In screening the aspirants before the primaries, it is important that the parties do not embrace illusion with its misleading embodiments.
Promise Adiele
As a scholar, I am always fascinated by the notion of illusion or reality which makes a distinction between hoax and genuine. Indeed, man’s perception of the world, his total outlook of it is defined by illusion or reality. Our ideas of success, religion, relationships and love, all are subsumed within the matrix of illusion or reality. While illusion thrives on deception, a mirage, reality deals with the substance, the truth. Unfortunately, many people are quick to embrace the enticing superficiality of illusion while repudiating the austere disposition of reality. The foregoing provides a dramatic laboratory for literary icon, William Shakespeare, to experiment his art in his play, The Merchant of Venice. In the play, Shakespeare revalidates the idea that humanity naturally gravitates towards a culture of illusion, nurtured by a profligate consciousness. He, however, elevates reality to an honorific level where it is rewarded and acclaimed.
The subplot of The Merchant of Venice presents us with a marriage ceremony in Belmont where a beautiful lady, Portia is inundated with suitors seeking her hand in marriage. However, her father had left a Will with strict instructions that the suitors must choose from three different caskets made of gold, silver and lead and whoever chooses the right casket will marry Portia. The suitors include the Prince of Morocco, the Prince of Arragon and Bassanio. The Prince of Morocco chooses the gold casket with the slogan “who chooseth me shall get what many men desire.” The Prince of Arragon chooses the silver casket with the inscription “who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.” The last suitor Bassanio chooses the lead casket which proclaims “who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.” The first two suitors reject the lead casket apparently because of its poor quality and an inscription that made little sense to them. They choose the more attractive, flamboyant caskets with inviting embellishments, but they lose out. However, Bassanio who chooses the lead casket with less attractive qualities succeeds in getting Portia’s hand in marriage. In this way, Shakespeare rehabilitates the notion of illusion or reality, a timely warning to a world caught in the hypnotizing grip of signs and wonders, a façade of vanishing illusion.
The above literary illustration must be critically examined and understood with the 2019 elections staring us in the face. Nigerians are daily overwhelmed by requests from politicians to vote for them in next year’s general election. Most of the requests from aspirants are veiled slogans of deceit, greed and inordinate ambition. Most of them too are genuine with a commitment to serve and affect the lives of the populace in a positive way. However, before the aspirants can emerge, there must be a compulsory process of selection, party primaries and eventual screening by different government power structures. In screening the aspirants before the primaries, it is important that the parties do not embrace illusion with its misleading embodiments. It is also very important that the parties do not jettison reality as a result of its unappealing, naked simplicity.
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The screening of officers for different government positions has come under critical searchlight following Nigeria’s former finance minister, Kemi Adeosun’s experience. She had served as a commissioner for finance in Ogun State and as Nigeria’s finance minister with a forged NYSC exemption certificate. Certainly, Kemi Adeosun was duly screened by the National Assembly and other agencies of government. Yet, of all these agencies, none was able to detect that she had a fake NYSC exemption certificate. All the agencies that screened her are guilty and complicit in the matter because they failed woefully in the assignment that was given to them. If she faces the wrath of the law (which I doubt very much) then all those that took part in her screening should also be made to face the wrath of the law. Certainly, there are many such cases in different government establishments and formations. Fake certificates and forged documents everywhere, we are indeed at home with illusion while reality weeps in far away land.
As 2019 elections come upon us, the aspirants must be critically screened in order to separate illusion from reality. There are some aspirants with doubtful academic qualification and questionable credentials. There are aspirants with a past full of ignominy, who do not have the moral justification to occupy any public office. There are aspirants mired in treachery, economic sabotage and all manner of criminality which are not immediately evident to the populace. Yet these aspirants are covered in subtle glory and grandeur provided by their immense wealth. It is, therefore, easy for a poverty-stricken populace to be deceived by their illusory mien, they can sugar-coat their language and cover their image with splendour in order to deceive and win public sympathy. However, beyond that illusory disposition lies an offensive, putrid stench that violates the social space. Reality also can consist in some other aspirants who are not so flamboyant, who do not have the financial muscle to compete effectively in the money defined political arena in our country.
Right now, since the party candidates have not emerged, it is the duty of the different parties to do a thorough screening of the aspirants in order to present worthy candidates to the electorates. During party primaries, reality must be celebrated, candidates that are found wanting should be exposed and forced to quit the electoral process immediately. Political parties should not cover any form of forgery in order to use it as a blackmailing tool in the event the aspirants win elections and occupy public office.
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For aspirants who have skeletons in their cupboard, they should listen to the voice of reason and learn from Adeosun’s experience. Evil can never last for too long. As an aspirant, be aware that anyone who promises to cover your stinking rear is setting you up for eventual disgrace while manufacturing a coffin for your political career. Also aspirants who are real, who are genuinely committed to serving the populace, any aspirant who is ready to “give and hazard all he hath,” the advice is to keep faith because a new consciousness is sweeping across the land and its manifestation will shock many after next year’s election.
INEC must put laws in place that will punish parties or structures that don’t screen adequately. It is not enough to identify a public office holder who has gained advantage with fake documents, riding at the back of forgery and deception. Those who screened such people should also be held responsible and made to face the law. All the political parties in Nigeria should take the challenge and screen their aspirants thoroughly to save Nigeria from the embarrassment of having unqualified people in public offices.
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When this kind of illusory culture is established in the body politic, it has a way of affecting our youths who began to think that there is a shortcut to fame and honour. Our screening mechanism should be retooled and properly serviced to ensure that illusion is not enthroned to the impairment of reality.