Politics is supposed to be a game of friends competing for elective posts without bitterness or rancour. For the present and future generations, politicians should see politics as a game of numbers in which there must be a winner and a loser at the same time where the loser should always cooperate with the winners to build together the United Nations.
Next year Nigerians will go for another general election. Therefore New Strategy with new Development is needed for further improvement in Nigeria’s politics and economy. We have to learn from the past mistakes and re-build Nigeria’s national image for the good of present and future generations in Nigeria politics.
Politics can be defined as a quest for power and being at the helm of affairs of government directing who gets what and how the material and human resources should be managed, utilized and distributed. It is a means by which the government of a country is won not by gun violence or insurgency nor by snatching ballot boxes.
Power only belongs to God and the electorates who give a mandate to their candidates who vie for different posts.
Experience of the past elections in Nigeria had been characterized by violent actions. These should be avoided. The electorates must elect men and women of unquestionable characters to pilot the affairs of this nation. In modern dispensation and for the future, politicians should devise a new and winning formula for penetrating the grassroots where the majority of the voters stay.
These grassroots form the majority and they must be recognized by the government and all the politicians who want to have their mandate. These people should be visited before, during and after elections through various means such as physical presence at their kindred or village meetings and media chat using radio talks, newspapers and television. All present and future Nigerian politicians should use the press to visit every home via radio, TV, Newspaper etc in addition to using their usual campaign posters or leaflets.
They should use media chat to reach voters and this could be an informal address by the politicians to their constituents.
Let us recall that it was at No 10 Downing Street London, that the Independence date for Nigeria was announced by then Prime Ministry of U.K. Mr. Harold Macmillan. Present during the announcement were Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Sarduana, Tafawa Balewa etc all from Nigeria.
Advanced and mature politics should be on course. The 32nd President of the United States of America (USA) Franklin Roosevelt (1993 to 1945) used “Fireside chat” which was popularly called President Roosevelt’s Radio talks to the Nation.
For the first time, the press could visit every home via radio.
The role of the press in National and political development in Nigeria cannot be neglected. We have to look back to 1859 when the first newspaper called “Iwe Irohin” was established in Western Nigeria then. In recent times about 1959 other media like radio and TV started to play a major role. With the availability of Information and Communication Technologies (I.C.T.) now, one can stay in the house and know literally about the whole world by having and reading copies of newspapers, listening to Radio, TV and using internet services and telephones etc.
The world now is a small global village.
The effective use of media to visit every home is a winning formula and strategy for all new generations and the development of Nigerian politics. The politicians who contest and win in any election should be servants of the people they are leading and create wealth not accumulate wealth for themselves. They should be involved in building and re-building Nigeria’s National image.
The main reward for the present and future generations of Politicians in Nigerian politics should be to make a good name with goodwill and leave legacies for the generations yet to come. All leaders should plan how to create wealth, jobs & massive employment & education for the youths. Nigerians should move towards a production-oriented Economy and not a consumption Economy-All leaders in Nigeria present & future should take good note of this.
There is a need for Visional leaders in Nigerian politics. A very good simple test of good leadership can be assessed or examined starting from family leadership, kindred, village, clans/Quarters, Towns, and Local Government before State and National Levels. It is expected that those leaders should possess the under-listed good qualities:
Need for Empathy to share the feelings of others. They should put themselves in the shoes of their followers, perceive their needs and develop the sensitivity needed to search for ways of meeting such needs.
There is a need for surgency-charisma, cheerfulness, enthusiasm, alertness, acumen and alacrity.
Competence or technical skill is required for effective leadership. This helps to increase credibility and respect.
Consistency requires that leaders should not change their minds, policies and words frequently.
Intelligence-intelligent people can lead properly, but the leader does not need to be a genius, or too highly more intelligent than the followers so that they can understand themselves and follow each other.
At this junction, let us understand the meaning of leadership.
A leader is an individual in any social situation in which his ideas and actions influence the behaviour of others, that is, the followers. Followers are the members of a larger group over which leadership is exercised by a person or a group of persons. Leadership refers to influencing the attitudes and actions of others or the followers leading toward the achievement of some goals or purpose. Politics is further explained as follows; means by which government of the country is won by Real Democracy not by Raping Democracy. Raping Democracy involves political battle or political war, thuggery, rigging of elections and so on. All these are political indiscipline that occurred in the past which may be regarded as old formulas in Nigerian Politics and Elections. Let us work towards the New Formula aforementioned for the good of the present and future generations.
Nigerian voters in the 2023 General Elections are advised to search for Visional leaders for progressive Nigeria. All leaders in Nigeria should be Chief Servants and not Masters. They should create jobs and wealth instead of accumulating wealth. They should increase money in the government treasury and not decrease money in the government treasury at the end of the leadership.
Livinus Nnebedum, Public Affairs Analyst, Author & Former Director in Anambra State Agricultural Development Program (ADP), writes from Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze
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