QUERY OF THE WEEK: Why politics is a do or die affair in Nigeria: Edo State as metaphor

• Politics has been acclaimed as war by other means. To the irreverent Henry Kissinger it is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
• Politics is a major and only legal path to political power in Nigeria. Communal development and personal progress often depend on the support and assistance of government officials.
• Modern political practices bring out the best and the worst in a people just as the recently concluded gubernatorial election in Edo State, though seemingly peaceful, accentuated the political fault lines in Edo State, nay Nigeria.
• In a sense, Edo State which goes with the sobriquet “The Heartbeat.” is a miniature Nigeria.
• The outcome of last Saturday’s gubernatorial election was decided by voters in the Edo North senatorial district who voted in solidarity with their ‘son’ Senator Adams Oshiomole. It mattered little to the electorates who among the touted three front runners will served their best interest.
• The inability of citizens to rise above primordial sentiments as to tribe, religion and sundry affiliations as well as base avarice are conditions precedent to bad governments.
• The winner takes all syndrome that marginalises the loser, heightens the desperation for political power.
• The devolution of power to States and equitable decentralisation of the dividends of democracy among elites, the political class and at the grassroots will whittle down the desperation of politicians to wrestle power by all means.
• Citizens, on their part, should see government officials as public servants who serve at their behest and who must be diligent and accountable to the people.
. Pervasive poverty has made people more willing to accept crumbs from politicians who buy their votes.
• The deification of elected political office holders by the people unwittingly encourages maladministration, malpractices, and malfeasance. Similarly, the near divine status of the victors in political contests in Nigeria and the enormous political leverage and accruing material benefits in contrast to the almost orphan status and sidelining of the loser makes winning, albeit at all costs, the only viable option for Nigerian politicians.
The foregoing demonstrates why winning by hook or crook remains attractive and the politics of dog eat dog the order of the day. Either the average Nigerian politician emerges the winner in an election or he pulls down the roof.
For the malaise of do or die politics to be discarded permanently, a culture of responsible leadership and active citizenship should be enthroned in all strata cum spheres of the society.