Skip to main content

WHAT DOES PARTY HAS TO DO WITH TRADITIONS ? 





Patrick Ekong

In a ludicrous manner, political party membership has become a criteria for nearly every traditional position in Akwa Ibom State and some other state in Nigeria.

It is very disheartening how our elders and youths have decided to be mislead  by party politics that is seasonal with the traditions of their forefathers.

They have forgotten that party is build on the society and not the society on the party. They have forgotten that several political parties have gone to extinction since the birth of democracy in Nigeria.

How then do we as people allow party sentiment to swallow our conscience and blind us from the truth about traditions which is what define who we are? How then do the elders and youths defy traditions just to get political gratifications?

So many peaceful communities has been set ablaze in consuming fire of defying the traditions of the people in the name of party politics. My village as a case study has been ravaged by political sentiments even when the peaceful coexistence of the people is at stake.

 According to sources, youth leaders in my community is selected based on party membership not on competence. This alone has contributed to the unrest we are experiencing in our communities as mediocrity is given a platform to stage stupidity.

Traditional stool that was hitherto hereditary; where it was transited peacefully,  has now become war stool  in most communities in the state because of how party politics has set the tune of the music.

Communities have been divided into different factional groups with bitterness and party sentiment at the core of it. Where the process of the community is supposed to be discussed, party sentiment will disrupt such gathering.

Not that we don't know the truth, but since party politics has given us a leeway to a flamboyant life , we have decided to offer our traditions and the way we should live as people to party in return for immediate gratifications.

Traditional chieftaincy cases in the law court nowadays are mostly decided and rule in favour of  who support the party and this has contributed to the fast number of disputed traditional cases recorded recently.

It is high time we don't allow party politics have a place in our traditional settings; only then will we experience peace in our respective communities.

Party will come and go but our traditions,and  our way of life will remain. What would become of us as a people?

This is a poser for many of us.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DON'T LEAVE WHEN IT IS TOO LATE.

The story . Udauk was too weak to continue with the evening chores around the house because of her pregnancy. She bent over the kitchen cabinet in search of a tuber of yam she was to prepare before her husband returned from work. At the point of stretching her hands to reach the tuber of yam under the cabin, she felt a sharp pain down her abdomen. Her left lap was swollen from the beating she got the previous night from the monster's husband. She was still short of three months from her due month. That's when she was to put to birth. The shape pain was accompanied by a loud scream. She dropped the knife she had with her and tried to settle on a table-size stool lying close to the gas cylinder in the kitchen, but she couldn't. She fell and started screaming, reached out to her phone, and dialed her husband. Mr. Sam had branched  Madam G's Native Kitchen to settle for a while before heading home as his habit demands. He was busy at his usual joint with a bottle of chill ...
Social Media: Are we swallowed by it? It is alarming yet no longer news the rate of social media usage since the turn of the millennium. Social Media has become a tool in nearly every 9/ 10 persons we meet everyday of our lives. In fact it is estimated that youth particularly engaged in social Media taking 8/9 hours a day out of the 24hrs. Without doubt, social media has come to enhance and add more meaning to our daily life. Since the advent of social media in the early part of the millennium, the rate people get involve in these wonderful platforms keep increasing on a daily basis. To some youth and some fraction of older people, social media is like oxygen. They can't stay a moment without. A lady once said that she can't stay without visiting her Facebook page in a day. With the number of people flooding the Social media on per second basis, one will wonder if these technology has any bad effect at all. Millions of people use social media as it is the trend now, ...

TILL DEATH DO US APART

 The story.  She wanted to fix this once and for all. She felt it was her obligation and responsibility to try and fix her marriage. It is true that when love can no longer sustain the marriage, commitment,  and sense of responsibility does. This was Elma's concern. Though things were never what she expected, especially after having an affair with her personal assistant, she felt she could rekindle the love and bring her home. Shutting the door of the penthouse behind Mark her boyfriend, Elma warned him never to call again, not when she was trying to fix her home and get back with her husband. After Mark drove off, Elma took a step backward from where she was, fell on the bed and sobbed profusely. It was hard for her to see him leave. In the past six months of knowing Mark, he made her feel loved again and provided her a shoulder to cry on. He made her forget the horrors George her husband made her pass through in the last three years.  Elma left the penthouse that n...