Realpolitik has a long history with the streets. The romance between politicians and the streets is an artful way whereby they brandish whatever street credibility they have left in them to gain support from the masses. But when this romance with the streets is taken beyond the ordinary, and it begins to hamper proper government functionality, we should begin to suspect an ulterior motive.
Naturally, politicians want to be seen as posh, so they are often very careful about how their association with louts whose violent or criminal biddings affect their image laundering. Nowadays, hooliganism has infiltrated into the ranks of politics again. And this may finally be the death of the intellectual branch of politics.
As early as the First Republic, hooliganism was the order of the day in the country. It was a time when political crisis rocked the Western Region, and politicians recruited youths, using stolen funds, so as to set up their opponents for a violent threat. One needed to have loads of money and know how to deploy it to control jobless youths to achieve this though. The trend continued for a time until the military struck with the coup in 1966.
At the dawn of the Fourth Republic in 1999, some politicians, partly hardened by resistance against the despot, Sani Abacha, began to court the streets negatively for their selfish gains. Unfortunately, this act is brandished as a necessary part of democracy today.
About 3 weeks ago, MC Oluomo, a thug, familiar and popular with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was fatally stabbed at an All Progressives Congress (APC) rally where the Lagos governor Akinwunmi Ambode himself was present. The government machinery in question reportedly flew him abroad for expert treatment.
News has broken forth that a thanksgiving party will be hosted on the parade grounds of a couple of primary and secondary schools in Lagos, during school hours, to celebrate MC Oluomo’s recovery and apparent return to hooliganism. No greater disservice has been done to the legacy past governors such as Alhaji Lateef Jakande left in education than this crass abuse.
For some background, Musiliu Akinsanya, also known as MC Oluomo, has led violent attacks on rival gangs within the NURTW ranks both in Oshodi and Lagos as a whole. Oshodi was never fully free from violence because of the MC Oluomo menace which is largely backed by the government. Yet, the powerful Tinubu machinery continues to breed more hooligans like him which they deploy at their whim whenever they need anything dirty to be done. MC Oluomo is definitely not the only one of such; in fact, he is not even the overall head of the NURTW in Lagos.
Babajide Sanwoolu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate at the upcoming Lagos gubernatorial elections is toeing the lines of condoning same political hooliganism too. Those who have followed the news keenly as to the activities of louts terrorizing and intimidating citizens and rivals know that it is a perfectly orchestrated political inducement to install Sanwoolu as the governor by all means. It is these kinds of hooligans who hop around on election days destroying and snatching ballot boxes. They are the kind of hooligans who mobilize their minions to create artificial violence such that the electorate would be too afraid to come out to vote. They are the footsoldiers which these politicians send around to distribute cash or force people to vote a certain candidate. It was well documented by the press how the same type of hooligans were used by the Sanwoolu camp to bully the Ambode camp during the controversial APC gubernatorial primaries some months back.
It now appears that the abode of thugs (also known as area boys) in a place which should be a sanctuary of ideological leanings is rather being desecrated.
It is left for the citizens to look beyond the ordinary, make a decision to end the infusion of hooliganism into our politics and governance, lest we may have to surrender even our lives at some point to these area boys who are being cunningly beautified and forced down our throats.
Featured image source: goldmyne.tv
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