Lest the rat race

The race towards 2019 seems quite hotter and earlier in my homestate, Ogun State.
Nigerian youths can still push for a more liberal political structure that can produce Senators and Governors without having to spend billions of naira to get to office, rather than supporting the current statusquo by engaging in campaign of hate and rage to show support for current crops of politicians. Nigerian youths are misplacing their priorities again. I am very confident to say that most of our social media tigers who are either campaigning for one particular candidate or defaming another political figure are doing so purely for their selfish personal interest, none of these Facebook and Twitter foot soldiers is being ideological in his approach or engagements. None of them is telling us how their paymasters are going to do things differently from what or who they're campaigning against, which should form the basis of people's preference and direction for voters sympathy in 2019, it's been noises all over the media spaces, rather than rhythmic and lyrical vibes that should appeal to the voters conscience.
We all are condemning the politicians and at the same time offering our very pertinent and pivotal shoulders for their entry into the political amphitheatre where they end up Lording over us without remorse, and the crumbs they liter on our table while we engage in intellectual hooliganism for their electoral victory, often prevent us from asking for their balance sheet when they get to power.
We are all guilty of what we accuse our politicians of, greed, self-serving interests and narrow mindedness.
We can do better and achieve more, if we can channel even far less of the energy we are using in aiding and abetting our political rape,  towards strong determination to make our politicians answerable to us by keeping them on their toes. But we are too blinded by greed. We never attempt to beat them or challenge their excesses for once but we are always singing the nauseating theme: "if you can't beat them you join them." It's never too late for us to rescue Nigeria from the fangs of these political vampires, we should place patriotism above self and ravenous desire for wealth.
Nelson Mandela wasn't desirous of wealth and riches but was passionate about liberating his people from the shackles of apartheid and oppression.
It is high time we start thinking right,
what is the essence of the appointments and contracts we often seek from politicians?
When we can't enjoy the proceeds of such with a rest of mind, we steal so much money to buy exotic cars that can not be safely driven on our roads,  we build sprawling mansions in the absence of serenity and peaceful atmosphere, the bigger our mansions, the bigger the sources of our alternative power supply, the louder the noises and the higher our contributions to the depletion of the ozone layers. We are just unrepentantly crazy and greedy.. both the government and the governed. We simply refuse to come to terms with one certain reality, that no matter what we do, all of us can never become elected politician or political appointee, but all of us can make the few amongst us, who are able to get to elected office, more responsible and and responsive to their constitutional role of discharging credible and creditable duties as administrators of our common wealth, by taking the dividends of good governance to every corners of the country.
Government remains unperturbed by the wanton killings and the spate of crime across the country, cult groups are taking over towns and killing people without any hindrance and some people are warming up to tske over the machinery of governance in less than 2 years from now, and the so called youths are defaming and m aligning themselves on social media without asking those people presently  in government any question on how they can seize the reign of terror in the country, we hear billions of dollars as budget for various ministries and departments without anything to show for it.. as expectant as millions of Nigerians in 2014 APC is expected to bring succor to the hardships of Nigerians but 2 years on, NOTHING has Changed except the financial status of the politicians in the rulling party,  and we are still falling over ourselves to reshuffle the looters without questioning.

Some of us often display our oratory wares in order to get the attention of the power brokers, while the masses hail us in false believe, seeing us as their genuine advocates, once we get inducted into the fraternity of governance with a political appointment, all the virtues and ideologies we once supported and preached, suddenly disappears from our books and pockets of reasoning, as soon as we take the bloody oath of office, we jettison our pretensive welfarist ideologies, the garb of which we fraudulently adorn, to warm our ways into the waiting minds of the unsuspecting masses for a piece of the national cake, thereby fostering the general cliche(s) of
"wait for your turn" if you can't beat them you join them " meanwhile, we knew from the onset that our vibrant and clattering vocal cords were simply a signage for political patronage.
Personally and sincerely, I dont have any problem with this treacherous trend, which has become a norm in our political space, but I strongly believe that there are other more noble ways of launching oneself into the political stage instead of raising peoples hopes by pretending to be their advocates and championing their causes, by speaking against their deprivation, only to abandon them midway to their fate on getting the attention of their captors and oppressors which was your primary underlying motive.
The perfect analogy to this is like offering free legal services to a group of rape victims and later joining forces with the group of rapists to further rape the victims in full glare, to me, this is the cheapest and most unceremonious approach to gaining political recognition.

This write up is never intended to appeal to the conscience of any present or future political opportunists, but rather to lift the sleeping spirits of genuine political emancipation of young and vibrant Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic/sociopolitical background with the primary aims of changing the present political status quo through a more proactive movement with greater aspiration for a better and functional Nigeria.

Deji Ogundimu is watching the political rough play with mixed feelings.