By Ogbonna Nwuke
Magnus Abe, Nyesom Wike and their supporters may well be having the best fun that any Valentine season can provide. As they celebrate, they would want the rest of us to agree that a new kind of politics is being played in Rivers State.
They probably have a point. The Rivers people and to a large extent, most Nigerians may not have seen this type of politicking. Certainly not in these times that we live in.
Waziri Ibrahim who left the NPP to found the GNPP, and who is credited with politics without bitterness didn’t quite play his game the way this two have of late.
So Wike and Abe who are openly warming up to each other in a way that no one had thought possible must indeed have something new; something up their sleeves.
They say to the rest of us that the interest of Rivers State is paramount. They say by their collaboration that tension is being lowered. By their actions, they seem to suggest that in an election year, there is nothing wrong for persons who are expected to be candidates in a forthcoming election to cohabit.
Great thinking; great act too. They probably deserve a clap or two, or a Nobel prize for peace or stuff like that to the bargain, someone told me, sarcasm written all over him.
The two of them, another told me the other day, could even take a walk to the alter and get hooked for the love of Mike!. Wow!!!! All I could do was tell him our country isn’t ready yet to acknowledge gays in the open!!
Ever since the sizzling romance between Wike and Abe blew into the open, there have been mixed reactions. Some have hailed it. Others have condemned. There have been others who really don’t care one way or the other too. For this group, aren’t these Nigerian politicians? People who speak from both sides of their mouth?
There shouldn’t be anything wrong with the colourful scenes that the duo and their supporters are putting out in the public domain if these acts were not overtly or covertly linked to politics.
I covered politics as a journalist, wrote about politics as a columnist until I somehow got involved in it too. As a participant observer, I have come to understand that politics goes even deeper.
I have seen fans scream their heads off during football matches, seen them come close to tears when their side in game is on the verge of losing, but nothing compares to the kind of emotion that trails politics.
For politics, men could go to war while countries, tribes and ethnic groups are left on the brink, divided and sour. Because of politics and what some actors perceive they can get, many secure the intervention of the occult; procure the insights of stargazers in an effort to thwart, if they can, the destinies of men considered rivals.
For politics, many equally kill without shedding blood, engaging in character assasination and mind boggling gossips in a bid to secure unusual favour that would take them to the zenith of power.
These are not however the prime reasons why politics is the master art. Politics is about interests, permanent interests as those who play the game at the political or diplomatic level say. It is about sharing or what Max Weber has described as the authoritative allocation of values.
So, much is truly at stake in politics. The pledges, promises that spur men to action; the dreams that the actors and their supporters nurse which keep them on the campaign trail no matter what; the emotions on the part of the masses who must make choices that shape society when the time comes; and the impact that the actions or inactions of political glaciators have on the party platforms that they profess to love or represent.
There are of course consequences that such actions have on the future to come. The feeling of betrayal which sticks out like sour thumbs when things go wrong, and the feeling of despair especially among supporters who have grown to repose so much faith, so much confidence in those who aspire to lead them and the political platforms they belong.
Add these to the excitement that comes from the inner feeling that one has done his best for society, his motherland and his people even when such positive contributions in the political arena could be so horribly twisted by spin doctors paid to turn blue into black and you can understand why politics is what it is.
Like it, hate it, politics is not something to ignore. It may be nasty. It may need to be refined. It is the choice of a people and those who seek to lead to make.
Take away democracy and it would be difficult to put an acceptable means of governance in place. Take away the glamour that is linked to politics and the game may well lose its flavour.
In order to maintain law and order, promote decorum, ensure accountability and transparency, checks have been introduced here, balances there.
But in all these, the notion of the people is what makes the difference. They have the power to make or mar in the first place. Besides, the game is about their preferences, their welfare, wellbeing and development. So courting them, wooing them the way we do with our would-be brides for example, is accordingly the ultimate desire of the political class.
Against this backdrop it is not difficult to understand why so much is being done by those who are packaging Abe and Wike to convince the rest of us that something new is happening or about to happen.
