Political Prostitution And What We Can All Learn From It – Peter Obidike

The other day, Atiku defected from APC to PDP, perhaps for the 100th time. I pinched myself and thought that there must be something wrong somewhere. The more I thought of this phenomenon, the more I got baffled. It was not long ago we heard this man saying all sorts of negative things about this same PDP, including blaming them as the canker worms of the past sixteen years that had bedevilled Nigerians and aligning with the new bride in town who promised us change. A case of one swallowing his vomit, one may say, but “mba” (no) not these folks. The pomp and pageantry with which Atiku was readmitted into the PDP fold suggested there was something in the behaviour of these guys we must all learn from in our daily lives and association with our fellow human beings.

It is possible that the display was just for show but the much love and laughter we all saw on TV does not suggest this was only for the cameras. Atiku and his friends were mainly the cause of PDP’s loss of the past presidential election and one would have expected some bad blood between them but it is obvious that the more overriding objective of grabbing power come 2019 is stronger than any misunderstanding between family (though am confused on which family he belongs to now after the many changes) members for now.

For such a political heavy weight (though I argued with a friend that the heavy weight is still a myth because he has not really been tested in the field)  to do this takes humility, courage, and sense of purpose, no matter what anybody with a contrary view may think. Think of it, how many of your associates, friends or relatives you quarrelled with have you had such humility to approach in times of difficulty to sort you out. With such a wedge between you, you would rather die in silence than approach a brother for help. For men, with their “ego” swelling like peacock, it gets even worse and sometimes may take their women to approach relatives or friends for support, not to talk of asking well known enemies or saboteurs. The shame will not let any of us do that but I pray today that we all get cured of that disease since it may not lead us to our 2019, be it in reviving our businesses or getting council in areas we are deficient. We all have a 2019 in our lives and must seize this wisdom to remove all obstacles to achieving it even if it means approaching our perceived enemies as we have seen our politicians do. It is called wisdom and moreover it will make this country and the world at large a better place. It may mean reconciliation first for the foolish purpose of getting to our 2019 and hence maybe suspicious at first but eventually we will warm our way into the heart of those our friends and associates whom we parted ways with in the past.

I have seen Dele Momodu take advantage of this secret in his recent reconciliation with Davido as he mentioned his objective going into 2018 was to start on a fresh clean slate in terms of his relationships with people especially the Adeleke’s family whom their family had issues surrounding a love child in 2017. The joy of such reconciliation to him was his own 2019 and he also paraded a DBanj-Donjazzy performance to drive it home.

On the receiving side, the PDP accepted Atiku knowing the apparent significance of such a move even though the opposition APC tried to down play it by reminding us all that Atiku remained a political prostitute with no substance, if I should attempt a paraphrase of how El Rufai described it.

Again, it took the maturity on the part of PDP leadership to welcome a lost son back home and clothe him in a royal robe by way of a grand reception just like it was described to us in the bible. A son remains a son no matter what the issues may have been. In our everyday lives, we hear of people with principles to the effect that once anybody who wrongs them says they are sorry, then that is it for them. They do not hold any grudge whatsoever against that person and they move on like nothing ever happened. That is the way it should be. With any misunderstanding between folks and any attempt or perception of desire for reconciliation, we should hurry and complete the cycle and take advantage of the friendship we all enjoy and benefit from instead of keeping unnecessary, unhealthy and unprofitable malice that gets us nowhere but poison our souls.

We all have a 2019 and should aim at removing every road block to it even if it means giving a call through to that perceived foe today. You may be surprised how long he had been waiting for you. This is a beautiful world folks and if it takes our politicians to open our eyes to realize it, so be it!

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