BY REV. FR. GERALD NWAFOR
The vampires said that they would no longer drink blood but water and some of us believed them. In some cases, they would suck the blood of our brothers and sisters in our presence but still say it is not ours.
Why should we believe a vampire whom we know would simply live on blood-sucking? It is in the nature of a vampire to suck blood, as simple as ABC. If we choose to trust them because of greed or selfishness we should only have ourselves to blame.
The same thing goes for the political class. It was in the dictionary of American political class that I read, “How do you know if a politician is lying?” And the answers were so short that I wondered what these groups of people have turned into. The answer states, “Their lips are moving.” So, whenever the politicians are saying something please do not take it at face value: it is like the vampires saying to you that they do not suck blood anymore.
As vampires survive in blood so do politicians depend on lies to survive. I watched some of our politicians crying on national television because the promises made to them during the campaign that made them sell Joseph into slavery like the 12 sons of the biblical Jacob to the Ishmaelites were not kept. I am a very sympathetic person, and I came from a very sympathetic tribe in Nigeria who do not allow people to be poor in the real sense of the word. Rather, they chose to support the poor people through community love called ‘OGBE-NYE’ (the community (ogbe) gives (nye)).
But seeing a top Igbo politician crying on national television, the traditional sympathy did not arise; rather shame and indifference overtook my emotions.Probably, he was not as smart as we presumed him to be because he has been on the political scene since 1998 and has been a two-term governor and a ranking member of the Senate since 2019.
With the above pedigree, many people will presume that such a person should know better and get a long spoon whenever he is dining with the devil. But in this case, now he was using a very short spoon believing that he had made a good friendship with the devil since the devil was eating only his brothers and sister.
Is it not our people who say that the person who is buying your brother from you as a slave does not even trust you, because if you could sell your brother, it means you could sell anybody for money? When the Senator was selling his brothers in the political arena, hoping to become Senate President, nobody reminded him that politicians do not keep oaths, not to talk of kitchen discussion.
I decided to write on this topic not because I am feeling for him but to remind others who are dining with the devil to get a longer spoon even and remind them that it is in the nature of the politicians to lie as it is in the nature of the vampires to suck blood. It may not be your blood today but that doesn’t mean that it will not be yours tomorrow. I remember a documentary I watched long ago about the rise of the Nazis in Germany, the prominent Lutheran pastor said,“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.” I was surprised that even when ordinary positions were dished out on the Senate floor this Senator who was a former chief wipe was not even considered for anything at all, not even deputy class prefect.
And nobody spoke up for him. I remember watching on national television when the President visited him in his village where he was calling his aged mother to come and greet him, then as a Presidential candidate of their political party with all the pomp and pageantries that he was the Senate President in the waiting.
Oh, men of little hope when would you read the handwriting on the wall? Our culture would always remind us that we do not go to yesterday in matters of politics (Adighi eje nyanwu eje). Today the people of Nigeria are still in court fighting for the soul of their country to see if they would obtain the true result of the February 25th, 2023, of the Presidential election.I am not qualified to advise politicians, but I have watched the political horse-trading of the country called Nigeria and juxtaposed it with the political gerrymandering of other climes and made a simple conclusion that politicians care more about the post they occupy, not the promise they make to other people or their political allies.
They say what is politically expedient and pleasing to the electorate and when they get into power, they do the bidding of their political party to maintain power. On the other hand, the electorates are very gullible to the point that even when they know that the politicians are lying, they tend to believe them in the hope that they will change or do better next time. Many of the politicians did not cry on national television but I can tell you that many of them cried inside their rooms.
Another Senator who is in London prison and hoped that the Senators would help him get out of jail free was surprised to hear that all his assets in Nigeria have been confiscated by the government he was serving as a sitting Senator. How do you explain that to your wife, if not only crying inside the prison yard in London? As I said many of them are crying in their rooms today.
