Voice of the Voiceless; The Uncelebrated Figures of the Nigerian Modern Democracy; A Case Study of Femi Emmanuel -By Olusegun Abejide

When the name Femi Emmanuel pops up in my mind, I quickly feel a peaceful revolution is looming in Nigeria. Pastor Emmanuel is changing the narrative and shaping our political landscape. He is a revered man of God dedicated to ministry work and politics. He established Living Spring Chapel International, a church serving millions of Nigerians. He is an Engineer by profession and served as a deputy speaker at the House of Assembly, Oyo State, before he went to evangelism. He is also a businessman, leading a narrative of political change.
Nigeria is yearning for change, but Pastor Emmanuel believes that the current system is sturdy and unbreakable. Having been in a political office and worked with many politicians, he understands secrets in Nigeria’s political sphere that many ordinary citizens do not understand. Despite the current political system of Nigeria being rigid, Pastor Emmanuel believes that change will finally occur. Nigeria requires a political overhaul, where the current politicians are replaced with well-meaning, God-fearing, and kind leaders. A majority of the current politicians are corrupt and a product of a corrupt system. The politics of Nigeria have changed to a certain level but have been corrupted to a level getting genuine and development-oriented leaders is becoming hard as iron. Personal interests and greed define our politics at all levels.
Pastor Emmanuel has a firm grasp of our politics, and during his evangelism and sermons many times, and recently, he encourages millions of Nigerians to get out of their slumber to pursue change. I believe his reach and messaging will finally transform our mindsets. His following on social media platforms is enormous, and church attendance is massive. This influential church leader will ultimately help Nigerians reconstruct their politics.

OUR POLITICS FROM EMMANUEL’S PERSPECTIVE

Pastor Emmanuel has given us a new insight into how Nigerian politics is structured. He has given a model that observers, political analysts, and scientists can use to look into our politics. His categorization of the Nigerian political setting is insightful. He has intelligently captured how our politics are played to satisfy the needs of a few individuals. His categorization is thought-provoking and leaves us wondering if our democracy shall truly benefit citizens at any point.

From a cruel but honest standpoint, our current politics is a cartel system. In the worst scenarios, even the clean politicians get swallowed up because the rot in the current political system is overwhelming. To survive, any new entrant into our political scene has to play by the rules. I now wonder where the citizenry is placed in our politics. Are citizens just treated as voting machines? This is a question that demands well-thought answers if we have to clean our politics. Pastor Emmanuel believes that, there are four classes of people that run our politics:
● Political entrepreneurs/political godfathers
● Party members at the ward level/the grassroots
● The ambitious political office seekers
● The voters
I had not dug into our politics from this perspective before. Fortunately, many people who listen and follow Pastor Emmanuel now have an opportunity to understand our politics. In Pastor Emmanuel’s view, political entrepreneurs or political godfathers are the party owners and financiers. This is where I feel the rot of our politics begins. In a personal opinion, political entrepreneurship is a threat to democracy. Even though some people may view it as business, they should know political entrepreneurs threaten our democracy. They have individual interests that displace the needs of the majority.

Political entrepreneurs are keen on gaining profits through government contracts, protectionism, subsidies, or other arrangements. They gain corporate welfare or political influence that allows them to call the shots in the government. They act as the deep state, and since they control or influence the affairs of political parties, they will always prioritize their needs at the expense of good leadership. In some cases, they own parties or fund their activities at all levels-local government, state the national level. Their involvement in politics and party affairs is dependent on their capacities and interests. Pastor Emmanuel describes them as warlords who exercise firm control of the “grassroots structure of their particular political party.”

The word “warlords” depicts political entrepreneurs as people taking control of our politics selfishly. Since they have money and corporate welfare, they favor certain politicians and put them in office to protect their interests. Ultimately, it’s the voters that get a raw deal. The interests of citizens who vote with the hope that their votes will matter will be at the periphery, while the interests of the political bourgeoisie will be at the center. Political entrepreneurs will use all resources at their disposal to have people who can protect their interests be elected. When their puppets are in power, they will win government contracts and amass more wealth, enabling them to sustain their economic supremacy in society.

The grassroots determine the candidate to be elected on the voting day by giving party tickets and campaigning for them. In an unfortunate event, the political entrepreneurs influence the candidates to be elected during primaries and general elections. They can work with individuals in the constituencies to influence the outcome of the elections at the grassroots. The penetration of the political entrepreneurs into grassroots politics enables them to build political machinery or system where they have immense power. They use such power to control decision-making and policies the elected leaders make.

The third group, the ambitious political office seekers, are now the candidates or aspirants who seek party tickets. As political hopefuls, one must join a political party and follow its ideologies or rules. After lengthy electoral processes that involve party primaries, aspirants become candidates for various positions. For President, one becomes a party flag bearer.

However, due to the monetization of our politics, the people who win party tickets and become candidates are likely to be moneybags and elites. For positions like a senator, house of representative, governor, or President, the tickets are competitive and usually go to the elite who want power and influence to protect their wealth or vested interests.

