by Mustafa Yusuf-Adebola

A common aggregator amongst most religions is the law of Karma – we would all pay for the consequences of our deeds be it futuristic or immediate.

Politicians could be very crafty people as they behave like chameleons and changing colours is not a problem for them. It is no wonder why today, two politicians can abuse or condemn each other (and the supporters would never think they could be friends with the opposing party) but tomorrow they have a meeting and become political associates. That is the influence they have, the ability to unite and divide people against themselves. They can do just about anything to satisfy their permanent interests even if it has to do with playing the beggarly role.

Since a beggar’s winning formula is to attract your attention, appeal to your emotions and win over your sympathy even when you are seemingly disinterested or have ungenerous principles, politicians are well versed in mind-control gimmicks. It takes a discerning mind to observe the usefulness or otherwise of cards thrown at the table. As the 2015 election beckons and candidates emerge, different cards have and will be thrown at us by politicians. In doing this, the divide and rule method will once again be employed and religion will be one of the variables used.

In order to gloss over their unsatisfactory performances in serving the people, they would become a part of us in order to get elected, they would make use of our spiritual leaders, clerics, books and beliefs to buy us over; remember, permanent interests. Whenever they are to be sworn in to their respective offices, they make vows with religious books, yet they break these vows when they steal, perpetuate fraud and spread other corrupt practices in the land. When it comes to sharing the loot, permanent interests once more rules amongst politicians – it is the people who are/were gullible enough to allow religious sentiments override their objectivity that still lose out.

In realizing their ambitions, politicians would select a deputy who is from the other faith in order to balance the equation and make the people of each faith see them as an all inclusive party. When a former president warned a political party not to field people of the same faith in the elections, I chuckled, what if any of these candidates decide to change their beliefs after being elected? After all, defection to political parties other than that which an individual was initially elected on now holds sway in the polity. Even when we have a Christian/Muslim ticket and vice-versa, are we not being selfish by leaving out followers of traditional religions and other faiths? To show our insatiability, I have witnessed a gathering where the cleric questioned why adherents of his faith should play second fiddle to another religion (that is, the deputy instead of the number one seat).

There is no denying the fact that religion plays a role in guiding the affairs of man. Nigerians try to console themselves by thinking that a politician from the same faith as theirs will make such a person perform better. We tend to think that s/he will follow the doctrines and teachings of our faith, thus expecting good performances. The bad news is that history and evidences have proven otherwise, an adherent of your faith is not necessarily the best candidate. An adherent of your faith may not necessarily keep to the teachings of your faith. Scandals and unscrupulous activities of even spiritual leaders have been published in the public. After all, we have had cases where clerics were bought over and played scripted messages in the name of sermons admonishing people to vote for a particular individual.

A common aggregator amongst most religions is the law of Karma – we would all pay for the consequences of our deeds be it futuristic or immediate. Consequently, we need to remember that whosoever we elect ought not to lead only a sect s/he would be elected to lead every one of us irrespective of our religion. S/he would appoint and also work with people of different faiths, hence, if we think that the leader’s religion is very important, we must also remember that we are indicting our respective religions when it comes to condemnation.

To you is your religion and to me is mine – it is time we start facing the real issues that affect us as a people and leave everyone to face his or her business as long as their individual activities in the name of religion does not affect the general good of the public. If we are so interested in having one of us leading us, let the teachings of our religions touch their hearts in serving public interest for Nigeria would not have been in the unenviable state it presently is. Let us enjoin good and condemn bad when and where necessary instead of politicking in the name of religion. If we think castigating each other would endear others to our faith or make our faith look more superior, we are not but destroying the channels that connect us.

Before deciding who to vote for, please think of how long it would take to recover from all the damages a bad 3-4 year leadership can cause by your petty bias. In this season, so many promises will be thrown at the electorate but we have the duty to evaluate the programmes of the politicians and hold them accountable accordingly vis-a-vis their responsibilities and promises.

We already have a former minister spreading religious hate on social media against a political party and its candidate. Similarly, a vice-presidential candidate campaigned in the northern cities of Nigeria reciting spiritual incantations and said his party was more religious than the other party. He urged people to vote in his party on this basis. Ironically, the campaign director of this same party went to the media in southern Nigeria telling us that his principal (the Presidential candidate) could not perform optimally because adherents of the VP candidate’s faith were not supportive. Imagine, they go to different parts of Nigeria appealing to the religious sentiments of the locals and this is indeed divisive.

It should pose a red flag for us if we observe our politicians going across this route. In response, let us be matured enough to ignore the propaganda and make them focus on the issues of governance. Like I have written in the past, when next that man, politician, candidate, cleric or what-have-you preaches hate to you, avoid them for those who bring to us hatred and spite never have constructive contributions to the work of this world but its opposite.

PS: The use of politicians in this article does not connote generalization of ALL politicians.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.