POLITICS IS NOT A PROFESSION
By: Dele Omojuyigbe
I could spot danger on the horizon! The bug of politics has infested all professions in our land and lured away our experts from their seats of relevance. National development is the sure casualty here! Our professionals are rushing into politics, very few for altruistic reasons, but the majority for power, riches and comfort, almost certainly, and concerned authorities are watching the exodus with disinterest! Brain drain has no other name; this is its true copy. Government must devalue politics quickly to contain the dangerous trend. If people haven’t asked you to join a political party yet, whatever your profession, they surely will, shortly, because politics is everything in Nigeria, elevated to the level that it asks all questions and answers all questions. So, people jettison their fields of expertise to embrace it for the much it offers, but at the expense of what the country could gain from the expertise of the professionals involved.
The two major governorship aspirants in Ekiti State currently are academics. Dr Kayode Fayemi has been in politics for some time, maybe he prepared for it, but Olusola Eleka, a building engineering professor, is much likely to have been frustrated by the country’s harsh university system and thus pushed into politics. Eleka is just 49 and should teach till he is seventy, but academia lost him to politics in 2014 at the age of 45. Professors in years past made significant contributions to national growth in their areas of specialization through research. Ade Ajayi, who became a professor at the age of 34 and later, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, stayed on and educated the world on African history. At 71, he was quoted saying, “I am not about to give you a draft of my own intellectual obituary. I will not easily surrender my right to continue to dream dreams and see visions”. The story is different today as many professors are dreaming dreams and seeing visions only in politics.
In 2015, the number of Nigerian musicians who contested political offices was astounding. Our entertainers were tired of entertaining us, possibly because they weren’t reaping much fruits from their labour. So they threw their hats into the ring to contest for various political offices. That isn’t a good development! Musicians before them engaged their music to influence national discourse at different times! They sang socially relevant songs to promote peace, unity and good governance. They also offered advice except Fela Anikulapo Kuti whose songs propelled corrective, hard-line activism. Musicians marketed Nigeria abroad and brought a lot of goodwill for the country. Thankfully, few of them are still doing that.
Nollywood actors too joined the club of professionals desiring to be politicians. They weren’t like Chief Hubert Ogunde, father of Nigerian theatre, who employed theatre to promote Nigerian culture. Ogunde wrote books, published magazines and produced numerous films and musical records which addressed specific areas of our national life. Expected to use the instrumentality of his trade to promote Nigerian culture through dance, Ogunde was appointed by the FG as the first artistic/consultant director of the National Troupe of Nigeria. Politicians cannot take the place of artistes!
Some journalists have also discreetly embraced politics. So, the fire in their pen is going out within a ruffled, tepid newsroom. Blame not! Their worries are many with unpaid salaries and insecure future. Writing stories is not the challenge but investigating a benefactor who assisted in the day of famine is perhaps considered morally wrong, even when professionally justified. As the reporter guilty of this is caught in the dilemma of professional defence and meal ticket defence, he chooses the latter and agrees to join his benefactor’s political party secretly. What else? But there is danger! When journalists are compromised, the soul of a nation is lost. Finding the right way, once and for all, to address journalists’ challenges is paramount. It is clear from records that the country’s unity and survival rest within their power.
Sadly, the story is the same with doctors and other medical officers who also have shunned their stethoscopes and syringes. Political campaign grounds are now their clinics. And they have a good reference point in the Sarakis, both father and son. So, our hospitals suffer. Right now, statistics shows that one doctor attends to 4,000 patients in Nigeria as against WHO’s prescribed limit of 1: 1000. But can anyone force doctors to remain in nearly moribund hospitals where drugs and equipment are zero and salary irregular? Won’t the humongous wages in politics attract even angels?
The worst part is that our local farmers no longer till the land but now chant party slogans around. This is a grave threat to Nigeria’s food security plan, although herdsmen’s attacks on them are cogent. We cannot all be politicians. Concerned authorities should stem the tide by introducing workable policies that will encourage professionals to stay on their jobs. That is how to develop a country. If professionals must do politics, let it be of freewill and not coerced by the vicissitudes of their enterprise. Politics is not a profession.
