Nigerian Election 2007 and the Politics of the devil you know…

This is an article I wrote for a Nigerian Village Square a place where NIgerains abroad and at home meet to exchange ideas on the state of the country.. The biggest issue in Nigeria right now is the elections and typically there is no shortage of intrigues views and opinion on who would be the new leaders of the most populous black nation. Here I am adding my own 2 cents...

Election 2007 and the Politics of the devil you know…
by Femi Longe

Proverbs are meant to be words of wisdom. Our forefathers used them to illuminate their words and drive home a point. And so to some extent, when we hear a proverb, we assume it’s a wise statement. One proverb often used in the context of the Nigerian elections is” the devil you know is better than the saint you don’t”.

OBJ allegedly used it when defending Governor Gbenga Daniel before the people of Ogun State. Numerous other people use it in moral credibility justification for why known thieves (Atiku and Ngige amongst others) are the best people for the jobs they are vying for. But I believe that such use is fatally flawed.

The case is plain; the devil you know is first and foremost A DEVIL AND WOULD FOREVER BE SO. It is high time Nigerians wake up to their responsibilities and stop voting in people who do not have the public interest at heart.

An Australian friend asked me a question on Tuesday which deserves mention. “Does Africa really want to be developed?” he asked. Our repeated acceptance of irresponsible leaders suggests that the answer is a big NO.

Electing corrupt leaders and complaining about under-development at the same time is like commissioning Satan to construct Paradise and wondering why it looks so much like Hell.

Here the words of English poet, John Milton strikes a chord. In his epic poem Paradise Lost he said “Better to reign in hell than serve in heav'n.” This is surely the motto of our own devils in Nigeria, They have concluded that it is better to reign in an underdeveloped Nigeria than to be a normal hardworking civil servant in a developed one. And we the masses have made it possible for them to continue to get away with it.

The people we elect and their entourage of hanger ons and sycophants, are the main beneficiaries of an underdeveloped Nigeria; the guys who own the private airlines and then ran Nigerian Airways into the ground with mismanagement; the guys who own the private banks, got foreign currency at bank rates and shoveled them to the streets to sell at black market rate so they can make quick cut-throat profits; the same guys who supported efforts to devalue the Naira so their foreign exchange back-door deals could net them even greater profits.

The same goes for the guys who own the oil companies and were happy to see the price of fuel go from N18 to N65 per litre; the ones who own private universities and do everything to ensure the public universities in Nigeria are in a constant state of shambles so that poor people are forced to spend their life savings to send their kids to their private universities; the ones that watch our public health facilities crumble but go aboard 5 times a year on tax payer’s money for medical check-ups at the best hospitals in the world.

And not forgetting the guys who chuckled to themselves when Chief Bola Ige (God rest his soul) as Minister of Power and Steel said he would transform NEPA knowing that they would sabotage all his efforts to limit the profits of their generator companies, petrol stations and candle factories, by reforming an essential sector of our economy.

Chief Bola Ige, for all his being Cicero, should have taken into more cognizance the words of Niccolo Machiavelli, the famous Italian strategist, that “And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, then to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.”

“The devils we know” benefit from Nigeria being in its present state and will do anything to keep it that way. And when new “unknown” saints like Prof Pat Utomi come to the scene and volunteer themselves for service, we the people who stand to benefit form the difference they hope to bring are such lukewarm supporters that they stand next to no chance against the entrenched devils.

It’s also interesting to see how our leaders transform into “devils we know” when it is convenient for them. In 1998 and 1999 when the transition to civil rule was imminent, these where the guys who campaigned on platforms of change is good. The military government could easily have argued about being the devil you know back then. Now the old time change-champions are so afraid of change that they have to serve us the same recycled dish of washed out old men bent on running the country into the ground with their particular brand of kleptocracy.

We are our own worst enemies. And it saddens me that in the forthcoming elections, on the platform of quick gratification in the form of loaves of bread buttered with N100 notes, we will vote in the devils we know rather than the saints we don’t and then complain when the temperature of our hell becomes hotter. At least that’s the way things look for now.

Please Nigerians, surprise me!!!!!!!