NIGERIA; POLITICS OR POORLITICS

I don’t know how you will define politics but for me it is the process of people bettering the lots of the masses in a country. Government has been defined as a process or an art of governing, or an institution of a country or state. Going by the definition of government then politics is an art of or the process of bettering peoples live through governance.
Democracy too has been rightly defined as the government of the people by the people and for the people. But in Nigeria, this is not the case as only few persons only benefit.
A politician is said to be a shrewd, prudent, discreet and diplomatic and expected to be artful in governance. A politician is expected to create wealth for the masses he is governing and this is expected to be his primary role and duty to the society or people that elected him.
The question now is when a politician chooses to create wealth for himself at the detriment of his people can it still be said to be politics, I beg to differ because I will rather call it poorlitics than call it politics.
Poorlitics is just the opposite of politics. It is the process of impoverishing the masses through governance. It takes the same process as politics but travel through different direction. While one focuses on the betterment of the people, the other is only concerned about impoverishing them. If after 59 years of self-governance (60 by October), our country is still much the same then we have had more poorliticians than politicians.
But again a section of the masses pass all the blame to Britain which colonized us, there by exonerating our poorliticians who should be held responsible for all the mess in our country, and accountable for bad governance.
They keep asking what has Britain done for us, but it will be better to rephrase this question and instead ask what has Nigeria done for Nigerians.
There is hunger in the land and what has caused it? Poorlitics. There is inflation caused by the indecision and under-sight by our leaders which is tantamount to poorlitics.
Our educational system is suffering from rot due to corruption, malpractice and incessant strikes. From primary school to the tertiary institution our schools are in a state of mess or you may say public schools because some private schools are definitely above waters but with exorbitant fees that cannot be afforded by over 80% of the masses, permit me to say that our education is a mess or better put in shambles. And will remain like that until we remove all the poorliticians who can afford to send their children to Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford and start electing politicians.
Our currency can be equated to a tissue paper in the international market; again you can trace the cause to poorlitics.
Our health sector is in shambles reason why many Nigerians who can afford it travel to countries with better health care facilities. We pay our health workers 5000 naira for hazards while our president get 30 million naira for haircut and the members of the parliament earn over 15 million naira per month for just sitting in the house and we expect our health workers to put their lives on the line to save us, I doubt that is possible. The rot in our health sector is also a product of poorlitics and until poorliticians are barred from going outside the country for health care then our hospitals will remain much the same.
The government can’t pay a minimum wage of 30,000 naira but according to the former minister of interior, the same government feeds a prisoner with 14000 daily. The minister of information said a political prisoner we all know was been fed with 3.5 million monthly and also built a house for him, this is surely poorlitics and not politics.
While an ordinary prisoner spends 420,000 a month and 5040000 a year, a political prisoner spends 42000000 a year and a Nigerian worker who earns 18000 a month makes a total of 216000 a year. While the prisoner enjoys free accommodation, he pays for accommodation and then fends for himself and his family. One would logically say that it is better to be in prison than work in Nigeria.
Yet some section of ignoramus will say Britain underdeveloped Nigeria. My dear Nigerians if Britain underdeveloped us then what have will done for our country? Again, poorlitics.
This not the country we dream of or crave for but if after 60 years we are still like this then it is time to stop complaining and take our destiny in our hand. Let’s get rid of all the poorliticians and bring in politicians to lead our dear country.
It is now obvious that for 60 years we have played poorlitics, now it is time to play politics. Over to you Nigerians.

Written by Victor Utomi
He is a writer, an entrepreneur, a business consultant and a speaker
For comments, you can reach him via victom.dmay@gmail.com or 08133933149