Moreover, according to Pastor Emmanuel’s classification of our political setting, the last unit of electoral processes is the voters. These are now people that will go to the ballot to elect their leaders. Unfortunately, voters are treated like voting machines. They sometimes vote for leaders they do not understand what they stand for. The candidates they vote for are the ones the parties picked for them. In this case, the political party has influenced people who shall be candidates for all seats. Eventually, the voters exercise their democratic rights to vote for people they do not even know if they stand for anything that benefits them.
Usually, most voters are stuck in poverty and other numerous socio-economic problems; they are generally bribed to influence their voting. Eventually, voters will elect leaders based on how much money they receive from candidates for various seats. It’s the amount of money received during campaigns that will influence voting. In this case, the interests of voters and the country at large are not factored in.

WHAT AILS OUR POLITICS?

Politics will always be an integral part of our lives. Politics can improve or worsen our lives. In Nigeria, politics puts us into more suffering while the few who get into office gather power and influence. This is the unfortunate reality of our politics. Even as we move to the next general election next year, many Nigerians, including Pastor Emmanuel, feel that we shall still elect the corrupt leaders into power. He still believes that unless we sanitize our politics at the grassroots and invest in voter education, we should not expect any change.

Monetization of our politics has crippled all-out efforts to have a clean, functional, citizen-centric political system. We have put money ahead of road infrastructure, job creation, industrialization, and many other economic activities that can spur meaningful economic development. The Nigerian political system has been monetized to a level only moneybags or networked individuals can quickly get into office. The voters have always prioritized money. They view politics as the only way to squeeze cash from political entrepreneurs and wheel dealers. They line up for some money, thrown at them to turn up at political rallies or to vote. Also, voters will only listen to political candidates who have money to splash around as persuasion to vote for them. When money is distributed to voters, they pay little attention to their dysfunctional health centers, impassable roads, or unemployed children.

The normalization of voter bribery is the root cause of bad governance across the country, from local governments, state governments to federal government. Pastor Emmanuel believes that the voters cannot exonerate themselves for this stain in our politics. They have allowed political hopefuls to feel that they can only run for office through voter bribery. Voters also do not care about their abilities to deliver on development. Citizens are trading democracy cheaply for handouts dished to them. Unfortunately, this is happening in our country at the time; we are experiencing a youth bulge and economic downturn. We are killing our future by shunning away great leaders because they do not have money to give us. Pastor Emmanuel is angry at this bitter truth about our politics.

Politics is becoming a costly venture that scares away great leaders whose pockets are not deep. We may think it’s good for us, but factually we are trading our future and putting more generations into a vicious cycle of poverty. Resources will not trickle down to the grassroots because most leaders who are getting into office bought our votes. Apart from the monetization of our politics, weak party structures have allowed political entrepreneurs to control them as private properties. Political parties are supposed to be independent institutions but not individual properties. If political wheel dealers continue to control parties and fund them to benefit from government contracts, protectionism, and subsidies, we shall not get the right leaders into office.

Our political parties-APC, PDP, and other fringe parties are frail altogether. They are built around personalities. These influential individuals running parties are personality cults. The public loves and allows them to exert undue influence on national issues. To fix our parties, we should nationalize them by detaching from personalities. Political parties should be independent institutions built around certain ideologies that are citizen-centric.

The public should sacrifice their time and resources to build parties representing their interests. During elections, aspirants should apply to run for parties of their choice. The aspirants should be subjected to fair party primaries without considering the monetary support they extend to the party. Citizens should be willing to make minor contributions to support various candidates for different offices. This shall render the influence of political entrepreneurs meaningless as money they use to control and mangle parties shall not be required.

FIXING THE NATION

Pastor Emmanuel has presented a realistic way to fix our politics. We must clean our political scene by fixing grassroots politics. The voters are in communities where a few individuals with interests control grassroots politics to ensure people that protect party interests are elected. Our democracy is also premised on parties, which candidates use as vehicles to get into elective offices. Thus, we should clean grassroots politics to have powerful and democratic parties that protect citizens’ interests.

Pastor Emmanuel describes in his book titled, “Urgent Need to Save Nigeria,” that, it is time to wake up; it is time for the good people to show what they are made of; it is time for our fathers in faith to do the needful to save this beleaguered country from complete destruction.” He wants Nigerians of goodwill to take up the challenge to sensitize voters by taking over grassroots politics. He calls upon the church leaders, other religious groups, educated people, and other-centered individuals to go to the grassroots to identify their constituencies and educate them to see things from an informed perspective. The volunteers should use the language the electorate understands and persuade them to embrace citizen-centric politics as opposed to those run by power brokers.

Pastor Emmanuel believes that the Church should take charge. Furthermore, other denominations should equally take control of our politics through voter sensitization. The objective here is to change the mindset of the voters. To transform it into one that thinks about development and posterity rather than handouts. It is an empowered electorate focused on development that can rescue our economy and country from going to the dogs. Democracy is for the people and by the people; it is not for those who have money and influence. Citizens should remember that they are the bosses, not the political entrepreneurs and power brokers. Voters should seize the opportunity and take over our politics from the capture of power brokers, wheel dealers, and political entrepreneurs.

Dr. Olusegun Bamidele Abejide
Ambassador-at-Large
International Human Rights Commission (IHRC-USA & NIGERIA).

(Courtesy: A PRE-BOOK LAUNCH CHAPTER EDITION).