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| Comr Uket, Abanda John |
Efio-Ita Nyok|4 December 2017
The President of Post-Graduate Students Government of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Comr Abanda John Uket, has addressed Nigerian youths on political leadership. This was on the occasion of Young and Emerging Political Leaders Forum organised recently by MacDonald of Hit 95.9 FM on Thursday 30th November at Transcorp Hotels.
He’s advocated an ideological option for Nigeria’s politics. Read his full speech :
Introduction
‘The political landscape of our dear country is one that has witnessed blowing of the mind where almost all political actors are like birds of the sky that wind changes their course and they effortlessly accept in so far as there is likelihood to stomach infrastructure. This has seen many defects from one political party to the other without holding tenaciously to a guiding principle.
‘This is the call and recall for the consideration, articulation and profession of ideological option for the raising of future political leaders in Cross River state nay Nigeria. The thrust of ideology is a definition of the guiding principles of an individual (political party). Even upon a deep seated reading of the manifestos of
What’s Ideology?
‘Ideology is the galvanization of the political, social, cultural, economic and artistic expression of a people into what they represent and stands for. In this light, ideology is conceived as that which brings specific order into the total life of the particular society that closed it. It displays itself in political theory, social theory and moral theory, and uses these as instruments (Nkrumah, Consciencism 59) to their day-to-day execution of activities. This is to say ideology defines and gives substance, worth to people.
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| L-R : Dr Betta Edu, Sen. John Owan-Enoh and Speaker John Lebo at the occasion |
‘Kwame Nkrumah wrote in his widely read book ‘Consciencism’ :
It [Consciencism] embraces the whole life… And manifests itself in their class structure, history, literature, art, religion… Ideology is integrative in the intent, that is to say, if it seeks to introduce on certain order which will unite the actions of millions towards specific and definite goals, then, its instruments can also be seen as instrument(s) of social control (59-60).
Implications of Ideological Leaning
‘This implies that the true picture of what one professes to believe in is only made visible by the sort of ideology being propagated by such a person. This is because, ideology encompasses the total life processes of the people, as a formidable vehicle of social control (IKS 354).
‘The logical entailment of the foregoing is that once there is a right ideology governing the daily activities and worldwide of a people, there is bound to be a lack of likelihood of the unsophisticated minded youths or compradors being as collaborators in the heinous activities of the mean-no-well of the state nay the country. As a matter of fact, we must endeavour to recognize and be identical with our ideologies.
‘Ask any youth who has public political inclination or interest to unequivocally spell out what her/his political ideology is and you will be dismayed at the response. When you see any youth pointing, singing the praise or following any politician inquire from him/her what he admire about such a politicians.
‘If you are not flat-off you will be perplexed. This is a demonstration of our lack of ideology. This is why we cannot tell a leader what he/she has done wrong. Because he has not gone wrong from what we hold as ideology. Must who may term to do that does so not on the basis of differing ideology but on the basis of wanting a media presence or wanting to please their ideologiless masters.
‘Doubtlessly, this is the basis of numerous criticisms without a suggestion. When you criticise a leader on the basis of ideology, you must as a necessity be compelled by your ideology to proffer a way forward. A case in point is the littering of the media with criticism(s) of leaders that ends without no single suggestion of a way out’.
What do you think about Comr Uket’s submission. I think I go with Uket’s especially where Nkrumah says practice without theory is empty as theory without practice is blind. Politics must be practiced with an ideological orientation.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger, the Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of NegroidHaven
