THE DECEMBER WAR BEGINS!

THE DECEMBER WAR BEGINS!

Finally, we are in the month of December. Ordinarily, December should be the month of celebrations. It is the month of Christmas, of decorations, of shopping, of presents wrapped in beautiful paper, of rice and chicken, of fireworks and preparations for a new year. It is generally the month when we tend to work less and play more.

This December will be different, so very different. INEC has made it so. This December, the hand to hand combat begins for the 2019 elections. For grabs are Aso Rock, the state houses, the Senate, House of Representatives and the State Assemblies. Please… please, fasten your seat belt! The millions of jobless men in Nigeria are looking for employment in the political campaigns. They want to be available to break the necks and skulls of the opponents of their paymasters. This will be war like you have never seen it! 

The economy is bad, very bad. The people are angry, very angry. The only business in town right now is politics. Everywhere you look, there are all colours of posters of all kinds of characters asking for our votes. Politics is where all the money is. That is also where the power is. You get in there, you will have the key to the CBN, plus NNPC, plus the police, plus the army, plus the DSS, plus the EFCC, etc. Everything! 

   

The way it works in this part of the world, when you have all that power, your enemies are in trouble! Woe betide them to cross your path! You can drive them all crazy! They try to mess with you, you throw all the power of the government at them. If you don't kill them, you throw them in jail forever or ask the EFCC to draft one thousand criminal counts against them.

Once you have tasted power, life is so different without it! Why do you think my guy, Owelle Rochas Okorocha is having sleepless nights over what is happening in Imo State? One short guy called Adams Oshiomhole wants to make him an ordinary man… a whole Owelle Rochas Okorocha without power! Why is Governor Amosu shouting himself hoarse over his sudden loss of control of the orchestra in Ogun State? Why has Adams Oshiomhole become one of the most loathed men in the land?

See what just happened in Akwa Ibom. Pronto, the police took over everywhere. Not too long ago, Governor Ortom of Benue State was meant to feel the great difference between being Governor and being President. The state assembly was taken over. I am sure now he knows who is the real boss.

Woe betide you if you are seeking any political office in Nigeria today and you have not set aside many sacks of cash in different denominations to be doled out. You want power, it is big business. You invest in it, big time. Before many others, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu understood that the lingua franca of politics is money. That is why he is the one who decides who rules Lagos and recently, who rules Nigeria.

I am told that in the primaries in one of the states across the Niger, one of the candidates was doling out 200 US Dollar notes in white envelopes while another candidate was doling out 100 US Dollar notes in brown envelopes to each of the many thousands of delegates. Many of the delegates collected from both candidates. Who do you think was declared winner? Of course, it was the guy doling out 200 dollars in white envelopes. 

I had asked a big player in the present Nigerian government why the government does not appear to listen to what the Nigerian intelligentsia says. He looked at me, sighed and asked mockingly, "how many votes do the intelligentsia have? The government does not need the votes of the intelligentsia. Their vote is too expensive! Go to the motor park and the market place with some bags of rice, salt, ogogoro and some Naira notes and all the votes you are looking for will be there with very little grammar"

Do you see why this December will be different, very different? It will be war!!!

See you next week.