Let The Media Damn Them

It's time we stopped the charade and class deceit going on in the political domain right away. The political class, especially the older hands, is perpetuating crass contempt for the electorate and all that our country demands. How on earth can the present pre-occupation with zoning benefit the electoral and electioneering process/endeavour? Is our problem ZONING? Whether north or south, east or west, where are the candidates? Let's have the menu, then leave us to choose!

The case is so bad it now permeates all levels of the bid for office. Instead of telling us about both themselves and their offerings, so we can compare and contrast, they are busy wasting our time with zoning inanities. Let it be known that we are fully sensitive to the sentiments and sensibilities of that matter, just that it should come in after the question of competence. It must not and need not be used to obfuscate the crucial debates about good governance, which should be raging right now.

A nauseating aspect of the present miasma is that even those who are not contesting, or clearly ineligible to contest, are the cheerleaders of the distractive chorus. They clog up the public space and pollute our ear-drums, why? Many of those who got us where we are today are mounting the soap-box, heating up the polity, with provocative and primitive posturing - fanning embers of primordial hate and stoking fires of religious bigotry. Why? Enough of these circus shows.

Now to my quarrel and plea: Why is the media succumbing to the blackmail? Can't we fill pages or airtime without these voices? Is there a grand design to not x-ray our state of affairs, to not scrutinize the contenders, to muddy the waters so any "catch" will do? And thus lead us to the worst choices? We must dread. The Nigerian Press has never failed us, they should now NOT do so. Let the MEDIA stop them, NOW!

My suggestion: No headlines for the zonal debates, anymore. Put a cap on them, even for total coverage - 10% of all news. Take a lead on the real issues - subject by subject, sector by sector, area by area, party by party. We must analyze the state of the nation, the state of the states, the state of the local government areas. Set them side by side the annual and cummulative budgets, and ask the QUESTIONS. Then assess the contestants based on their own road-map for either CHANGE or IMPROVEMENT.

All Nigerians must ignore these cheap gimmicks and time-wasters. Enough of the charade!