Resident columnist Dickson Igwe
As the Virgin Islands enters the season of talk and promises, in another land far away and across the vast Atlantic elections will take place this month of February 2023.
In that other land- Nigeria West Africa-, the voters do never have it right. Why? Because, there is never at any election serious discourse on policy nor vision, but a perverse delight in theatrics and the political circus with clowns, jesters, and jugglers, at the helm of antics termed campaigns and elections.
Today, Nigeria’s toxic political culture has turned the country into a failed state: the proverbial banana republic. The Virgin Islands would do well to learn lessons from that land.
Now, a general Election is serious business. The quest at an election is for power, and that is power to be used bottom up and not top down. Power- the ability to enforce change- is the chief resource of the politician. Power, should be used to advance the mass of people and not one section of the elite.
Consequently, the task of the voter is to observe the choices he or she has in front of them.
This Observer admonishes – as readers of his stories must acknowledge- the honesty test. Is the candidate honest? Do honest people advise him or her? Does the politician possess a clear vision of where he wants to take the society? Does his past speak for, or against him or her?
Get it right and the voter and wider society prospers in safety and harmony. Get it wrong and we will all be ‘’whining and complaining’’ for another four years.
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Dickson Igwe is an education official in the Virgin Islands. He is also a national sea safety instructor. He writes a national column across media and has authored a story book on the Caribbean: ‘The Adventures of a West Indian Villager’. Dickson is focused on economics articles, and he believes economics holds the answer to the full economic and social development of the Caribbean. He is of both West African and Caribbean heritage. Dickson is married with one son.
