Personal Lessons from the 2019 Nigeria General Elections
The year 2019 elections came with a charged and determined political atmosphere and the major theme was Better governance> Because it is the digital age, lots of hashtags flew around, some of which were “change, greater Nigeria, New Nigeria, blah blah blah”, we even attracted the international communities and I was cocksure that the long-awaited political revolution Nigeria needed had finally arrived. I had unshakable faith in this pursuit and yes, I played my part*sighs* but woefully, bitterly, regretfully, and finally with a heavy heart I must say that;
POLITICS IS A VERY GREASY GAME AND IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE BALLS AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO PLAY GRIMY & YUCKY, GET OUT AND STAY OUT!
I had the privilege to be actively involved in the just concluded Nigerian General elections (2019) with the campaign team of Bukola Ogunsanwo, Ogun State House of Assembly candidate under the umbrella of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) political party. However, She lost the election to Shittu Shitta, the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate.
When Fela Durotoye (FD), ANN 2019 Presidential Candidate announced his intention to run for office, Bukola was one of those who were thrilled. I wasn’t. I knew it was a bad move!
I’ve always been a Fela fan. I had tailgated FD since my secondary school days and have been inspired by his speeches, programmes and events. However, I was crestfallen that he chose to start his political career from the apex — the number one position in the country. I didn’t consider it SMART — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely). Bukola and I argued back and forth about this, she was confident that Fela had a good shot at the Presidency, I was doubtless it would end up a catastrophe.
I volunteered to handle Bukola’s Media and Communications but ended up doing more than that. I eventually played the role of an adviser, a right-hand man, a strategist, a manager and lots more. Between October and December 2018, we shuttled between Lagos and Sagamu. We were doing the groundwork, building important connections, establishing relationships and gaining visibility through events and activities.
Bukola Ijeoma Ogunsanwo (BIO) as she was fondly called during the campaign, organized a vocational training in Ogijo, one of the wards in Sagamu Constituency. The vocational training was focused on recycling. The students were trained on how to create wealth from litter. They produced aesthetic materials like tables, chairs, etc from abandoned/used tyres and pet bottles. This event turned out to be the engine of our campaign as it drew a lot of attention, and in fact, the Ologijo of Ogijo, His Royal Majesty, Oba Kazeem Gbadamosi was present on the final day of the event where he personally issued out certificates to the participants. Before the end of the year, BIO had the honour to meet with the Akarigbo of Remo Land, His Royal Majesty, Oba Babatunde Ajayi who took an interest in her political career. He was fascinated by her drive and promised to support her in his own way. We were making headway, we had new people join the team and our activities increased. The next two and a half months were rigorous, challenging, busy and productive. We visited all the ten wards in the constituency, met with royal fathers, groups, organizations and relevant stakeholders. We visited rural communities that lacked basic amenities, went on a door to door campaign, met with citizens and residents who yearned for new leadership. My experience during these few months and the outcome of the elections form the basis of the following lessons I want to share.
THIRD FORCE IS A SCAMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!
On the night of Sunday 24th of March, I came across a tweet by Harri Obi, He wrote: “Where is Fela Durotoye, Oby Ezekewzili, and Kingsley Moghalu?” The replies made me choke and sprawl on the floor. Someone inferred that they have all gone on a mandatory vacation, considering the stress they faced during the elections. Another rhetorically asked Harri why he thinks the third force should still be relevant and went ahead to allege that most of them already cashed out. I don’t know if it’s true that Fela, Aunty Oby and Kingsley have dissipated but I can confidently say that the third force is a hoax and I will explain from my personal experience with ANN and my distant relationship with Fela Durotoye.
Personally, I think Fela, Aunty Oby, and Kingsley contesting for President in 2019 was a wrong move. These individuals who lack street credibility, grass-root influence and a full understanding of the Nigerian political structure decided to run for office less than 2 years to the general elections. How did the “third force” plan to run a successful campaign in the 774 local governments across the country and gain massive support within that short time frame? It was a charade!
