Wanted: Politics of love

I am told that all is fair in politics, that the end justifies the means. And I wonder: does it mean that lying, killing, character assassination and corruption or rather stealing (according to Nigerian politicians’ own definition, stealing is not corruption) are permitted? I get a response that is accompanied with a wry smile, ‘there is no morality in politics’.  I shudder again and ask, don’t they have conscience? There came a swift reply, ‘what is conscience?’ That little voice within you, the voice of your spirit, the voice from above that often warns you.  I am stopped on my tracks; ‘but as the voice is cautioning you, another is countering, urging you to go ahead and do it’. Yes, I rejoined, you can always distinguish between the two. The first voice is the right one, it comes quietly, does not rationalise or intellectualise. It tells you simply, ‘do this’ or ‘don’t do it’, full stop. But the invariably, second voice, gives you excuses, rationalises why you should do that which is wrong, gives you reasons why you should take that wrong step. And then I am told in a rather resigned voice, ‘many of us are so steeped in wrong doing that we have darkened our conscience with our evil ways such that it is literally dead, we can no longer hear it’. And I quickly add, but some others can still hear it loud and clear… ‘Those are people of conscience or people with conscience, whatever you call it. Those people should not dabble into politics if they do not want their physical and spiritual cloak to be soiled by dirt and mud’. But if most of our poli...
ticians are conscienceless, they certainly know what love is, I mean true love in the true sense of the world; like the type of love parents have for their children, the type of love a mother exhibits towards her child, wherein the parents are prepared to sacrifice, literally do anything for the child’s wellbeing, to make him/her happy. Should that not be the relationship between our politicians, political leaders and the populace? Should they not be prepared, ready and willing to voluntarily subordinate, sacrifice their interests and themselves for the greater good and happiness of the populace?
And that brings us to the next question, which is: what is the goal of politics?  Generally our politicians tell us that they are into politics and by extension seeking positions of leadership in government (at federal, state and local government levels, executive and legislative arms thereof) to serve, to serve their people, the general public. The politically correct lexicon is, “to put smiles on the faces of the people”. And indeed politics provides it. For, in wielding political power, you have the opportunity to do the greatest good to the greatest number of people. In a presidential system like the one we operate, the power political leaders wield is quite awesome, they, so to speak, have powers of life and death over us; every single decision the man at the top makes affects us all, for good or ill.  And woe betides that leader who does not use this power aright, to spread blessings. All those he/she had injured, directly or indirectly in the wrong application of the political power bestowed on him/her, all those he/she  harms or oppresses in one way or other in the process, shall cling to his/her neck ethereally, like an albatross…….Truly called seers can see these with their finer eyes.
As seemingly religious as we are, we certainly do not believe we are here on earth to do as it pleases us, to gratify our egos, to lead a life of reckless abandon without consequences. Or do we imagine that life on earth is all about wining, dining and ‘wifing’ without nobler goals?  As it is, our politicians are polluting our environment with so much dirt and mud with the raving altercations among them. Not that they should not disagree among themselves or critizise, but it should be done out of love, the aim should not be to maliciously pull down the other person(the pull down syndrome) so that he/she would crash headlong, with a life-threatening injury so to speak. No. Rather, in disagreeing or criticizing, the objective should be to  offer a helping hand, to lovingly nudge the miss-stepping politician or leader(s) back to track in order to help him/her fulfil his/her sacred mandate of doing the greatest good to the greatest number of people, of spreading blessing to all.  As the 2015 elections draws nearer, the mudslinging between politicians on both sides of the divide is intensifying. They are using foul language on each other as well as using underhand tactics in the mistaken notion that all is fair in politics.
Inevitably, the mudsling is rubbing off on the followers, the populace. Go to the internet and read the comments, readers’ reaction to any particular  news item relayed by a newspaper or news medium and you would be shocked with the unprintable words (permissible on the internet though) that Nigerians are throwing at each other. You could practically feel their fingers dripping with hatred.
In one of the states preparing for elections, a contestant declared that he could not sit together with the incumbent for a debate because he feared the latter would assault him. Oh no! Where is the respect for that office? Is he saying that the governor could descend so low as to desecrate that office by assaulting his opponent in full public glare?
Then one of the parties alleged that their opponents were giving out ‘expired rice’ to the electorate. What! Does it mean that a party that is seeking our votes wishes to poison us to death? Whereupon we are reminded that rice as an agricultural commodity has no expiry date.  Wherever you turn to, it is unbridled name calling, vituperations all around, raking up hatred and soiling us all with dirt and mud. Can we have and engender  politics of love, please!