Our votes deserve better: Essentialness of voters education
By Bashir Kabir
It suffices to say that there are more than the needed amount of men and women vying for various public positions in the next elections, and as usual, the clamor to catch the attention of the voting polity in the effort to showcase themselves as the right choices is by now very obvious as the year 2023 looks us in the eye.
For the people, the right choices are those that are capable of tackling the pitiful healthcare, uplifting the down spiraling education system, alleviating the deteriorating security matters, revamping the endemic inefficient public service, encouraging the non-inclusion of the public in their governance and so much more.
The political climate in the country is understandably a whole different presentation at the moment, and it is okay to take the premise that things cannot be presumed to be done like business as usual if at all a different outcome is to be expected. Different genres of people need to take over from the people that usually go to public offices and fail woefully in leadership.
Those people failed us again and again. They lack the capacity needed, oftentimes with archaic ideology and unexplainable greed that cannot be elucidated within the realm of sanity.
The political machinery in the country might have been turgidly set and supposedly fixed since donkey years after independence. The pattern might have been predictable by now: pump money into the polity, hire thugs to kill and maim, steal ballot box, rig election, pay spiritualists for prayers, put up a huge legal battle, and voila the office is all yours.
It might be that that honest person with reputable societal integrity, impeccable information on what’s going on internally and externally as well as having the passion to bring in change for a better tomorrow is seen as less qualified because he doesn’t have access to campaign funds and the people at the right place.
They are not in short supply, surprisingly. The notion that everyone is corrupt is far from being correct. Even among the aspirants, they exist. All it takes is making an honest background check for identification.
It is not the best option to refrain from vote casting with the excuse that it is an absolute waste of precious time because birds of the same feather flock together.
Instead, waste that precious time to get educated on what you need and who you believe, based on unbiased data among the aspirant is capable of delivering such. Then, wholeheartedly pour all your support into that individual.
Looking at the array of characters seeking the votes that will take them into key positions of power in the 2023 election year.
It is worth asking the question of who are they really in terms of capacity relevant to the responsibilities they are pursuing?
To answer the above question, the following bulletins should be the roadmap among other professional approaches to reveal a bit of useful data to help in decision making on who is the right person.
Spirituality
It is true that men and women with sound spiritual guidance, be it Muslim or Christian, have a better moral compass to keep them on track when it comes to finalized decision making. It is not a rule of thumb that spirituality is the dead answer which determines whether one does right or wrong, but as an instance, one has to know the clear demarcation between right and wrong before they can be expected to make informed decisions.
Experience/professionalism
The person with good professional and working experience will do better in that field much more than he who just join the trade. An experienced administrator is likely to efficiently manage a body than an artist. In fact, a public office holder doesn’t need to be a professional in a particular discipline. It is essential, however, that he or she has a past record of managing a project EXCEPTIONALLY well. Leading people is the biggest project ever.
Reputation
One cannot go wrong with sampling the opinion of those who directly or indirectly interact with a person courting to be saddled with the responsibility to lead people. Honesty, integrity, compassion, tolerance, and sympathy are human traits that one cannot hide particularly to those he or she is interacting with on a daily basis.
Ask his close associates what kind of person he is in private. If he is a merciful friend that always tries to help people get out of misery, it is likely that he will go out of his way to do the same to the people he leads. If he is dishonest to his family, expect the same from him as a leader.
Intelligence
Educational background is intentionally omitted here because that might not be the determining factor of how someone particularly behaves. We have seen many people having the same level of educational qualification but behaving entirely differently.
But intelligence is a reliable yardstick to predict behavior and outcome. There is consistency in intelligence across people of different backgrounds. There are certain things intelligent people would never do.
For example, the greed of hoarding an insane amount of wealth is in direct contradiction with intelligent behavior. An intelligent person would always know that there is a limit to what he needs including the life he has. Hence, moderation in anything including the way he talks, expresses anger and joy is one of the ways to spot an intelligent person. On the other flip of the coin, excessiveness and overzealousness is an ultimate indication of low IQ. You don’t need that person as a leader.
Temperance
Emotional intelligence should come under intelligence but it is a whole different level of intelligence that sometimes even intelligent people lack. There are people that have no self-control and easily get carried away by their emotions. These are dangerous people when put in the office because the opportunity they will have, mixed with the low temperance, can hinder them from making sound decisions. The result is hasty and irrational decisions that are purely emotionally based in nature. If anyone lacks that kind of intelligence, it is better if they stay away from public office because leading people need self-discipline. Handling situations with calm and composure could be a sign of emotional intelligence.
The above headlines are by no means the exhaustive list of what voters need to consider in an aspirant before they give any support to him or her. It will be lazy not to have this information prior to deciding whether somebody is the answer or not.
At this critical moment, the people are in dire need of exemplary leadership. The government is not the enterprise of the few to do as they wish. The government is for the people and by the people. We pray that the Almighty aids us in picking the right leaders in the coming elections.
Mr Kabir writes from Kano and could be reached at magikkalaz@gmail.com
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