TWO thousand and fifteen is three clear years away. It will mark the end of Nigeria's four-yearly electoral cycle. And sometime within that year, usually the last month of the first quarter or the first month of the second quarter, elections will hold across the country to either reaffirm or revoke political mandates given in 2011.Just when it is best for players to begin preparations for the election is becoming even a bigger issue on the political turf. In brief, 2015 and its associated intrigues have begun to gain worrisome frequency in political discourse although nothing practically has manifested from the myriad of manifestoes presented by those elected in April 2011.So, electioneering has become an endless game that offers no definite break for real governance. It begins as soon as it ends. This is so because politics is very sweet in Nigeria. It offers a man within a very short time what talent and hard work cannot give in decades and sometimes in a lifetime. It is the easiest, shortest and surest route to instant stardom.The occupation of a public office is synonymous with hitting a goldmine and no occupant wants to stay halfway if there is an option for full course. The longer a man stays, the bigger the fortune. This is why elected leaders think more of the duration or tenure of the office than they reflect on the responsibilities that go with the office. In that mindset, renewal of the so-called stewardship is far more important than the result of the stewardship.Today, the polity is gaining additional heat outside the security challenges posed by the Boko Haram Islamic sect because some people feel preparations for 2015 should begin in earnest even outside the timelines set by the umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Section 30 of the amended Electoral Act says only the INEC can sound the whistle to signal the beginning of political campaigns and this cannot be earlier than 90 days to the elections.These days, every move is carefully calculated to earn good political capital in the journey to 2015, which seems to have started long before time. For instance, the PDP congresses, which culminated in yesterday's grand convention to elect the party chairman and other national officers, were placed, at every stage, against the backdrop of 2015 and the projections of the various key players.This accounts for why Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, promoted in the pre-convention build-up as the man to beat because of his purported anointing by President Goodluck Jonathan, had the toughest opposition from the most unlikely quarters, his home geopolitical zone of Northeast, which voted against him and endorsed the acting national secretary of the PDP, Dr. Musa Babayo, as the consensus candidate of the zone for yesterday's chairmanship contest of the party.Apparently, the players were seeing beyond yesterday's event to the things that would follow in 2015 if Bamanga Tukur became chairman. They allege that President Jonathan, who has not expressly said no or yes to the question of his second term ambition, may have surreptitiously begun setting up blocks towards his return to Aso Rock Villa in 2015.Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who is from the Northeast, has not given up on his bid for the presidency after two failed attempts. He also is working from the wings. Specifically, he has been playing a perfect party man lately, showing-up at the right time and place, like attending former President Olusegun Obasanjo's 75th birthday ceremony and being part of the line-up of PDP big wigs at the launch of the campaign to re-elect Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, after the Supreme Court ruling on tenure, which sacked Imoke and four others.Atiku has been heavily fingered in the coordinated zonal opposition against the candidacy of Bamanga Tukur, whom, as PDP's national chairman, he probably fears will make the road to 2015 smooth for Jonathan.AT the state level, first-time governors, whose 2011 mandates have been settled in the polls and in the courts beyond reproach, are thinking seriously of how they will stay beyond 2015. And those in their second tenure do not wish to retire from the field without putting in place a good succession plan that will ensure that whoever they will leave behind does not turn around to hunt them.All these plans take resources and time and since both things are scarce and cannot be multiplied to go round in good measure, something has to give. Often, what is sacrificed is good governance, as the cut-throat politics of succession takes centre stage.Gradually, the game is sliding into a gladiatorial contest where all means are considered possible in the drive to reach the end or kill the opponent. And as this political chess game of displacement and replacement continues, Nigerians are literally left stranded in the cold. Good time and money meant for projects and programmes that will warm them up are spent on politicking.One Senator from Edo State was reportedly carrying a huge sum (about N8 million) in a brief case to attend a party convention. His driver for seven years, who probably had not earned 10 per cent of that money in all his years of service, was tempted to make a move that could lift or drown him. He outwitted his boss somewhere along the way and vanished with the cash.Even at the enhanced minimum package of N22,000 a month, it will take the Nigerian worker about 30 years to earn N8 million, which an elected representative of the people was allegedly carrying casually like petty cash in his briefcase.In Bauchi, Boko Haram took a back seat, as youths, who could not agree peacefully on a sharing formula of the money freely distributed by politicians during the PDP zonal congress, elected to settle scores with their fists.That is the way of politics in Nigeria. It is defined entirely by cash and the good or successful politician is he or she whose pocket is deep enough to swallow everybody. He pays thugs to rig election in his favour when the people at the polls reject him.If he is taken to court after the forced victory at the polls, he spreads his wings like a peacock and causes the judiciary to stand the truth on its head. He enjoys good press for that same reason. He is invincible. He fixes everything and whatever is beyond him can only be taken to God Almighty for determination.This is precisely why Nigerians are very religious. They do not have any helper outside God. Consequently, matters like good health, which can be readily fixed by government through the provision of good hospitals, are taken to churches and mosques for divine intervention.Nigerians even pray to God to throw down good leaders from heaven because they have not been able to enthrone a system that will produce competent persons in leadership positions. Instead of holding government accountable, Nigerians usually pray to God to change their situations regarding everything. They pray to God to provide electricity, good roads, hospitals, schools, potable water, etc.In all, bad governance has become normative because politics in Nigeria is not exactly what it is in other parts. Here, the quest for power has little or no connection with the desire for public service. The people are farfetched and get involved only to the extent they can be used to further feather the interest of the political taskmasters.Politics in Nigeria is all manipulation and a naked display of vice. Everything, including the collective destiny, is made subordinate to the will of the vicious politician. Thus, instead of engaging the great issues of the day, politicians are diabolically plotting far ahead of 2015.In which case, the lingering questions of poor electricity, healthcare, falling standard of education, insecurity, poor road network, etc., can conveniently wait for answers till after the 2015 general elections.
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