang around government houses, politicians and political events. They have no other life outside discussing elections and campaigns. And one wonders what value these people add to the development of the nation? While technocrats are busy balancing changes in economic policies, business initiatives in banking and finance, education and medicine, the ‘young professional politician’ is talking about dividends of democracy. So what do you expect a technocrat to do in a local government system or state house of assembly where such a person is the head? They simple cannot blend. Such a young active politician feels he is used by the party or the president, governor or senator when at the end of the election, the elected executive at the state or federal government who wants to perform well appoints the technocrats to do the work. Then you begin to hear talks like “Monkey de work, Baboon de chop”. They do not get it that they are not employable in real governance. But that is not the case in many state and local governments in Nigeria.  The governor ends up putting stooges around himself and they end up being the ‘yes men’ around the government. And the nation is worst for it.
What am I saying? It is simple. Many of the people around the corridors of power have no business being there. They neither know what governance is about, nor do they understand party politics. They only see opportunity to pick up easy money. This is where I see danger looming around the present crop of leaders at the national level. They are making party patronage very unattractive. We do not see again the opulence that used to be associated with being a party caucus person. We do not see anymore the grandiose of a party chieftain. We cannot have the assurance that once your party wins, you are made. Nobody seems to be sure of tomorrow anymore. I think this is good for Nigeria, to make party politics very unattractive. Many of our young people who are just hanging around party offices and political juggernauts should return to school, or farms. This is what happens in developing countries. Let the president develop programmes and projects that will discourage young people from making hanging around political parties and their leaders and elected officials into a career. No nation survives in such a situation.
Finally, let us mop up our teaming young people and turn them into our productive workforce. This is the future of our nation. A young person who becomes a professional politician at the age of 25 without a good educational background is a time bomb. He is another economic BOKO HARAM waiting to happen.    
Rev. Fr. Ojaje Idoko, Director of Pastoral Affairs Department, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria