Though to many politicians and citizens, politics is seen as a dirty game and a do or die affair, just before I go further, what is politics itself? As per definition, is it a do or die affair of a dirty game?
Politics according to an American political scientist Harold Casswell, means who gets what, when, how. It is also viewed as the process of resolving conflict and dispute in a society according to Austin Rammy.
From the above definitions one can arguably say that politics is not a dirty game or do or die affair.
Politics, contrary to peoples notion should only be a game of number because the person with the highest number of votes will be the one to attain a certain political post which would be determined by the citizens. Peaceful political activities should not be a hallucination in Nigeria. Everybodys hand is needed on the deck before this can be achieved. The kind of politics we should embrace is a violence free politics because our lives are too precious than to be taken away because of politics.
Violence, kidnapping, killing, assassination, snatching of ballot boxes and papers aren’t the best ways of sailing through in an election rather, outstanding behaviour, political education, integrity and what have you are what are needed to emerge winner in an election. It is better we start erasing our minds from the notion that violence, kidnapping, assassination and other social vices are very pertinent in politics as they are detrimental to our society. Nigeria is yet to be there in all aspect, be it political or economy aspect. So what do we derive in hindering the growth of those aspects.
The focus of this article is not only to tell the politicians to desist from a do or die politics and stop regarding it as a dirty game but also yelling at the citizen, the youth especially to stop being used as agent of destruction. Being jobless isn’t an excuse to get involved in that indecent job and that is the more reason why the parents need to enrol their children in a vocational training when young (frankly speaking, not everybody will get a white collar job from the government or private organization).
In actualizing politics not being a dirty game nor a do or die affair, the political offices should be made less attractive, so the true servant that really want to serve the masses will be known not lovers of money. For instance, salaries of political office holders should be reduced, immunity clause should be critically considered, some unreasonable benefits that the political office holders enjoy should also be reduced and more of that. If all the aforementioned and many other factors are taken into consideration, the all means flair for political posts which makes candidate see it as a do or die affairs will reduce drastically as most of the candidates aren’t contesting with the notion of caring and doing people`s will, but rather they are contesting because of their own selfish interest to amass wealth for themselves and even their unborn generations.
A word is enough for the wise they say, let us be an advocate of change. A positive change in the way we govern in our democracy, positive change in our political activities. The youths and the old ones should be politically oriented and desist from the saying “Politics is a do or die affairs and and a dirty game.
Image from www.timeshigher.com