By Theo Adebowale

He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, so let it be with the wicked home and abroad. That is what the Bible says, and the American President is fond of the book of the law. In quick succession, police brutality is playing up once more as a norm. One would have wanted to look at it as an unfortunate development for all to address except for the discrimination that is stamped on it. It is brutality against African Americans. A couple of weeks ago, it was George Floyd that had breath snuffed out of him. A white policeman knelt on his neck, he could not breathe. He was suffocated to death.
A couple of days back John Blakes, another black man was ordered into a car. As he was entering, a cop pumped seven gun shots into him at close range. The physician, we were told, said it would take a miracle for him to walk again. He is paralysed from the waist down. In these and related cases, the President has-not expressed any genuine concern, nor deemed it fit to take any action that would meaningfully communicate disapproval of the dastardly acts.
Joe Biden, presidential candidate of Democratic Party has described Trump’s attitude as weak. Donald Trump expressed his contempt for the blacks a long time ago. He is nauseated by the oppressive actions of African leaders, and the surrender of their people. The greed of public officers who continually plunder the national treasury and the helplessness of the population were considered as unprecedented by the American President. And so American nationalists treat an average black as a game. What shall rescue the black man? Those of them in public office treat the rest of us as subhuman. History has it that in the days of yore traditional rulers with little or no resistance sold their subjects into slavery. Even friends and acquaintances readily took their neighbours into slavery to settle debts.
Chinua Achebe recorded in Things Fall Apart how warrant officers, improvised public officials readily betrayed their fellow men to the delight of colonial officers. Then black man bears the misfortune home and abroad, since ancient to modern times. Take the illustration in Things Fall Apart where those that were lower ranked in the traditional stratification found themselves in the employ of the white man as interpreters and errand boys. The little language skills they acquired were utilized to oppress their fellow men, to dispossess them of belongings and livelihood.
It turned out that it was the imperialists who employed merit in assessment and allocation of values. Rational measures in commodities, academic evaluation, wealth distribution even equity were imported from Christian missionaries and colonial officials for exchange. Durability of bank notes and coins helped the Europeans to establish their superiority over our culture. Evolution of wickedness did not result from colonialism. While Ifa is trusted as encydopedic, reliable and incorruptible, the wickedness of the wicked has prevailed as the Holy Bible, and the Quran have been adopted by hypocrites playing lip service to serious issues of public interest. Any wonder that the judiciary has been taken for a plaything in spite of men and women of honour who minister in the temple of justice? Any wonder that the legislature is regarded as bureau de change? And business of government in many parts of Africa have not only been trivialized, they have been desecrated.
The other day, one of the supposed graduates from a federal polytechnic was discovered to be illiterate. With her Higher National Diploma, she could not supply her biodata at the camp when she got there for her National Youth Service. What about politicians that supply credentials that bear different names for screening to contest for public offices? Law enforcement is a different ball game. Fulani herdsmen parade our streets with unlicensed sophisticated weapons. At the slightest provocation, they open fire on farmers who resist their nefarious activities of over running their farmlands. Last week Abraham was paraded for fighting back when attacked by herdsmen. Unfortunately, for him one of the herdsmen dropped dead in the process. It was in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. Herdsmen who in the past opened fire and killed the farmers were released by the police as soon as they were brought to the station by those who overpowered them. Nigerian government protested discrimination against its citizens in Ghana but is indifferent to reports of herdsmen that massacre citizens, and shamefully officials at different times in the past disclosed that these herdsmen are not even Nigerians’ they are herders without borders.
Democracy which has evolved over the centuries since the times of the Greek city states has met its ridicule in the countries of the black man. Universal adult suffrage has been transformed to a game of madness. Certain individuals ascribe power to themselves to decide for the people who would be their representatives. Having chosen who would be candidates, they still decide to allocate the votes without the voters i.e on behalf of the electors. And the system is getting compromised more and more by the day. Godfathers, mafia and mafioso are being cloned by politicians and their rented supporters who are no more than false witnesses rendering unfounded testimonies as foundation for electoral fraud.
Unpopular African office holders are getting more desperate. They want to retain elective office without popular mandate. They are prepared to coerce, intimidate, blackmail, bribe and manipulate the electoral process. They desecrate the process by helping others to beat the electorate and bypass legitimacy by their grace, so that aspirants may see them as the only way to political authority.
Having corrupted institutions of the state and turned the people to destitutes, they have enough funds from the treasury to buy the elector’s conscience to vote against himself. It is a case of mortgaging the only electoral instrument to demonstrate inalienable importance in the fashion of Esau. Desperado even threatens that he can kill. Such characters, their antics, ambition and fellow perverts must be handled with caution and confidence. Wherever and whenever election approaches, review the process and list of candidates in groups of family, friends and union. Since political parties meet at unit and ward levels, voters can meet informally to adopt a party of choice. They move as a force to vote and monitor the process. If you see how the Pro-Chancellor of a first generation University set apart the statute to remove the chief executive, you will appreciate why we must be on our guard. It is important to market our preferred candidate meticulously. We must also educate our friends why they must not vote insensitive, rapacious, greedy, self-centred politicians into office.
Every election henceforth must be taken as another precious opportunity not only to vote for the best material but to reclaim and assert our franchise. Who you vote determines the economy, whether or not you pay more taxes, levies or rates. It will also determine whether or not you get contracts or employment. It will as well affect the quality of life you live. The candidate is transformed to authority by your ballot. Treat it with care. Do not sell it. Prepare to vote for good governance. Do not give your vote to whoever does not appreciate it. Do not allow political criminals escape with the ballot box. Confirm that your voter card is safe.
Nature has been so benevolent to Africa. But by the wickedness of those entrusted with political authority, what God has generously endowed the land with, those in political authority have misapplied and laundered to Europe, America and Asia have developed their communities at the expense of Africa through the choice of occupiers of public offices. An average person would gladly bear oppression, even imprisonment in the foreign land rather than in the black continent. President Donald Trump’s contempt for the black man is a child’s play compared to the concept of hate speech or proposed operationalisation of community policing.
When we the people decide to put honourable and competent personnel in office and insist in judicious application of resources, we shall have good governance. When African policemen treat citizens with respect, when the Nigeria policemen are given the right orientation and motivation, they would treat us with decorum. Then, we would have acquired the moral energy to defend Africans in the diaspora. Not only that, we would have made our land a preferred abode. Nigeria under the right leadership is the place to visit. Our culture has qualities of tourist centers. It is the wickedness of the wicked that make us a pariah. We can start to correct with our votes. If only we make them count.