Mum, Politics and Shagari
“My mother’s attitude is very much like my attitude on politics. You may like a politician for his enviable personal attributes, but you may not support him if he cannot deliver the political goods. Issues, and not personalities, should be the winning force in politics.”
My mother is the best political analyst that I know. I asked her in 1979, a couple of months before the series of elections, which of the political parties she belonged to and she told me none. Wouldn’t you vote? I asked her. She told me that she would vote, of course. How could you vote, I asked her, if you didn’t belong to any party? She said that the fact that she didn’t belong to any political didn’t mean that she was apolitical. She explained that she belonged to any party at any given moment which promised her the best. Mum, I said, okay, I understand, but which party would you vote for in the elections? She said, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Why? I asked her. They promised free education, she answered. Early last year, she came to Lagos from her home in the Bendel State (now Edo and Delta States), and I went at her again: Mum, have you now chosen a party? She said no, she hadn’t chosen a party, and would not choose one. She reminded me that she told me more than a year earlier that she didn’t think it made any sense for someone to tie herself to the apron of one particular party. Okay, mum, which party would you vote for next time? Asked her. She said that next time, at that time in 1981, was too far away but that if she had to vote that April, she would definitely not vote for UPN. Why? I asked her.
She said that the free education promised by the Bendel State UPN government of Governor Ambrose Alli has turned out not to be what was anticipated. She reminded me that I still had to pay for Abibat’s –my sister – books and that I still had to pay for her boarding which had become rather expensive. She said what she found most painful was the non-payment of teachers’ salaries which often led to teachers refusing to teach and the kids having to stay home. The conversation took place before the end of 1981 when students in Bendel State had to stay away from school for months, and in that situation, it was clear that my mother’s anger with the government of that state would even be more intense now. She went on to tell me that if she had to vote that spring, she would most definitely vote for the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). I asked her why she would do that, why she would turn 180 degrees. She said at least the NPN didn’t make a promise it couldn’t keep, and she said that she doubted that I would have had to spend more than I was doing even if the government insisted that fees should be paid. I asked her why she said she would vote for the NPN and not the NPP or any of the other parties. My mother laughed that her touching and sarcastic laugher, and asked me that were any parties really so called? She said that she felt that the other parties were just jokers that were like spoilers in a straight game between two strong football teams.
In many case, she said, the only two parties in the Bendel State that mattered were the UPN and the NPN. I pointed out to her that her husband, before his death in 1977, was a Zikist, a man who believed that the Owelle couldn’t go wrong, and someone who believed that Awo couldn’t do right. “Eh,” She said, “that was the problem with your father and most of these politicians who worshipped their fellow human beings. What was there in Zik,” she asked me, “that should make her worship him?” My mother and I didn’t get to talking about politics after conversation for a long time until three months ago when my series on President Shagari was published. She sent me a letter in which she said that she thought that she liked President Shagari. She said that looking at the photographs of the president and me, she was touched. “Shagari must really like you, he was looking at you like you are his son.” She quipped:” But how could he stand you for that long, knowing how impossible you can get?” Then I knew that my mum was stuck on President Shagari and that she would really vote for him. That notwithstanding, I told myself that I should find time to test the depth of her affection for the president, whether she would change her basic principle of politics that you should support issues and not personalities.
As soon as the economy dipped, and the president announced his corrective measures, I sent my mother a letter through one of my two brothers. I wanted her to tell me what she now thought of President Shagari, the NPN and politics in general. “I am confused,” she wrote back. “I don’t like what the president has done because poor people like me would suffer. I am sure you have to increase the allowance you give me or I would not able to buy my Ovaltine and milk. I know you will ask me if I would vote for the NPN and Shagari if the elections were held today. I don’t know, I don’t think so, although I like Shagari because I think he is a gentleman, and that he likes you. But you know my views about politics – I am for the person who makes life good for me. If I can’t buy milk, that’s hard life, and I don’t like it. I would like to vote for Shagari. I hope that he can make life easier and do something to ease the pains of the economy …”
I have thought long and hard about my mother’s views, and I suspect that her native intelligence has struck the right note on politics, and how a citizen ought to relate to it and politicians. Nigerians are still not sophisticated enough to know that personalities shouldn’t matter much in politics, and if they matter, it should be as a lightning rod. Personalities who win the hearts of voter because of their charisma or any other human qualities should know that they can only sustain the voters’ affection by their ability to gauge national problems and solve them. If they fail, they should only be able to keep the hearts of the voters while losing their heads. My mother’s attitude is very much like my attitude on politics. You may like a politician for his enviable personal attributes, but you may not support him if he cannot deliver the political goods. Issues, and not personalities, should be the winning force in politics. I can claim to know President Shagari as much as a journalist can claim to know a politician. I like him. And like my mother, I find it hard to come hard on him. That’s my heart. My head is another matter. By going to the National Assembly to ask for emergency powers to deal with the national economy, the president has inadvertently put on his spare shoulders the whole burden of governance that he should have shared with the legislature. It is an action that is fraught with serious political dangers. If at the end of the day the whole economy collapses on him, he will not be able to apportion blames. At that time, the Nigerian voters, like my mother, will look at Shehu Shagari and ask themselves if indeed he has it in him to handle this immense country. The outcome of his economic measures should answer that question. The jury, as they say, is out.
©Sunday Concord, May 2, 1982
(Pp.160-162)
