Elections, Political Parties and Credible Individuals

In response to an advice for Nigerians to desist from promoting political parties and rather vote for only those candidates whose capabilities to lead are evident.

It's rather unfortunate that these candidates yet have to belong to these non-ideological groupings called political parties in this side of the world. Were it possible to have independent candidates put themselves up for election, then your candid advice might be ultimately instructive. But as things currently stand, the politicians here are by-products, largely, of the political platforms upon which they emerge. And when they truly emerge, they have little space do much beyond the demands of these parties. So, in trying to do away with the support of one party or the other, the politician will himself be thrown with that bath water.

What this has resulted to is that those who should have been credible enough to be considered for votes irrespective of what parties they belong, as you're rightly canvassing, see the same rot you have identified in these political platforms masquerading as political parties. It is undesirable, for those averse to political arm-twisting, the high octane politicking that goes on behind the scenes; the horse trading not captured by cameras. And having noticed the putrefaction in these platforms will rather preserve their good names and hard earned integrity by avoiding politics entirely than throw all their dignity to the dogs in a bid to get elected to serve in different capacities in the truest sense of the word, based on elections that require the platform of political parties.

What that leaves the electorate is the dregs of residue, the remnants with sordid histories and with little to nothing of what it means to uphold the noble tenets of democratic principles and with a past that'll make some criminals in saner climes cringe. These are the characters, the dramatis personae that loom larger than life in the vacuous terra firma of our political landscape and enthrone themselves permanently on our political consciousness willfully vying for the toga of "Best Rigger" in any electioneering exercise.

And having won "convincingly", they set into process a strategy, nay they endeavour to leave a deeper hole in the common till, in the National Cake, that those who came before and those who will come after. Any surprises that there's a race to win in 2015 swifter than the race to free the Boko Haram abductees who may have actually become used to their situations now given how we have EBOLA-rised that struggle?

So, granted that we ought to see beyond the political parties to the individuals and vote for the right candidates, it is a struggle harder than trying to extract a dragon's tooth, finding those individuals today.