I would have been more enthusiastic if these three had started from their state House of Assembly, the Federal House of Representatives or the Senate. They would have had a better chance of winning. Instead, they went unprepared for the impossible. It was a suicide mission! So you think, young Nigerians who have never belonged to a political party, have never attended any ward meeting and lack any political influence or structure will just grab power like a Barbie doll on display, while Jagaban and his cohort whose fangs are deeply entrenched in the business of politics watch them like drooling zombies?
I think this is the most entitled generation ever! Regardless of the shortcomings of people like Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), Olusegun Obasanjo, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Adams Oshiomole to mention a few, we cannot repudiate the fact that these people have paid their due bills. They have invested their sweat, time, resources, blood and made uncountable sacrifices to be where they are. So, any third force that wants to gain political power on a platter of gold without doing the donkey work and thinking long-term is a big flimflam! We need to get our hair, hands and bodies cruddy, get involved in grass-root politics and be strategic about taking over. I’m looking at a decade or two if we get it right.
THERE ARE ONLY TWO PARTIES IN NIGERIA
Until a new political party can hold a candle to and lock horns with the reach, membership, structure and influence the APC and PDP possess, I am not interested in any hyena drooling, power-hungry association of attention seekers who pool together to form feather-brained political parties. These parties are trogs! Their founders are as worse as the powerbrokers and gatekeepers we want to unseat, these guys are mere hustlers, who will denounce their ambition at the sight of any crumb of the pie!
During our campaign, the major challenge we had was selling the party (ANN). The candidate, Bukola Ogunsanwo, eventually became popular, but getting people to know and accept the party was a herculean task. To make matters worse, the party was totally high and dry! I think the party was mostly founded to champion a Fela Durotoye agenda than a New Nigeria movement. While we were sweating it out on the streets, campaigning, we also added building a party to our responsibilities. It was a frustrating experience.
APC and PDP are filled with individuals who breathe politics, election or not, they are committed to growing their parties, expanding their reach and gaining more followers. With these set of people in politics, especially as the major drivers against the third force we so much propagate on the internet, I don’t see anyone effectively challenging the current political status quo!
I think a lot of us are just scavenging for the easy route into government without really facing the demons holding Nigeria to ransom. We think forming new political parties is the solution to the chaos we have in our political space, I beg to disagree! You say these new parties (third force) have a vision — to build a New Nigeria? (Hahaha! I laugh in Spanish. Who do we want to build a New Nigeria for? The masses who are obsessed with APC or PDP? The third force doesn’t know or understand the customer they intend to serve. I don’t see any new party taking over from these two in the next three elections. But I see new and competent people join the two leading political parties and changing things from the inside.
POLITICS IS EXPENSIVE AND YOU NEED A GODFATHER
Politics is a game of figures and numbers, figures to fund a large campaign; numbers to rally people around to support your candidate and make him/her win. It is expensive, VERY EXPENSIVE!!! You must have access to a large pool of cash to jump into its vast ocean of possibilities, hence the need for godfathers. I think we’ve abused the term “Godfather” in Nigeria because of its affiliations with corrupt funders who exploit the citizens for their own selfish gains. Well, that’s mostly the case as we have learned from history and still learning from ongoing events but I’ll give us a different viewpoint.
Godfathers do not only exist as sponsors, but they also exist because of influence. In simple terms, godfathers are stupendously affluent people, who know astronomically opulent people and convince staggeringly wealthy people to support a candidate’s political ambition…
Prior to her foray into politics, my candidate, Bukola Ogunsanwo was (still is) a businesswoman. She had an idea how expensive it would be but when reality dawned *EXHALES*.
There was no godfather anywhere, there was no sponsor or financial backer. She had to keep using her personal and business funds. The cost of managing a team, welfare, accommodation, security, transportation, fuel, power, food, publicity materials, “something for the boys or elders or groups as the case may be”, among other expenses makes politics a costly venture. If you must tread that path, make sure you are a Fat Cat or you have the support of a money-spinner or money magnates! You’ve got to come very hard!
Thanks to close family and friends who sent in their widow’s mite, I don’t know how we would have survived.
