Saints Vs Sinners: A Mask Of Propaganda And A Rational Path

By Onakpoberuo Onoriode Victor

Life can be dramatic, funny and outright challenging. Nobody is perfect but for every opportunity to lead, especially in a public sphere, we do what we consider to be our best because it is our understanding that the call of the moment deserves it.

Every leader will deliver the good he or she is capable of within the limits of the resources available in the times we currently live in. Therefore, no one should be ascribed messianic attributes, it would amount to setting unattainable expectations for the yet to be elected leader. I think it is important to have a realistic view of all the aspirants; firstly they are all humans which will suggest that they all will have some degrees of vanity or selfish inclinations lurking around somewhere in their minds and there is also the myriad of interests from their support bases. It is a tough job but in the end, they are all humans and we should see them that way notwithstanding their claims of piety, modesty and prudence.

There appears to be three dominant aspirants, all with different essences or drives. There is the one that is coming with the essence of “I need to do this”! Its more like a craving for a #legacy accomplishment for this aspirant, that is, having achieved so much in life, this also should be added as a crowning victory. Whether this longing for a crowning achievement will distract from the task of governance is not known but to his credit, he has a bank of public leadership experience to draw from and a deep running global network. There is another aspirant whose essence communicates the feeling of “I deserve it”. In some ways, it may appear as though this aspirant believes he should be #compensated for all he considers his valuable contributions to the sustenance of Nigeria’s democracy. To his credit, he has a far reaching grassroot base all over Nigeria and he is a passionate mobilizer. He also has powerful global affiliations Finally there is the third aspirant whose essence communicates the passion of “I can make a change”. He is rallying a strong force of #influencers who are disgruntled with this current administration. His demeanor communicates modesty, prudence and some taint of religious piety. He is younger and not as experienced in politics and governance as the other two.

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The capability of each of these three aspirants to pragmatically provide solutions to our current insecurity challenge will be a vital determinant or consideration in making a choice. Also the international component of the security problem has to be factored too. The right candidate therefore should be one who has been able to forge long standing, reliable back-end unofficial alliances with the international power community. If this is not in place, it may be difficult to successfully launch any economic programme.

Electorates should be mindful of the negative conditioning effect of the subtle ongoing propaganda of “saints vs sinners”. The goal is to stir-up hate for some aspirants categorized as sinners due to allegations bordering on corruption and endearment for those thought of as corrupt free. Do not be deceived, no man is a saint, we are all striving to do the good we can.

This post is intended to call attention of the electorates to think rationally and independent of the damaging psychological effect of this “#saintsvssinners” propaganda. It had been previously used but I don’t think the outcome was as desirable as intended.

May the most desirable aspirant win.

God bless Nigeria.

#politics #2023generalelection #nigeria #INEC