Like life, like politics

There are many people alive who are dead. There are many people who had long died but can be said to have not only defied death but also remained relevant. Enter Chinua Achebe, the prolific man of literature, who told a male body part that if it didn’t die young, it would eat bearded meat. Mr. Achebe died long ago but remains as popular as ever because of his iconic books.

Really, death is not the worst that there is: the worst that can happen is to die -and that, young. Whether it’s in Nigeria or Afghanistan or Cambodia or United States or United Kingdom or China or anywhere else on earth, life and politics will treat you the same if you don’t die so soon. Successful people never quit, just as quitters can’t ever succeed. Turning back because of a storm -which is akin to dying young- should never be an alternative.

Thanks to Gov. Udom Emmanuel and State Chairman Aniekan Akpan, People’s Democratic Party in my home state of Akwa Ibom last Saturday did something politically uncanny. Members held a general meeting simultaneously across all 329 wards of the state. Startup time was noon. At mine, Southern Uruan Ward V, the meeting at once became an eye-opener as it reminded everyone yet again of the importance -sorry, no- it reminded everyone of the fundamentality -no matter the disagreement- of people coming together to talk the talk.

As with everything political in Nigeria, the meeting suffered a little from the so-called African Time Syndrome. However, when it started an hour later, the party ward office was filled to the brim. It started well, with some of those ritualistic speeches that say so much nothing. I have come to cherish that element of political meetings though, for two reasons.

One: the laughter it generates in my heart, distributed as both a smile to my face and a coolant to my body. Two: a Nigerian political meeting may just be exactly what Jesus means by the wheat and the tares being allowed to grow together. Political masters (a powerful minority) create the room for the teeming members (the ineffective majority) to have their say while they (the former) thereafter and eventually have their way. Any Nigerian in Nigeria who successfully runs a political meeting -let alone a tenured political system or more- should be studied as a course by those who seek to understand how to lead life.

Political meetings in Nigeria should be named among weather types. It is  the trickiness, for me. The gathering storm at a political meeting can snowball into sweet sunshine the very next second because of one small thing the leader or someone else does or says -at the right time. Similarly, a political meeting that’s going so well, with everyone feeling good and hopeful, can the very next minute transmogrify into a tsunami -with everyone turning against everyone.

If you don’t die young, you shall eat bearded meat. This Chinua Achebe proverb kept running in my mind as the Southern Uruan Ward V meeting evolved. Suddenly, a certain speaker took the stage and -as with every political speech- started well, poured encomia here and there, spoke of the future we crave and just as everyone began to relax -he raised his voice, dove into history of how this or that person took money meant for everyone last year and how such injustice can no more be tolerated going forward. The electric way his message and messaging resonated with the audience leading to cacophonous murmurs, one could just tell many had been waiting for the opportunity.

The decibels reached deafening crescendos when four women representing the four villages of Ekpene Ukim, Ibiaku Issiet, Ibiaku Obio Ndobo and Ndon Uruan re-echoed the inhuman way their gender -who according to them do ‘all the political work in the ward’- are sidelined during harvest. This writer looked at the women, one by one, and looked away in subdued humour and utter disbelief. Women in the ward are oppressed and sidelined but the Ward Chairman is a woman -the only woman statewide (not sure if also nationwide) holding the for-men-only position. Plus the person representing the ward on Uruan Local Government executive council is -wait for it- a woman!

Alas, the women of Uruan South V were not lying or doing something entirely strange to politics. Nigerian politicians -all of them- call things that be as though they be not; just with a view to getting more. It is by crying wolf all the time that women now have far above the 35% they said they wanted while some men too -who already have too much political patronage- employ the same stratagem to attract more political appointments and projects to themselves, family and geopolitical zone. Like life, like politics.

Politics, like life, is survival of the fittest. Even those decrying the injustice that walks on all fours all over politics Nigeriana in their little corner help to exacerbate the situation or shall do worse once on top. As with life, politics suffers too much hypocrisy. Aspirants lambast the one holding the office they seek but once they become a successor, the electorate begin to cry for the return of the predecessor.

Help, life mouths excellence all the time but looks away in the name of favour to give mediocrity not only easy access to the top but also free reign. The laissez-faire in politics is beyond-be-careful. Excellence is nonsensified while nonsense is excellencified. Still, everyone carries on as if everything is perfect.

You must strive and ensure you don’t die young. It is about the only way in life and in politics that you will in your lifetime eat bearded meat. Not dying young can also mean sticking around in spite of and despite the injustice and humiliation you suffer. In politics as in life, people are going to deliberately target you but if you get angry and die young (ie give up), you won’t eat the bearded meat that might result from the trademark reconciliation that almost always follows political hurricanes.

Which brings us to where we started. The ward meeting ended so peacefully, with everyone hi-fiving everyone, that anyone who died young (ie ran away when tempers rose) lost the chance to eat bearded meat (in this case to learn something profound). It was the speech of the Ward Leader that undid frayed nerves and reset everyone on the right path. That’s another similarity between life and politics.

Politicians understand timing and capacity. They know who should speak; where and when. The Ward Leader -his speech being the last at the meeting- proved the talisman. He sided with the people, condemned what ought to be condemned, even pointing the finger and calling names, but preached forgiveness.

The people cheered. The same people who moments ago threatened fire and brimstone. That’s another side to life and politics. With the right words or reaction, war can be averted.

From the foregoing, we all see that it is easy to live or lead a better life by borrowing a leaf or two from politics. Be patient, be forgiving and, no matter the temptation, never die young. In life and in politics, this is all it takes to eat bearded meat.

God bless Nigeria