by Festus Ogun
Anyone who doesn’t get the drift of the two adjectives (or noun) caged in inverted comma above must have been dead, maybe, from the cyber world. These words are popularly used and have gotten a new meaning which has departed from the normal or literal meaning. I don’t think there is anyone who is seeing the words for the first time or who doesn’t not know the significance in Nigerian politics. For the purpose of this piece, therefore, be achieved, the meaning and ‘Nigerian usage’ of the words need to be given, so as not to create some unnecessary ambiguity or vagueness in the minds of the readers.
In Nigeria political context, a ‘worshipper’ is a person who is a staunch supporter of the president –Buhari. A worshipper is one that sings always the song of ‘Buhari is always right’ and ‘Jonathan/PDP is always wrong’. They are the ‘image maker’ and ‘image builder’ of Buhari and the APC, who fight against any form of criticism coming from anyone. They are the set of Nigerians that view Buhari to be a saint. They do much of antagonistic work against the PDP and Former President Jonathan. The synonym that’s apt for this term is ‘Buharist’. They believe and uphold the promises and ideologies of President Mohammadu Buhari, come rain, come sunshine. Also, they coined the other term which is to be discussed below.
‘Wailers’ on the other hand, are the strong, faithful, loyal, trustworthy and die-hard supporters of Jonathan. To them, he is the savior. They always defend the man and suppress any form of criticism of his government. They are good at comparing and contrasting –the past and present administrations. To the wailers, Jonathan is always right and Buhari is always not. They criticize ‘all’ steps taken by the Buhari’s government. Wailers are just the villain of the worshippers. Briefly put, they always ‘tackle’ Buhari’s steps and sing song of praise to Jonathan, any time, and any day. The word ‘worshipper’ got its origin from these set of people. Another name for wailers is ‘Gejites’.
In a democracy, the importance of the opposition can never be belittled. Same thing with the ruling party’s. In Nigeria democracy however, both the so called wailers and worshippers are not getting their roles right. From their characteristics discussed above, it is evident that the role has shifted from what it ought to be to a Buhari-Jonathan war. This is pitiable and one of the disturbing factor to the growth of our democracy.
The APC guys -the worshippers- that are supposed to be up and doing in their ‘role’ as supporters and members of the ruling party are getting it wrong. Praising Baba everytime is not the main function of the so-called worshippers. I mean, attacking the opponent, the wailers, shouldn’t be the utmost priority of these guys. They are simply in the position to effect the expected change. Look, effecting the desired change is not by always ‘exalting Buhari and destroying Jonathan’. The desired change cannot be achieved if all we think is ‘Buhari is always right’. It can be simply achieved when the right finger is pointed at the wrongdoing, irrespective of the doer. The notion of ‘Buhari is always right’ has been the main reason our eyes have not been able to see things that ought to be worked on.
And the reason for this too is not farfetched. It is simply blind loyalty which is a serious threat to democracy. Among the disheartening things done by the said wailers is to overlook or pretend not the see things that are ‘not too good’ done by their masters. Also, they involve in covering up the exposed secrets of their master and painting the bad done or mistake made with a good image.
Additionally, they shun, indirectly, the opposition by attacking all that comes from them, either good or bad. They see the ‘opponents’ as devil which needs to be crushed totally. They do not tend to listen to their opinions, believing good things or idea will not come from them. When the ‘wailers’ criticize them, they make comparison of the present administration to the last emphasizing: ‘at least it’s better than your time’ (PDP/Jonathan administration). Or at times, they just escape criticism attacks, usually when they are guilty of the accusation, by calling the critics ‘wailing wailers’. They have the ‘PDP can never be of any use’ mindset. Infact, they seem not to know what it takes to deal with opposition.
Those set of worshippers that compares the two administrations (present and past) are missing a very germane point. The purpose of the present government is to make things change for better, not making unreasonable comparison to the injuries caused by the last administration.
To the wailers, they are getting it wrong the most. The function of the opposition is to make criticism that is free from fallacy thereby making the government in power work hard on areas that need to be corrected. What is expected of the opposition is constructive, logical and intelligent criticism which will make for a strong and serious government. Unfortunately, what we have is a direct antonym of the expected.
The wailers make ingénue and illogical criticism. They play the role of hatred and enmity to the ruling party –the president. This is, to the best of my knowledge, what has made the ruling party see the wailers as nothing but noise makers and thereby not giving serious attention to them. If they had been serious with their roles, the present government won’t have perceived them as enemy – nobody gives attention to the enemy. If at all they’ve taken time to define their roles, things wouldn’t have been going –worse- like it is going now.
The point I’m stressing is not that you should not criticize. What I’m evangelizing is the application of common-sense in criticizing. It is not about criticizing things that are evidently ‘uncriticizable’ –criticism of hatred. But, to take time, study the government and make criticism of the wrong actions, weak point and unfulfilled promises of government. If criticism, that are not maliciously and fallaciously free are made, no good government will ever take you serious. But, if the right and constructive criticism are made, it will not only wake the government but hasten our democratic growth.
It should be noted that not all PDP members are wailers but all wailers are PDP members. Same thing applies to the worshippers: not all APC members are worshippers but all worshippers are APC members. There are members of both parties that play their role right, but they are very few.
The bottom line of all said is the redefinition of the roles. Both the wailers and the worshippers need to make a redefinition of their different roles. They need to know what it takes to play either of the roles. The opposition is not there, only to make mockery or criticism of government, but to effect change through brainy and clever criticisms. If the notion of ‘hatred’ continues, the ruling party will continue to dabble into actions without considering others.
To the worshippers, if the notion of ‘Baba is always right’ is not eroded off your minds, things will go worse. Saying Buhari is a saint is like telling the world that Buhari is a superman, which is very untrue. He is also makes error. He is no saint. Hence, he needs correction. If he’s praised all the time, even while he goes wrong, he will think he’s doing the right thing when in truth, he is not. And this, without much imagination, is at the detriment of our country.
What is black should be called black. Same thing with white. Let’s be realistic about issues. When this is done, I think, the Nigeria of our dream will be a reality.
Festus Ogun is a law undergraduate and owns a blog, Festus Ogun.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