I want to accentuate that if we had deeper pockets, we would have made vaster and fiercer thrust. But despite the challenge of meagre funds, BIO was able to drill her flag in human capital. We had recycling vocational training in 7 different locations. The biggest one we had last December was a week-long event that gulped an estimate of #500,000. We even partnered with a UK-based life-coach to organise a Business and Finance Empowerment Programme where participants were taught how to have a positive mind-set and be financially free. We gave out business grants of #50,000 each to three lucky winners whose business pitches were the best.
My submission, therefore, is that “if you no get money”, don’t even dream of venturing into politics. In addition, be ready to lose a lot of money because nothing is guaranteed; Politics is meant for people who are ready to set their money on fire without any regrets or damages!
THE PEOPLE ARE NOT READY
This is one lesson I learned the hard way during the campaign — The people (citizens) are not ready. The Electorate cries out for Electricity, Security, Excellent health system, World-class educational institute, Superlative transport system and road network, Pristine infrastructure, Seamless school to work transition for its growing youth workforce, and so on but they are not ready to slaughter their Isaac and take hold of what is legitimately theirs.
I think it’s more about mental slavery, poverty of the mind that pushes them into demoralized submission. The Masses have been downtrodden and subjugated by penury they’ve lost every form of self-importance, propriety and virtue. Everywhere we visited, after evangelising the news of a New Nigeria and explaining the need for reformed peculiar leaders, the people will still ask you to “drop something”. I got to know that a lot of Nigerians are corporate beggars looking for every opportunity to prey on any politician that approach them. I’m talking about rural communities, small interest groups, associations, unions, religious organisations and lots more. There was no single place we visited that they didn’t ask for money — some more subtle than others. Can you do a rough estimate of how much it costs to “shey normal”?? Most Nigerians are just hypocrites with no sense of dignity, hence the dung/side-lined treatment we experience after every election and I daresay we deserve what we get.
Why would a politician, who has burnt billions of naira do any meaningful job when s/he gets into power? Don’t let us be delusional! I know politics is expensive but most of the campaign funds go into greasy palms — not just of influential people but the electorate themselves. If I have to “shey normal” before you vote me in, you dare not challenge me to do anything that is not convenient for me when I get into power because the good Lord knows I will first recover my money before thinking about the masses. The populace constitutes a big nuisance in this rule of thumb and until the people start placing premium value on themselves, the journey to building a New Nigeria will be near impossible.
I hear you say it’s not really the fault of the people, we should blame successive and present failed governments and leaders who treat our people as slaves in their own homes.*scoffs* The same people who complain bitterly during our campaign went all out to sell their votes for peanuts. Well, blame the politicians as much as you can, but the truth remains, the people are responsible for whatever mess this country finds itself. Are politicians manufactured abroad or heaven? Are they not part/one of us?
The irony of my polling unit; It was a dilapidated primary school building built under the Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD) administration. The same parents who complained that their children lacked decent Educational facilities, sold their votes for nothing. The people are not ready!
In conclusion, I’ll leave you with two messages, the first being; A good name is more valuable than gold, silver and in new age term gazillion $$$$£££££$$$$$, no matter how old, rugged and rusty it sounds, a good name is still the best legacy. Bukola’s surname, “Ogunsanwo” opened some doors that would probably have been shut against us or difficult to enter. Everywhere we went, everyone said good things about Bukola’s parents, her father used to be a government contractor who made a difference in his community. I have no recollection of anyone speaking ill about him — the testimonies were touching and inspiring. What does your name stand for? What would you be remembered for? These trumps every selfish desire you might nurse, nothing beats a good name, not power or money or fame. Don’t mess things up for those coming after you.
Second, I believe that #RevolutionNow starts at your wards, local government and political parties. What are you doing at the ground level to make a difference? How can we make every small win make a ripple effect across the country? We need young people to fill in seats at the councils, local government, state government and federal government. Join a political party, be active, we must be intentional and strategic if we really want to take charge in 2023, the right time to start drawing out plans to win the election in 2023 is now. We are not too young to run and win. Jii!!!! Masun!!
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Olabode Emmanuel is an actor, writer and film/TV producer. He tweets @olabodeeo
