Anambra: The danger of sincere ignorance (Prologue)

Ignorance can be powerful, very powerful, especially when it is borne out of sincerity. Ignorance is a state of “not knowing” – not knowing that what you believed you knew so well is known in breach. The move to pursue this belief sometimes leads to fanaticism. Fanaticism itself is described as a “wild and often dangerous enthusiasm, especially in politics or religion”.

For the former, it is apt to capture the actions of Nigerian politicians under the umbrella of inordinate zealotry. Now, what can be more dangerous than a man convinced that the works of his hand are the best under any circumstance and in every material particular, no matter any more enlightened reasoning or information to the contrary? What can be more dangerous even, when the individual turns the act into a directive principle of his daily existence?

This is the best way to appreciate  the activities of all those who were involved in penultimate Saturday’s limited fiasco that passed for the gubernatorial election in Anambra State. These are interesting times in Nigeria. For the actors and their audience, it is all too familiar. The political actors delight the audience with all manner of shenanigans while the audience also tries to tolerate the antics of the politicians.

We can be categorical here that in Nigeria, elections are won by sheer force, let fools contend.

The force of the winner is encapsulated in the means and ways employed before, during and immediately after every election and these include and can never be limited to the following: the security agencies, collusion of the umpire with politicians, thugs, propaganda and local popularity.  When all these are employed either positively or negatively, they constitute brute force.

Now, each time the masses complain about rigged election, their complaints peter into insignificance after a few days save for the 1983 election in Ondo State and the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.

The politicaisn are ignorant of the fact that stealing votes that do not belong to them to foist a leader on the people can create sabotage which itself creates underdevelopment of some sort, all fueled by mis-governance.  The masses, too, are ignorant of the simple verifiable fact that for as long as they allow hokum, for so long would they remain impoverished.

Almost always, the spirit of appeasement to avoid “unduly overheating” the polity imbues them and they go back to their sheds contented that at least there is peace.  Peace of the graveyard?

It was former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who explained the doctrine of appeasement as a product of sheer ignorance.  According to him, “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last”.

To buttress his point, he used this simple statement: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor.  You chose dishonor and you will have war”.