Dear Father,
You know, quite honestly let me confesshere that I am not a fan of Nigerian movies. I may watch briefly if I came home and met my wife watching because it would be rude to change the channel and switch on the news immediately. But to sit and watch it like I would do Hollywood movies based on sub-titles, I am yet to develop such taste, and maybe in the future I don’t know.
But what I know is this. Just the other day while playing with my phone, I saw one of those teasers- a clip from what I appears to be apolitical satire.
In that brief clip, a young lady kneeled down begging a rich woman for help to buy food for her and her children. The lady took a piece of bread, one vegetable tomato and 1 naira or so and gave it to the beggar.
The young female beggar then look at this rich and affluent woman and said the gift could not do anything for her, let alone her ten children. The benevolent lady then turned back and asked if the young beggar voted during the last election, and she replied in the affirmative.
She said during the election when you people were collecting 10,000 Naira to go and vote didn’t you know that you were selling your future?
The young female beggar became speechless. But the woman continues, she said now the politicians don’t owe you anything because they have already bought your votes. She told the beggar that the 10,000 naira given to influence their votes included good hospitals, schools, and better living conditions that would have improved their lives.
She didn’t stop there, she said since they electorates have already been paid, its means they politicians can do whatever they like-send their children abroad to good schools and hospitals, go on vacations etc.
It was a few minute clip that spoke volume and depicted why politicians would invest in they and their family members and forget those who elected them to those offices-simply because voters sold their rights before the results could even be announced.
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This brings me to our own situation Father. There is a pending election right before us in less than four months. Politicians have begun passing around dishing out cash to potential voters. Nobody is asking why these people are dishing out such huge money to them.
On December 8, instead of voting to have good hospital and schools and for good policies that will better their lives, they will collect their futures now, and vote because of the little cash one dishonest crook has dished out to them.
Yes Father, then we want our country to improve, where? The money given in the period leading to election are investments that the politicians would have to reap their returns from when they get elected. Father, until our people stop voting for people because of the money they received in return, our village will not go anywhere.
Now we are hearing gossip that the Camp of the Footballer is dishing out 100,000 Uncle Sam’s money to each of its contestants and we pray it’s not true.
But let assume that it is, what would you expect when those heartless individuals get reelected or get elected-obviously they will have to pay back into the party’s coffers and they will not be working to improve conditions in the village but rather to pay back and pledge their loyalty to the Camp.
So even if the Footballer woke up from his wet dream one morning and say you know what I want you people to pass a law for me to go for third round, you can’t blame them because they’ve already bought your rights. Thus, only if we knew the consequences of taking money to vote for people, we would think again.
