POLITICS IS NOT A GAME, by Omagbitse Barrow
If politics is a game, then your life is a joke. This expression about politics being a game is as baseless as it is useless, and it is one of the paradigms that need to change about the way we view politics. Democratic politics is not just some beauty contest of egotistic and highly confident people seeking high political office. Rather, it is the “collaboration of similar-minded people to create a positive influence in society through leadership and accountability”. It is a collaboration because it requires the willful participation of the candidates and the electorate and involves both sides working together. It is not about manipulation, deceit or coercion. In this collaboration there will be trade-offs and negotiations in the same way that any other human system operates. It must also be about similar-minded people - this is why Socrates doesn’t spare us from the guilt of electing incompetent, corrupt and inept leaders. We are certainly accomplices when we either elect such p