by Isa Eneye Mubarak

Conclusion First: I offer the conclusion first because if for some reason you stop reading here, it is an important lesson to understand! So here it is:

Regardless of political party affiliation listen less to what the politicians running for office is promising, and more to whether what they promise is actually viable or economically feasible!

Now, back to matter arising, Politicians lie. Politicians lie about things substantive and trivial. Two quick examples:

PMB, promised to make the Naira equivalent to the United States of America Dollar and Agbaje who promised free internet access to Lagosians if he wins 2015 election. Also, I think it’s laughable that we actually believed the vision 20:2020.

Since 1999 the military handed over leadership of the country to civilians, Nigerians have been receiving various forms of political promises by those who want to occupy one political office or the other. If there is no public power supply in any part of his or her constituency, then the ‘concerned’ politician will capitalise on that and promise to bring light to the constituents. Ditto when the road is bad, untarred, or there is no pipe-borne water. Others will promise to build one industry or the other when elected into office while the rest will promise to empower people with motorcycles, keke and or create job opportunities for the youths and the unemployed. The list is usually endless.

Then after being elected, they seem to suddenly develop some kind of amnesia, collect their share of the ‘national cake’ and leave, which can be likened to what we experienced during former president Jonathan’s era. Politicians are deceptive and unresponsive to our plights.

The truth is, Politicians can say anything to win an election. Invent fancy slogans, sponsored hash tags, even attribute their ascension as divine, the Governor with “New direction” ish comes to mind, and the #KogiRising hash tag, I’m yet to understand which ‘direction’, the people of the state are lamenting over hardship, messed up screening where genuine workers are screened out alongside ghost workers (admittedly, the screening was necessary to be honest). I’m yet to see the “New Direction” or the “Change” promised. I think the people are tired of “things will get better” speech or “change is a difficult process”.

Why raise the hope of the people with promises you can’t keep? I just hope one day politicians won’t promise us heaven if we vote them in. The disturbing part is, when we eventually vote them in, they begin by blaming the past administration for their inaction (maybe do that for like a year) and then more promises, MOUs signing, see all sort of ” fancy things” and “talk” in the news, yet the life of the citizens wont change for the better.

Then, the remaining one year, is usually divided, mostly used for campaigns, politicians would like to say ‘let’s complete what we started’. Today, less than thirty percent of those promises politicians made in the past have been kept.

Politicians are like sperm, only one in a million turns out to be a human being, some of us wants to believe that the one is Buhari. But lately he said “change begins with me”, seriously? Change begins with me? Perhaps it does, I think we’ve done our part by voting out an incompetent government and voting in the “change” we wanted, by this singular act, we’ve done our part of the “change”, Dear mr. President, it’s your turn.

Most politicians are liars and narcissists. It isn’t too big a stretch to see the connection. Narcissists are arrogant, self- important, see themselves as special, require excessive

admiration, have a sense of entitlement, and are exploitative.

Politicians count on followers believing their lies, even in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. They basically live in an echo chamber in which everyone watches the same news channel, listens to the same talk radio, reads the same newspapers and web sites where propaganda is the new hub.

Politicians have somewhat realized the power of the social media, with this, they can have more publicity, and now they have handles which tweets endlessly about things and achievements we can rarely see on ground.

Politicians are actors (my apologies to actors). They follow a script and put on a good

show. They convince you they’re sincere and compassionate by kissing babies, visiting IDPs, eat by the roadside and appearing at charity events.

Politician are notorious talkers. They are always promising everything to everyone, trying to impress people with their power. Their enthusiasm for a scheme would rarely last more than a week. Their character is worth about as much as their promises.

Never trust politicians, you can believe them at your own risk.

As Demian Bichir rightly said ‘there’s good and bad everywhere in any aspect in life. The only people who we can’t really trust are politicians. Because those guys lie to everybody and constantly.’

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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

By Isa Eneye Mubarak

Tweets @isamubi3