BREAKING PRESSURE AND BREAKING BOUNDARIES: A REALITY CHECK FOR NIGERIA YOUTHS - By: LUCAS NWACHUKWU

When you saw your secondary school class mate after 10-15 years, and to your surprise, She/he has “Blown”, (Nigeria term for becoming successful financially), did you become concerned in a weird way?, did you ask yourself, if this is the future you envisaged?, did you feel a level of hubris coming from your soul that you have never seen before that you have done your best, perhaps, it is not “God’s time” ? Or the shame of feeling like I haven’t done enough with my life and time is running out, looking at your age. Did you become devastated because Invictus Obi made it to Forbes under 30 African Entrepreneurs? Or did you feel crushed when you see Mompha flaunts his Bentley, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Hublot and Rolex wrist watches and pile of cash on instagram?

According to recent research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the more time young adults spend on social media, the more likely they are to be pressured and depressed.

We love a little bit of Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp stalking, of admiring the glamorous and exciting lives of others through these platforms. But how does admiring the lives of people you have very little contact with in the real world make you feel? Does seeing the successes and achievements of others make you feel a little insignificant or is it having an impact on your mood? You don’t have to live your life through social media. Spending too much time believing everything you see on that small screen can be harmful. Don’t fall for the over-glamourizing of lives on social media. Be happy for those that post the great things that are going on in their lives. But keep in mind that you don’t always see the full picture.

The pressures placed on the youths to meet a certain standards often lead to inordinate amount of stress over the fact that you are yet to start, that big job, own that exotic car, build or own that mansion, get to that height in your chosen career or even start and launch that business or your own company.

In a society that tells the youth that they are failures if they did not finish with 2:1, if they are not successful as artists in their twenties, entrepreneurs, or startup CEOs by the time they are 25, it’s good to have a reality check. Contrary to popular belief, not all celebrities or known figures in the world found fame and fortune in their twenties or even their thirties.

Do you know that at the age of 40, Samuel L. Jackson hadn’t yet starred in a movie.
Henry Ford worked as an engineer under Thomas Edison, where he worked on ways to improve the then new automobile. It was not until he was 40 that he founded the Ford Motor company.
Vera Wang had barely gotten her start in fashion.
Morgan Freeman appeared in several small roles in film and TV in the ‘60s, but it wasn’t until 1989 that he gained mainstream attention and his career really took off.

These known figures also prove that with a lot of hard work, you can do anything you set your mind to.
The idea societal pressure is morally and political neutral in that such pressure can be used for any purpose, good or bad, and everyone uses the tool to varying degrees. It is my submission that rather than being pressured, focus on providing a positive alternative. How do you achieve this? I instruct you do the following:

Develop a Strong Sense of Self- Introspection is key here. Take stock of your asset, what do you enjoy most? What are you best at? your current job or whatever you are doing may hold clues. Pay attention and leverage on them. To develop and strengthen a realistic sense of self, Connect with yourself. See challenges as a way to know yourself. Apply these actions to your life daily.

Be Practical – Keep it in your mind that you can always fail, but remember that even if you fail, you will have learned a lot, even more than you probably would not have learned, if you would have succeeded, perhaps, that is why John Maxwell titled his book : Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You (Lose) Learn.

Don’t try to fit in- Be strong about the benefits of being different, make it clear that your choice comes from your values and be prepared to speak and defend them.

Work your dreams out – You are the only one that is responsible for what you can and cannot do. So, how do you pursue your dreams? If you work on it each day, eventually you will achieve your dream. Execution breeds excellence. Practice is the growth to perfection. The more you do, the better you become. Everything takes practice including pursuing your dreams. If you want to achieve your dreams, start now, learn in the process from the experiences and adjust. The important thing to know is that your failures are there to teach you lessons that can help you pick yourself up and keep moving forward.

The big question is, do you want to push against and beyond boundaries and go to those places they once said you cannot go, or are you going to allow the pressure hold you back? I don’t think so, rather, you must reclaim yourself and launch into the ever accommodating space that is out there for everyone, but this can only happen when you decide to take the first step which is ACTION to become who you truly want to be.

