IMMANUEL JAMES WROTE
The chants of victory - and the groans of loss - over our last presidential election have left the polity so noisy we can hardly hear each other. While the election marked a new threshold in our political development, highlighting new levels in our patriotic involvement, it has led to a fatal battery of objectivity and genuine civic surveillance.
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The love of Jonathan, or that of Buhari - or of their political parties - may be informed by progressive concerns, yet that love should be subservient to a higher ideal: patriotism. When the reverse is the case - when partisanship is superior to patriotism - the result is sheer political idolatry, a yesmanship so complete it blinds the individual against the perception of truth. You do not have to become a cyber installation for the ceaseless production of praise and defence for your principal, a principal for whom you remain but a thinly useful anonymity.
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When young people, Buharists and Jonathanians, insist on their conflicting correctness, refusing to acknowledge error or merit in themselves and in their opponents respectively, then there is a problem. Patriotism demands some level of personal detachment. It thrives on decent, intelligent conversations, placing the national good above the pride of not wanting to be found wrong. There is no point deafening the community with the echoes of your monologues, such that you the speaker can no longer hear something of value in contrary communication.
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The story of our battered objectivity began with the emergence of the APC opposition. Lai Mohammed became a serial complainant against the Jonathan administration, so given to lamentation that he rendered himself incapable of giving credit. It was only a matter of time before he reached transition as an agency of propaganda, perhaps driven to that desperation by Jonathan's colourful failure. The tables have turned and the PDP opposition mercenaries have, in just a week, proven themselves brilliant pupils of Lai's unwitting coaching: seeing no good, hearing no good - willing to see only gaffes and evil. They forget that, by so doing, their complaints will soon lose credibility, to be seen as products of mere mischief and political witchcraft. It has even got to the point where, if Buhari's supporters graciously admit error, they'll be forever booed for it, hence they'd do that only over their dead bodies! Good thing, however, is that President Buhari is not listening to this brand of supporters: while they were still defending the 'ban' of AIT from covering his affairs, he 'fell their hands' by overturning that error; while they were defending the non-public declaration of assets, he fell their hands again by promising to make the declaration public - thereby admitting the validity of that criticism. May he continue to fall their hands and consequently continue to inspire patriotism in those who truly wish Nigeria well.
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Meanwhile, there is nothing to gain from this trend other than friendship among similar haters, and hatred among previous friends. Genuine conversation, objectivity, and the prospects of national development will suffer. Bad roads, fuel scarcity, poor health facilities, power failure, among other elements of our unity as the masses of Nigeria, do not recognise party affiliations. If the current APC federal government fails, the casualties will be mainly poor and middle-class Nigerians. Tinubu, Buhari, Lai Mohammed, etc., will lose nothing other than titles; they do not buy fuel in jerry-cans, do not live in muddy streets, and do not use 'I pass my neighbour' to charge their mobile phones. As members of a generation that midwifed Nigeria's current paradigm, we do not need to shoot ourselves in the foot. Like Jonathan, Buhari would not always be right or wrong. Constructive criticism does not cost extra megabyte. We need to be more patriotic than partisan. - My two-penny.
The chants of victory - and the groans of loss - over our last presidential election have left the polity so noisy we can hardly hear each other. While the election marked a new threshold in our political development, highlighting new levels in our patriotic involvement, it has led to a fatal battery of objectivity and genuine civic surveillance.
.
.
The love of Jonathan, or that of Buhari - or of their political parties - may be informed by progressive concerns, yet that love should be subservient to a higher ideal: patriotism. When the reverse is the case - when partisanship is superior to patriotism - the result is sheer political idolatry, a yesmanship so complete it blinds the individual against the perception of truth. You do not have to become a cyber installation for the ceaseless production of praise and defence for your principal, a principal for whom you remain but a thinly useful anonymity.
.
.
When young people, Buharists and Jonathanians, insist on their conflicting correctness, refusing to acknowledge error or merit in themselves and in their opponents respectively, then there is a problem. Patriotism demands some level of personal detachment. It thrives on decent, intelligent conversations, placing the national good above the pride of not wanting to be found wrong. There is no point deafening the community with the echoes of your monologues, such that you the speaker can no longer hear something of value in contrary communication.
.
.
The story of our battered objectivity began with the emergence of the APC opposition. Lai Mohammed became a serial complainant against the Jonathan administration, so given to lamentation that he rendered himself incapable of giving credit. It was only a matter of time before he reached transition as an agency of propaganda, perhaps driven to that desperation by Jonathan's colourful failure. The tables have turned and the PDP opposition mercenaries have, in just a week, proven themselves brilliant pupils of Lai's unwitting coaching: seeing no good, hearing no good - willing to see only gaffes and evil. They forget that, by so doing, their complaints will soon lose credibility, to be seen as products of mere mischief and political witchcraft. It has even got to the point where, if Buhari's supporters graciously admit error, they'll be forever booed for it, hence they'd do that only over their dead bodies! Good thing, however, is that President Buhari is not listening to this brand of supporters: while they were still defending the 'ban' of AIT from covering his affairs, he 'fell their hands' by overturning that error; while they were defending the non-public declaration of assets, he fell their hands again by promising to make the declaration public - thereby admitting the validity of that criticism. May he continue to fall their hands and consequently continue to inspire patriotism in those who truly wish Nigeria well.
.
.
Meanwhile, there is nothing to gain from this trend other than friendship among similar haters, and hatred among previous friends. Genuine conversation, objectivity, and the prospects of national development will suffer. Bad roads, fuel scarcity, poor health facilities, power failure, among other elements of our unity as the masses of Nigeria, do not recognise party affiliations. If the current APC federal government fails, the casualties will be mainly poor and middle-class Nigerians. Tinubu, Buhari, Lai Mohammed, etc., will lose nothing other than titles; they do not buy fuel in jerry-cans, do not live in muddy streets, and do not use 'I pass my neighbour' to charge their mobile phones. As members of a generation that midwifed Nigeria's current paradigm, we do not need to shoot ourselves in the foot. Like Jonathan, Buhari would not always be right or wrong. Constructive criticism does not cost extra megabyte. We need to be more patriotic than partisan. - My two-penny.
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