Elections are now over. Actually, they have been for a while. The swearing in of a new tenure for the same administration is here.

I should have written this a while ago, a little after elections, but I have struggled about whether I should express the views I have here. I have lost the struggle and decided to express them. Hopefully, hindsight won’t show that it was an error of judgment, but if it does, then, even that is part of the learning process the introspection and expression itself represents.

As the electioneering process concluded, I thought to myself; I really should keep to my few, mostly monotone dark coloured suits, go to work and be the “technocrat” (whatever that means) I was appointed to be, and prepare to continue a life after public service in what I know best; my professional calling, not just as a lawyer, but a practicing lawyer.

However, there is a realization that has come upon me; one I will be failing incredibly in personal, self-set and imposed responsibility if I don’t disclose. And since I am still too lazy to write a book (much to the irritation and aggravation of a key mentor of mine- a professor of law, perhaps the very best and strategic lawyer I know, a prolific author, the most outstanding political officeholder I have encountered and an exemplary big brother in age, but a guiding parent in wisdom and scope), I think its important I find expression for, or “publish” these thoughts somehow.

An election, and then four years on, another election have shown and taught me some things. I think one of the most important, is a dangerous and sad pollution of our elite class to a point that those who merit the honor of the appellation or membership are far fewer in the group than those who don’t. Worse still, their intellect, clarity, commentary and credibility now sometimes (albeit sometimes inadvertently) become enablers to the sinister at worst, or mediocre at best objectives of the polluting majority. The trouble with that is obvious and needs no elaboration.

The seasons and both cycles reveal that, unlike progressing societies where the elites are a small pool of sophistication, education and commitment to governance for the larger and more vulnerable populace, our elites in our country, consider governance an instrument for self, and against the larger and more vulnerable populace. In those societies, the elites are trustees and custodians of power and wealth for the purpose of shared prosperity, justice, equality and equity, but with us, elites are appropriators of wealth for the purpose of expanding poverty, promoting inequality, eschewing equity and discarding justice.

We have abused and redefined the characterization of “elite from the prevailing norm which is RESPONSIBILITY, SELFLESSNESS and SERVICE. For us, it is SUPERIORITY, SELFISHNESS and AVARICE.
Our small elite class has re-calibrated the volume of discourse to portraying the vocal and amplified minority as the louder voice and conscience of the nation at the expense, and to the exclusion of the silent, and sometimes voiceless majority, whose voices are many, and whenever they, if they ever find it, speak in whispers. We the so called elites now mistake or arrogantly adopt our loud and amplified conversations among ourselves as the true pulse of the nation because of the decibels.

There is nothing more grievous for a nation and more traumatic for a people than the travesty of those who aspire to lead, yet scorn and disregard the voices of the people. They miss it, and their disconnection and misalignment is unmistakable, yet paradoxically, mistaken. Their philosophy is at best academic, but more realistically, selfish. They characterize vital and needed critical social investment as tokenism and vote-buying. They dishonor and disregard the hardworking and honest majority as vote-sellers who are lacking in civic responsibility, but only want some change as exchange for their crucial obligation to self, family and and nation. In reality, what they call vote-buying is actually “VOTER BUY-IN”. The beaten and broken populace bought into responsibility and compassion manifesting through the Social Investment Programs (SIP) and exercised their franchise based on that. What they are doing is contrary to what the pundits or politically weaponized elites think or say; the masses are the ones buying, not selling. They buy into the fidelity, performance and commitment of leaders they believe and trust.

I know this a political live cable, I understand and respect dissent, but I am unapologetic about how I feel, what side of it I am, and the expression thereof. And if my introspection causes us to engage in some reflection, the hard work and overcoming the dilemma of whether to express is would have been well worth, because, if the walls of the pipe of our reflections is f[color=#990000][/color]rank honesty, then it should produce a guidance that starts the work of redefining elites, and re prioritizing the silent majority.

Babatunde Irukera, Director General, Consumer Protection Council