The Irreparable Bridge between Morality and Politics: The Nigeria Experience - By Lucas Nwachukwu

Politics is a game, is a general saying around, and it is played in any state with a substantive government in place. Political actors play with one purpose, and that purpose is to wrestle power and wield it to protect their interests. But the poser here is, is it for self or for the State, (the people they represent?)I must clearly state that I write not to demonize politics through my submission as politics is engaged in, expressed through the appropriate channels or institutions put in place.

According to Okoye (1982), Politics comprises activities of formal structure, institution and organization which competes through electoral mechanism to influence the people, policies and programmes as well as allocation of public wealth through a stipulated and articulated procedure.Without drawing up confusing definitions of morality, I am going to be practical with the kind of morality I think is greatly at conflict with the kind of politics we are experiencing in Nigeria. It is the morality of the common good or interest, it is the morality of duty, do to others as you would want them do to you, such as virtue, compassion, love, which I consider very important in delivering good governance.

Niccolo Machiavelli and other writers that are seen as pragmatist and as immoralist may have divorced politics from morality which prioritize the “end”, even the most unscrupulous “end” which inspires politicians to pursue and protect their interests first before that of anyone they represent. Sadly, in the case of Nigeria, the political actors subordinate moral standards to political ones. One will wonder when the saying has it that man is a moral being, if Nigeria politicians are included.

Politics has been extremely abused through pursuing self-interest, political rivalry, ethno-religious sentiment and making it incompatible with morality. It is even the caricature and travesty of what may or should have counted as morally good.This have made the people deeply suspicious and very cynical about the veracity of a politician’s promises during political/election campaigns whether it serves the general interest or just masquerading as one. The present day brand of politics glorifies corruption and even rewards people that are thieves, recently, the chairman of a ruling political party openly said once you join the party, your “sins” will be forgiven. Such style of politicking is devoid of morality.

Also, in Nigeria, politics is predicated to be engaged in and considered with personal or group interests rather than enviable national principles and values driven by morality which have threatened service delivery or for better word, good governance viz-a-viz good politicking. The Nigeria politics is run on the basis of “at any cost” or “do or die” making it impossible to serve the interest of the people when they are elected into the office. Perhaps our expectations are unrealistic because how do you expect someone that spent billions of Naira to emerge and even used thugs to achieve his/her election to power to be moral in serving the interest of the people? To them it is only but a business, they invest heavily and must recoup and make profit off the public treasury.Another contending issue in Nigerian politics is the common issue of ethnicity or cultural differences which is as a result of people from different tribal and cultural backgrounds.

This creates insurmountable numerous problems for the country at large. Their interests are marked by aggressive ethnic nationalism as they push for the realization of their sub-national self-determination. Like the case of Independent people of Biafra-IPOB, that often their demand for sub-national self-determination and directly challenge the Federal government’s demand for national unity. One would ask, where is the morality in this act as it undermines the general interest.With the benefit of hindsight, one cannot but marvel at how politics in the 1st and 2nd republic was played, there was a certain enviable level of morality in the manner it was played as figures like late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and others pursued the interest of the country. They did play with conscience regarding the consequences of their actions.

But this age and time, a politician is elected to represent his pockets, and satisfy his greed, we have countless cases of corrupt leaders that have continually remained at the corridor of power and have no conscience to resign and face the law.

The brand of morality that should be practiced alongside our politics is founded on humanism, it considers interests of the people and welfare as core. This is why in African moral thought, we speak of communitarian ethos of the African society. Any good brand of politics should be done with a sense of the common good which is a core of shared values, which is the underlying presupposition of political morality to ensure that the interests everyone can be achieved within this communitarian society.If we are stuck at this impasse, should we say “there was a country”.

