Monday 25 November 2013

WHEN THE KINGS PLAY...THE PAWNS DIE...

“…the common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.” A Song of Ice and Fire (George RR Martin)

Politics is notoriously brutal, filled with wildly ambitious characters jockeying for influence in a competitive world.

You can roar all you like, pitch your voice against one another, support your kinsmen against the other, cry foul and cry aloof , talk of sectarianism, religion and tribalism, pray do that, but then welcome to the real world, it comprises of two tribes, two religions, and two sects; The Elites and The Masses. The elites are deep neck in the mire; their scuffle for the Prized Asset is all they are concerned about. This fracas for power does not put food on the table of the masses, does not give jobs to the unemployed youth, does not provide affordable and accessible health care, nor does their scuffle return the teeming students abandoned at home to school.

To them it’s just a game, and no matter what, the agenda is to win, in whatever means, in whatever circumstance, just to win. They do not care what the plight of the masses is, they do not care about the needs of the masses, all they know is when the time comes they will dole out the cash and the votes will come to them.

Nigerian politics is all about political survival, all eyes on the top prize. All the politicians are the same, yes all of them, and I bet you they will peruse every bit of means to reach that prized possession. They do not care how it’s gotten all they care about is getting it. If it means floundering from one political party to another, merging other political parties to make a new one, divulging one mega party into old and new, their aim is all the same ‘The Top Prize’, their share of the enticing prize.

I am undoubtedly sorry if I am breaking your heart, but no politician or political party is for the masses, nor politician is for your ethnic group, no politician is there to champion the cause of your tribe; the ultimate prize is all they after. They can play to your tune, please you as you wish, but all those are scorch earth tactics to pave way for their prized ambitions.

They would only endear themselves to you when they need you,when they need your wailing, your sympathy, your support for their cause, but believe me you they won’t think twice to sacrifice you for further pursuit of their ambitions, they won’t think twice about dumping the platform you had entrusted them on, they won’t think twice about looting your reserves to buy cars with resources meant to full your empty bellies, all these while the masses continue to shrivel and writhe. They are politicians and all they care about is their pockets and the leadership merry-go-round.

Whenever a hitch occurs in their race to the top, they swivel and politick, from one party to another, form one acronym against another, when things get out of hand, the young elites bring in the old guard elites to discipline and assemble their caucus into order, to resume their scorch towards that Prize, while we yelp and jubilate in our ignorance, with every new party we think we have the messiah, and now that’s all the politicians are concerned with. We the masses to the arrogant politicians are but just an electorate number in the bag, to do and manipulate as they wish, they have the masses in the bag and we always do as we are told.

All the masses get to know are promises and sweet-talks, they never know where the money goes in this competitive and brutal world of the elites, we are just pawns to be sacrificed at will to make a point or blame an opponent, in the elites continued brawl for the Top prize.

All they ever promise are lies, all they ever do is for their benefits, all they ever foresee is the path for their success, and their words are but mere deceits. This is what they provide us with in their continuums of fights for superiority; myriads of corruption, greed, instability, poverty, decaying infrastructure, deceit and terrorism, election rigging is now a perfected ritual. All we have remaining is a beautiful nation that has been bastardized by the greedy, selfish, corrupt and visionless elites.

We really need to sharp shoot back to reality, the common enemy is but one, it makes no sense wrangling about each other in whatever manner, when the real culprits are up above us, enjoying pitting us against each other. Malcolm X once said, ‘You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it’. For when the elites play their game of thrones, there is always one outcome, ‘They Live and We Die’ but we should understand that, ‘If we die, we die, but first we live’. The struggle continues.