I could spot danger on the horizon! The bug of politics has infested all professions in our land and lured away our experts from their seats of relevance. National development is the sure casualty here! Our professionals are rushing into politics, very few for altruistic reasons, but the majority for power, riches and comfort, almost certainly, and concerned authorities are watching the exodus with disinterest! Brain drain has no other name; this is its true copy. Government must devalue politics quickly to contain the dangerous trend. If people haven’t asked you to join a political party yet, whatever your profession, they surely will, shortly, because politics is everything in Nigeria, elevated to the level that it asks all questions and answers all questions. So, people jettison their fields of expertise to embrace it for the much it offers, but at the expense of what the country could gain from the expertise of the professionals involved.
The two major governorship aspirants in Ekiti State currently are academics. Dr Kayode Fayemi has been in politics for some time, maybe he prepared for it, but Olusola Eleka, a building engineering professor, is much likely to have been frustrated by the country’s harsh university system and thus pushed into politics. Eleka is just 49 and should teach till he is seventy, but academia lost him to politics in 2014 at the age of 45. Professors in years past made significant contributions to national growth in their areas of specialization through research. Ade Ajayi, who became a professor at the age of 34 and later, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, stayed on and educated the world on African history. At 71, he was quoted saying, “I am not about to give you a draft of my own intellectual obituary. I will not easily surrender my right to continue to dream dreams and see visions”. The story is different today as many professors are dreaming dreams and seeing visions only in politics.
In 2015, the number of Nigerian musicians who contested political offices was astounding. Our entertainers were tired of entertaining us, possibly because they weren’t reaping much fruits from their labour. So they threw their hats into the ring to contest for various political offices. That isn’t a good development! Musicians before them engaged their music to influence national discourse at different times! They sang socially relevant songs to promote peace, unity and good governance. They also offered advice except Fela Anikulapo Kuti whose songs propelled corrective, hard-line activism. Musicians marketed Nigeria abroad and brought a lot of goodwill for the country. Thankfully, few of them are still doing that.
Nollywood actors too joined the club of professionals desiring to be politicians. They weren’t like Chief Hubert Ogunde, father of Nigerian theatre, who employed theatre to promote Nigerian culture. Ogunde wrote books, published magazines and produced numerous films and musical records which addressed specific areas of our national life. Expected to use the instrumentality of his trade to promote Nigerian culture through dance, Ogunde was appointed by the FG as the first artistic/consultant director of the National Troupe of Nigeria. Politicians cannot take the place of artistes!
Some journalists have also discreetly embraced politics. So, the fire in their pen is going out within a ruffled, tepid newsroom. Blame not! Their worries are many with unpaid salaries and insecure future. Writing stories is not the challenge but investigating a benefactor who assisted in the day of famine is perhaps considered morally wrong, even when professionally justified. As the reporter guilty of this is caught in the dilemma of professional defence and meal ticket defence, he chooses the latter and agrees to join his benefactor’s political party secretly. What else? But there is danger! When journalists are compromised, the soul of a nation is lost. Finding the right way, once and for all, to address journalists’ challenges is paramount. It is clear from records that the country’s unity and survival rest within their power.
Sadly, the story is the same with doctors and other medical officers who also have shunned their stethoscopes and syringes. Political campaign grounds are now their clinics. And they have a good reference point in the Sarakis, both father and son. So, our hospitals suffer. Right now, statistics shows that one doctor attends to 4,000 patients in Nigeria as against WHO’s prescribed limit of 1: 1000. But can anyone force doctors to remain in nearly moribund hospitals where drugs and equipment are zero and salary irregular? Won’t the humongous wages in politics attract even angels?
The worst part is that our local farmers no longer till the land but now chant party slogans around. This is a grave threat to Nigeria’s food security plan, although herdsmen’s attacks on them are cogent. We cannot all be politicians. Concerned authorities should stem the tide by introducing workable policies that will encourage professionals to stay on their jobs. That is how to develop a country. If professionals must do politics, let it be of freewill and not coerced by the vicissitudes of their enterprise. Politics is not a profession.
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