WEAK PARTY POLITICS: A RECIPE FOR POLITICS WITH BITTERNESS IN NIGERIA - By Lucas Nwachukwu

The 2019 elections have come and gone but one cannot quickly forget the events that preceded it. It is traditional that prior to the main election, the law demands that parties conduct party primaries which should pass electoral integrity test as contained in the party constitution and Nigeria Electoral Act. There is no gainsaying the fact that there is a very good relationship between sustainable democracy and the existence of ethical party politics. The party system actually helps for the sustenance of democracy.

It is considered a blessing and curse that our daily conversation is inevitably around how politics plays a role in everything we do, it is indeed a truism that the rhythm of politics dominates that of social life. Party politics is the core of the mainstream politics but the process of picking candidates in various parties have been marred by the following factors in recent time, such as, imposition of candidate, violence, inducement of party members, godfatherism and assassination.

Because of these factors, the political parties fail to provide an institutionalized framework from which the society can hold elected persons and governments to account. This shows that our internal party democracy has yet to be rooted in our mainstream politics, and this can only point one way POLITICS WITH BITTERNESS.

The best instance and consequence of imposition of candidates can be drawn from the just concluded 2019 general election where the All Progressive Congress APC could not contest in Rivers State because of a shady internal party process that didn’t comply with the electoral law, and a House of Representative member elect in Adamawa State was sacked in the 2019 election. Political parties play crucial role in bringing together diverse interests, recruiting and sponsoring candidates and developing competing policy proposals that provide people with a choice. There is, therefore, no substitute for open competition between members within political parties in a democracy. This will eliminate the imposition of candidate, thus the best man emerges to steer the mainstream politics which will benefit the people.

In ducement is quite common as well in various parties in the political space, wanting to buy their way through, and this kind of process cannot produce the best candidate, instead it will produce people consumed by self-interests. When we consider the opportunity cost of this act, it is devastatingly huge. Because the conscience is bought, it then cannot be used to elect the right person. When the wrong persons win at the level, it will have ripple effect on the people when that person comes to position of leadership as his/her drive is “self”.

Party political violence also poses a serious threat to the legitimacy of the state and mainstream elections. Many people have been killed as a result of violence linked to elections. The heightened tension created during this period exacerbate existing conflict and end up in killings. In many instances, the perpetrators are not caught, the sponsors and those that carry it out enjoy impunity for their actions. Winning primaries must not be do-or-die. This follows that there is obligations of the government and security forces to prevent and prosecute political violence either at party level or at the general level.

Due to this nature of shallow party politics, many always want to remain in power at all cost and coupled with the lack of ideological orientation, they defect to other political parties that offer them the opportunity to stand for election. The recent wave of cross carpeting from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is a good example. They do this without any sense of responsibility, nor driven with sincerity of purpose but pursuing after their interests alone thereby, undermining and shortchanging the people.

Another practice within the party structure is godfatherism. There is a principal (godfather) that invests in a candidate, this can come in the form of huge monetary investment that aids the candidate to win. Godfatherism in itself is not bad as candidates need guidance and moral support from persons within the party with broad experience but this has been abused and the godfathers now expect to recoup their investments and this puts pressure on the candidate if he/she emerges, they immediately start diverting state resources to the pocket of the godfather, leaving governance to suffer.

The type of Party politics we currently experience is visibly threatening democratic process vis-à-vis the socio-economic lives of the citizenry. If Nigeria is to make progress, the internal politics within party structures must be cleansed of the aforementioned challenges, so that the mainstream democratic institution is strengthened and sustained.

A virile democracy needs strong and sustainable internal political structures within political parties, with the capacity to represent citizens and provide policy choices that demonstrate their ability to govern for the public good. There is need, therefore, to strengthen party politics without bitterness so that they do not constitute a weak link in the democratic process.

All the key players such as the political parties, electoral body, Judiciary, and civil society groups must put their hands on deck to strengthening the democratic system. Party members must remain committed to non-violent approach while upholding the ethics and code of good politicking. There is no doubt that good and deeper party politics will enhance the sustainability of our democracy and the strengthening of the mainstream politics.