Awkward Ideas:
Boda madness in the city
Someone once said that politics is too serious a matter to be left in the hands of politicians alone. That’s why boda boda cyclists, taxi drivers and journalists come in to help; at least they talk about it. If you think politics is a run of the mill business try walking the distance to presidency.
I confess having had ambitions to contest for presidency until I drastically withdrew. The issue here is not to walk at the red carpet; it is to get rid of the incumbent which is like making a river flow in the reverse. The bad news is that not even your family believes that you can be head of state. But men love demonstrating their masculine boldness even when it means crawling through a furnace.
Women have the ability to send even the timid and weaklings of men to war. When a woman sleeps in a man’s chest feeling the warm flow of his blood in the veins she may cajole him into becoming president so that she wins the title and privileges of being First lady. First ladies have traditionally been assigned the duty of waking up in the morning to decide what to buy at the expense of the tax payers who contribute immensely to the state fund.
Awakened by the political ambitions to become presidents and cheered by wives that they can make it, men find themselves going to the polls hoping to take over the leadership of countries. On rare occasions a few have made it especially if they come from those lucky countries where there is electoral democracy.
But in a country where bullets are stronger than ballots changing the incumbent is not an ordinary trip to the sandy beaches of Las Vegas. You need to sleep with the wild beast in the forest or bush for a few years without blankets, be able to pull a trigger and shoot straight at some other people before you qualify for presidency.
Comfort is not known if poverty and suffering do not come before it. That’s it. Some presidential aspirants think that the way to go is to take a delectable breakfast at their homes, drive to the City center to stage demonstrations. Knowing the road from City Square to the State House does not make you president.
In developing countries the constitution no longer helps the people. You cannot rely on the constitution to remove a president. Those who feel the injustice have no option but to take other steps.
Going to streets to engage in running battles with police and other security agents can’t make you President. You only spend the entire day running along the streets throwing stones at Police and at the end of the day you return home tired for supper and sleep; strike finished and no results registered.
