Tax Reforms Bills: If We Do Not Deal With Politics, Politics Will Deal With Us

Tax Reforms Bills: If We Do Not Deal With Politics, Politics Will Deal With Us

By Yusuf Ali

The controvercial Tinubu Tax Reforms Bills that is currently undergoing debates in the National Assembly has once again waken us up on the need to get involve in politics and deal with politics or else politics will continue to deal with us.

If we do not deal with politics some people will continue to seat in the National Assembly with our votes to decide what laws impact on us, and our lives whether we like it or not.

Politics is the central reality of all our choices. It is the pivot around which every other things revolves. We must get involve and make sure the people we send to National Assembly are true representatives of our people.

If we say politics is dirty, impure and so on and so forth, for God sake, we cannot, in all our pristine purity, wash the dirt off our hands and leave it to the corruption of political vultures. They will rip us up like carrion.

It is because the most intelligent, the most erudite and the most moralus are avoiding the maelstrom and dirt of Nigerian politics, that is why the maelstrom and dirt of Nigerian politics are hitting us hard.

Unless we stand up to be counted with the force of our moral strength, we shouldn’t complain and grumble when the power of immoral strength counts us out as it is happening now.

It is my honest opinion that there is so much we as citizens can do to change the trajectory of governance in this country if only we can all resolve to actively get involved rather than leave the political process to grafters and political charlatans.

As we all know and as I’ve come to discover, every act of political conquest implies both the conqueror and the conquered with the conqueror imposing his views, vision, objectives and values on the vanquished.

By staying away from any form of political involvement despite our positions in society, affluence or intellect, we have allowed ourselves to be part of the vanquished and the oppressed majority.

It is time to face the reality that there is no perfect life or a perfect country hence it is our duty as good citizens not to be political bystanders but to get involved-to build a new era of politics and leadership where we can disagree with one another and still remain friends as we search for common ground and compromise with willingness and humility.

Most times, people in our positions in life tend to forget we are animals until we become preys. We isolate ourselves from happenings outside our cocoon of privileged comfort because we deem ourselves safe and unaffected by certain policy outcomes that affects others.

No country is better than its citizenry, its institutions and its constitution and to the extent that we aspire for a better nation let us not just make fame with our individual successes and achievements but use that fame to change people’s lives.

Let us have hope- hope that sees beyond the darkness of the moment and the possibilities of the future as democracy does not have a self-correcting mechanism unless we help to set it on the right course.

As a matter of fact, what sets democracy apart from every other form of government is the input of ordinary citizens and as one notable public opinion writer put it, “it is the input of ordinary citizens into their country’s future”.

It is the input of both the powerful elite and the powerless when they cast their vote on election day. It is when they register their opposition to their political leaders and the way they are governed, attend a political rally, engage in public protest and voice opinions etc.

Politics is not supposed to be a blood sport yet it is not supposed to be a spectator sport either for us to sit on the sidelines and applaud or express disgust.

So I want to use this opportunity to urge every political bystander to endeavor to get politically engaged, otherwise, what they run from, they may run into and to those who feel the walls of our political process and practice are too thick to crack, let me remind them that even the strongest wall can come crashing down since all that is needed is to find a crack on its surface”.

To those who think it is too late to participate, I will say the ship hasn’t sailed yet but is about to leave the dock hence it is not too late to step on board.

Indeed, if we do not deal with politics, politics will deal with us.