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When one prominent personality in Nigeria told me that
Comrade Jude Gabriel Imagwe (M.O.N) was being considered as a possible flag
bearer for the forth coming Etsako Federal Constituency Bye Election, I had
mixed feelings.
| Comrade Jude Imagwe |
My first thought was that the Jude that I know may not
even be willing to stand for the election in view of the prevailing circumstances
in Nigeria especially as it relates to the independence of the Electoral Commission
and the demonetization of the electoral process.
Secondly, I felt the time was too short for any
serious and effect campaigns and that this may just be the obstructing factor.
As I gave it more consideration, something told me
that Jude may accept the challenge just to prove a point that the youths can
indeed break into the highest level of party politicking and successfully come
out with something meaningful.
Shortly afterwards, I got a message from him which
read thus "I have just been given the Rep (House of Representatives) (ticket)
for my Federal Constituency Bye Election. It came to me as a shock"
As expected, I congratulated Comrade Jude Imagwe on
his victory at the P.D.P primaries and I raised some issues which he never had
the time to reply to even as I write this article.
When the news eventually broke out on the social media
that Jude Imagwe was the PDP candidate for Etsako Bye Election, I waited to see
the reactions this piece of news would generate.
I immediately penned down and categorised how the
reactions will flow in and I predicted how the various groups will react
considering that Jude had had a stint with the Federal Government of Nigeria as
an appointee of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and he had served at the highest
level of Students' Union Movement in this country among other positions.
To be more specific, I predicted and rightly so that
the first group of people that will react are those I categorised as sycophants.
These are people who will sing Jude's praises to high
heavens.
To the consternation of the other groups which we
shall later, the sycophants will make all efforts to paint him as ‘Mr. Perfect’
who can make no mistakes or has never made any mistake in life.
If one is not careful, you may even begin to see Jude
as the second Jesus who will take away the contemporary sins of the world.
Within minutes, I was inundated with comments and
posts on the various social media platforms.
Some hailed Jude's party, the Peoples' Democratic
Party, (PDP) for nominating him, while as usual, others condemned his choice. I
shall dwell on the condemnation later.
I read things like "I
can die for our leader, MON",
"we will
deliver him", he must win o.
"Clear
road for our great leader"
"Jude na
my father, in fact, he assisted my father to impregnate my mother who gave
birth to me, so all roads to Auchi for campaign"
Some other
sycophantic comments would read “let’s set up committee for mobilisation (and
you know what setting up committee means).
"Victory is sure", "I smell
victory",
"MON go carry
us commot for street if he win"
"Make we
put all body o, Leader must win o"
I laughed and tears almost rolled down my eyes when somebody
said "The (NANS) secretariat must be
relocated to that constituency until victory is sure!"
Can you beat that? The National Association of
Nigerian students Secretariat must be relocated to Etsako for election purposes
and to secure victory for a political party and its candidate. Omanshe o....
I am not oblivious of the fact that a large chunk of
this group is just after what they can garner from Jude as they see every
election as an end in itself.
I can bet that over 90% of these individuals will rant
only on the social media without following the Agenebode man to his
constituency for campaigns. And if a few of them eventually do, Jude will have
to pay handsomely for it.
If Jude makes the mistake of asking them to set up committee
for campaign, you will be confronted with a huge amount of budget that will
leave you very distressed about politics in its entirety!
In all honestly, I am not adverse to the opinions and
views of this set of people; sycophancy will always be visible in any human organization including churches, mosques, working environment and of course in
politics.
Truth be told, a very few of these guys who make these
absurd and incredible comments may just be sincere after all.
They may just
be genuinely expressing their feelings at that material time, but they will
most likely never match their words with tangible and corresponding actions.
Thus, I am quite sure that majority of those comments are
outlandish, mendacious and misleading. If Jude believes them, then, he can
believe even the devil.
Well, am not bothered because I trust his (Jude's)
discerning spirit, smartness and astuteness.
But as young people, fawning must be discouraged,
discarded and disallowed whenever one of us is involved in a positive project.
We must begin to reform and transform our minds. Once
your attention is drawn to a project and you know you do not genuinely believe
in it, you are at liberty to stay away no matter your closeness to the person
involved. Express your honest opinion and leave at that.
This may even be more advantageous to the individual
in question if you extricate yourself.
We don't need to sacrifice our human dignity on the
altar of sycophancy just to prove a point or just to get something into your
belle or curry home favour.
Let's get real abeg.
Itote Damisa is a Lawyer and a youth Advocate
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