#NigeriaDecide2023: Between Bandwagon fallacy And Reality -By Richard Odusanya

I will like to start the first in the series of articles on #NigeriansDecide with special permission to share with my readers the golden words of Hugo Lafayette Black, an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party. Hugo posited: “A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion. The history of governmentally established religion both in England and in this country, showed that whatever government had been that it had incurred the hatred, disrespect and even contempt of those who held contrary beliefs.”

“That same history showed that many people had lost their respect for any religion that had relied upon the support of government to spread its faith.” This is a timely warning as Africa’s most populous country goes to the polls on February 25, to elect a president. In exactly two weeks from today, Nigerians will be on the march again on the queue at various polling units. Interestingly, in our beloved country, there is always a reason for ethnic and religious coloration to everything in Nigeria. Hence the bandwagon fallacy – also known as an appeal to popularity or argumentum ad populum – is a type of incorrect argument in which we assume something is good or right because it is popular.

The above is validated by the profound words John Adams and Albert Einstein — ‘What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.’ “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” – John Adams. #NigeriansDecide……Nigerians are on the march again. The whole world is patiently waiting for the African giant “Sleeping giant”

Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary, nonexistent or nonactual. Interestingly, some prayer warriors, merchants of faith and professional politicians will be yearning for positive change in a rotten system! As a realist, I believe that one of the things that differentiates human beings from animals is the sense of reasoning but this word called reasons does not exist in the political dictionary of Africans! Where is our redeemer? Our redeemer is certainly not the social media president or a packaged messianic product. It should be noted that a redeemer lives in us as citizens.

The reality of who is our redeemer transcend ethnicity and religion. It has to be a prepared mind not an emergency magician taking advantage of the gullibility of the masses. Therefore, as the preparation for the 2023 General Elections picks up pace, nothing short of Issue-based campaign will be acceptable. I argued that character and achievements should be the main criteria but some people particularly the social media warlords “Obingos” are so intolerant of opposing views, ruthless, restless and walking themselves up with issues based on sentiment and emotions. They want it to be about the things they consider as “issues”.

Furthermore, the emergency “Patriots” social media warlords want issues that favour their candidate and if it doesn’t, then it is not an issue. And if you don’t see and talk about the issue in their perspective, then you don’t understand the issue. In the bid to win all political discourse, we become belligerent and refuse to learn. Sadly, these divisive and derogatory expressions by the religionists and supporters of political parties and candidates are not doing us any good. It has become imperative that rewriting the pages of our beautifully imperfect lives matter more than anything else.

History beckons as the verdict of posterity await us. Let’s bear in mind that misinformation and smear campaigns are age-old propaganda techniques, and common occurrences in political campaigns. However, vilifying other candidates is not the way to go. The first of these forces fighting to escalate violence, deepen distrust in the political process, and truncate the election, though not the most important, is use of intemperate language by politicians and their supporters. Therefore, these divisive and derogatory expressions must be discouraged as the countdown to the D-Day February 25 begins with optimism.

Finally, I like to conclude this article the first in the series of #NigeriansDecide’23, with the inauguration speech of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. An American politician the 46th and current president of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, and represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009. Biden had famously posited: “This is America’s day:

This is democracy’s day.

A day of history and hope.

Of renewal and resolve.

Through a crucible for the ages America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge. Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy.”

ARISE ‘O COMPATRIOTS

Richard Odusanya
odusanyagold@gmail.com