Political Hysteria – Alex Ajayi | GOVERNMEND
Alex Ajayi reported:
Since the inception of the fourth republic, Nigerian citizens have always been waiting anxiously and looking forward to good governance every single year. Since then, the pattern has always been that every former president is later assumed to be better than the current of any regime till than the current president. People wait to see what happens next, either pessimistically or optimistically. The fear of experiencing yet another bad regime, the hope that the next would be better, year in and out. The anxiety every year waiting for the government next move. All these are quintessentially what is called political hysteria.
The reason, as already stated before, being the failure of each government that has reigned ever since. Now a government is not just a person, it’s a body of individuals. And we must agree that the head of the government maybe fails if his government fails. Probably, the members of his cabinet are not having the same appetite for change as he is and so, failure is bond to happen. Whichever way, the head of government is in charge and should get hold of the wheels
However, the political party on whose platform he contested, the leaders would definitely want to have a say on whatever decision he’s making, and most time, they might be contrained to object whatever they demand of him. These are pointer to the fact that we can’t really blame a single person for the failure of a government, but as much as the president by the virtue of his mandate accrued some power, he should and must be in control.
On the other hand, few days ago, I read something about a political party selling nomination form for Local Government chairmanship aspirants for N2 million whereas the annual salary of a chairman is barely over a million Naira, such person would then have to spend more to generate supporters for the primary election, after winning he’d then have to buy a candidacy form from the electoral body and then again set out to gain favor from the voters who are also the people he’s meant to serve in whatever position he’s contesting for.
Considering the amount of money he’d have spend, his annual salary for 4 years won’t be enough and because of that, the race to recover what’s been lost and even more would start. The service will then become only a second thought as he’s been forced to cater more for himself and his immediate supporters, he would either deliver little or nothing. As much as he’s at fault for not putting service first, the system must also shoulder some blame for creating a really hostile political environment.
If things continue this way, there will never be any change. If these are the problem, then what are the solution? Any solution obviously demand going back to the source, politics should be positioned to help birth good governance.
Copyright: GOVERNMEND
