When The Leaders Of Tomorrow Are Apathetic Towards Politics -By Ezinwanne Onwuka

In a class discussion I recently had with my students, I asked them the career path they’d love to take in life. In such a situation, you already know the answers that would be flying from all directions: footballer, nurse, lawyer, medical doctor, fashion designer, teacher, engineer and other catchy professions.

When everyone had answered, I threw a question to the students. “Who wants to be a politician?” I asked. There were mumblings among the children and no hand was raised. I repeated the question while glancing through their innocent faces. The class was silent. Then, a voice muttered, rather inaudibly, “politicians are thieves.” Another followed suit from another end of the classroom, as if completing the previous statement, “all they know is to steal money.” I bowed my head in utter disdain.

Imagine what the younger generation perceives of the average Nigerian politician. It is disheartening. Apparently, the children may have been influenced in so many ways to think ill of politicians. The major influence being the mass media, the Television. It is not uncommon to hear in the news stories of the growing rot in public bureaucracy, the ceaseless plunder of the national treasury by politicians and lack of public accountability among others.

From the retorts of the children, it is obvious they hated politics because of corruption. It is as if corruption is an indispensable part of Nigerian politics, as if there is no saint amongst Nigerian politicians. The rate of political corruption in Nigeria is progressively increasing with an upsurge in the number of cases where apparatus of government has become an instrument for the enrichment of members of the political elites.

Nigeria is operating a kleptocracy; a system of governance where thieves and opportunists exercises a free reign over the state’s coffers, resources and affairs. Typically, this system involves the embezzlement of funds at the expense of the wider population.

Kleptocrats, operators of kleptocracies, use their political power and leverage to pass laws that enrich themselves and their fellow cabal members; and they usually always circumvent the rule of law.

Politics in Nigeria has been transformed into a business model. Today, this model provides, not only opportunities for members of the military and security forces, appointed officials, senior civil servants, but also for elected representatives of the people to personally enrich themselves from the nation’s treasury. This explains the reason election campaigns in Nigeria are so bitterly contested. Political offices are financially attractive as they offer opportunities of self-enrichment. In other words, the monetary incentives associated with gaining political mandates is juicy.

Nigerian politicians are financial terrorists. They are mainly concerned about using their political power to receive kickbacks, bribes, and special favours at the expense of the populace. Consequently, their kleptomania subject the populace to severe hardships such as epileptic power supply, infrastructural decay, insecurity etc.

Admittedly, the reality of Nigeria is a sad one. Nigerian leaders in their greedy and selfish appetite for theft care less about the direction the civilized world is moving, only accounting for their inordinate orgy for the misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds.

Little wonder, the younger generation is becoming increasingly disinterested in politics. The opinion of the average Nigerian child is that politicians are thieves, liars and corrupt. Young Nigerians cannot be mentored into perceiving and integrating an anti-corruption behavior and attitude when the messages they are getting is mixed. How can they hold on tenaciously to the old saying, “honesty is the best policy” when those at the helm of affairs, who are supposed to be their role models, stifle and sugarcoat the truth?
A country where politics doesn’t interest the leaders of tomorrow anymore is a country on the verge of collapse. A country that the anals of time will soon wipe out from the chronicle of history.

Ezinwanne Onwuka, Cross River State.
ezinwanne.dominion@gmail.com
+2348164505628