In his magnum opus, The Republic, Plato divided the state into three parts, made up of the commoners, the soldiers, and the guardians, which is equivalent to his tripartite division of the soul into the appetetive, the spirited, and the rational.
Plato insisted that political power should be in the hands of the guardians, while the commoners and the soldiers, who should concentrate on their individual functions, should not take part in politics. Plato said the guardians who were to be very few in number should be carefully selected and specially trained to carry out the art of governance.
Plato’s ideal political system therefore, was a government of a few for the greater majority of the people of the state. This was to be a government where some privileged individuals would determine the fortunes of the entire people of the state. In other words, it was to be a government of the aristocrats.
Since the advent of the current democratic dispensation in Nigeria, we have continued to witness this Plato’s ideal political system playing out everywhere in the country. In specific term, we have been hearing of such sords like “caucus”, “stakeholder”, “godfather”, etc., which have now becomea part of our political vocabulary, and which also dominate the political landscape.
This is a system where some few individual will sit down in closed chambers to determine the political fortunate of the vast majority of the people. Whatever they agreed or decided in that meeting would become the agreement of the entire people of the area and everybody must abide, or comply with it. Whoever tries to reject or challenge the outcome of that decision will simply be wasting his or her time, because he would never succeed in challenging it.
That is why we have various imposition of candidates various political offices across all the political parties. People who do not even know their political, social or cultural environment and place of birth, or who never showed any interest in what concerns their people nor participated in their affairs, would come from nowhere to become the”people’s choice” and thus given their parties’ ticket to represent them.
When the actual election comes, these people will still emerge victorious since the “godfathers”, the “caucuses” and the “stakeholders” had previously determined the outcome of the election exercise, and they would do everything possible, even if it means subverting the electoral process, in order to ensure that their preferred candidates are elected.
Once elected, the occupants of the political offices will become slaves to the “stakeholders” and “political godfathers”, those who put them in the office. They will remain in office as long as they wished, so far they are able to continue to service the “stakeholders” and “godfathers”, who would be milking them dry at the of the people they were elected to serve. What mattered therefore was to ensure that they were in the good books of the “godfathers” and “stakeholders”.
Governor Rochas Okolocha of Imo State has told us the other day that the APC governors had resolved that President Mahammadu Buhari should contest the 2019 presidential election, even when the President himself had earlier said that he was waiting for Nigerians to tell him whether or not he should run.
Okolocha who is the chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, said the decision that President Buhari should come out and contest the 2019 election was taken after a three-day meeting of the APC governors held in Abuja.
Now that the APC governors have spoken, who dares challenge them, not even the wife of the President, Aisha, who it was alleged, had been forwarding to some users of social media, criticisms made against her husband and his government on the floor of the Senate?
Since that is the case, we all will equally fall in line with the decision of the APC governors. We have no power to challenge them or to question their decision. It is the “people”that have spoken.
In that regard, Buhari should put on his combat gear, come out immediately and publicly declare his intention. There should be no wasting time or dilly-dallying. Thank God he had already reappointed Chibuike Amechi to lead his campaign operations. He will begin to traverse through the length and breadth of the country. We will support him.
The interesting thing, however, is that Jonathan had shown the way through his electoral reforms. It is no longer a period of the “incumbent-must-win election”. The electorate are becoming wiser and much more determined to assert their right and their power. They are ready to vote out any incompetent and directionless administration, even if all the governors in the world are backing it.
