Spiders and Crabs of Nigerian Politics
A good politician knows that he or she has to work with every demographic of society in order to be successful.
You need the educated elite, the old money elite, the industrially inclined elite, the investor elite, the white collar elite, the blue collar elite, the semi-literate elite, the illiterate elite, the touts, the street gangs, the cultists, the religious people, and the ordinary citizens.
When I was a journalist, I observed keenly how these strategic alliances were formed by those in need of power in several states and what promises were made to those who worked hard to support the ambition of the flag bearer of the ticket as a means of supporting their own ambition, too.
A local government was primarily dominated by touts, adherents of a particular religion, illiterates or semi-literate people, and they had a huge population for this same reason.
There are individuals in that same local government who are well educated, have only one wife and two children, but these individuals do not truly represent the true demographic of that local government.
If you form an alliance with such an individual because he or she has many things in common with you, it will prove to be an unwise decision.
You must form an alliance with the religious leaders of the illiterate folks, their community leaders, and the leaders of their touts.
They are the movers and shakers of that community. You may not like it, but that is what you have to do if you intend to win the votes.
When you get to another community where they have Christian values and keep gated communities, you adapt and choose those whom you know the members of that community respect enough to listen to and trust enough to negotiate terms on their behalf.
Politics is making deals with all sorts of people and finding a way to work with all of them to your advantage as a political leader.
I remember wondering those days how a governor was managing his relationship with a Cardinal Odumbaku, Olatosho Oshoffa, Primate Ayodele, PAstor EA Adeboye, and such on one hand, while he also had an Aregbesola, Ridwan Jamiu, Sheikh Tijani Olayiwola Balogun on the other hand.
When the politician I was studying at the time had a court case, I saw Christian leaders mobilizing their members who were politically inclined, and muslim leaders too mobilizing their members who were politically inclined to show up at the Court in Abuja to support him.
They all wore the same fabric and were singing the same songs with the name of this politician on their lips.
The President of Nigeria at the time and the police force had to deploy a roadblock on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway to stop the hundreds of buses travelling from Lagos to Abuja, so that mayhem would not break out in Abuja
That was when I lost the desire to be a politician. I realised I was not built for it. I had a boss at the time, the owner of the TV station I was working with, who had the ambition of becoming a politician, and i knew he would fail woefully for that same reason.
I was too Christian, and he was too muslim for either of us to be good politicians.
In his case, he would provide a soft landing for his muslim staff members at the expense of the Christian staff members during the Ramadan fast, and sometimes when salaries are late, the muslims among us would get stipends on the hush-hush to care for their families while the Christians got nothing.
When the same man mentioned that he wanted to venture into politics, I said he would fail woefully. Once a demographic of society or community perceives you as being biased or unfair in any sense, you have lost their votes and support.
A good politician finds a way to keep everybody’s votes, even at the danger of losing his soul.
Politics is a game of relationships, managing ambitions, rewarding loyalties, and watering alignments.
Only spiders can spin that many webs at the same time with precision. It is not a game for the crabs.
Some parents can’t play a balanced politics between just two children. One will always see that they are biased towards the other. Those same parents would make bad politicians. They are crabs.
Crabs are linear in their movement; they think, move, and walk in one direction, but they look like spiders and sometimes think they are spiders.
Good examples of crabs in Nigerian politics include former Vice President Osibajo, Former President Jonathan, Rauf Aregbesola, and former President Abacha. All the Northern governors that instituted Sharia law in their states, Peter Obi (I observed his inability to balance things appropriately between the Catholics and Anglicans in Anambra state when he was a governor, his inability to heal the rift in Labour Party instead of jumping ship and his inability to stay the course in APGA and build a strong coalition in the South East that he could negotiate with at the right time), Seyi Makinde, Akinwunmi Ambode, Tunde Bakare, and many others.
I meant no disrespect by my classification, and it is totally subjective and may even be faulty. It is, however, my opinion, and I will stand by it.
I find myself to be a crab too in this sense.
To my surprise, I find myself classifying Bukola Saraki as a Spider, Former President Obasanjo, Former President Ibrahim Babangida, Pat Utomi, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Raji Fashola, Nyesome Wike, Ooni of Ife, Buba Marwa, Godswill Akpabio, Segun Sowunmi, and many others.
I classify them as spiders because of their ability to juggle relationships with people of all faiths, beliefs, walks of life, mindsets, convictions, persuasions, discipline, culture, tradition, those who agree with them, and those who disagree.
This does not mean spiders are better than crabs or crabs are better than spiders.
It is also not an endorsement of any politician, as I would rather eat a crab than eat a spider.
It is just my mind, thinking about things as it does and asking me to articulate them or make sense of them in my writing so that I can create space to think of something else.
Thank you
-GSW-