The Price of Being Used: Why Political Thuggery Never Pays
In every election season in Nigeria, the same story repeats itself.
A young man, maybe 19, maybe 24, full of strength, no job, no capital, but plenty of anger. Then a politician drives into the community with a Hilux, tinted glass down, and calls him.
"Oya, my boy, I get work for you."
The work is not in a farm. Not in a workshop. Not in a school.
The work is to carry cutlass. To carry sticks. To snatch a ballot box. To scatter a rally. To beat up someone's father because that father supports another party. To burn tyres on the road on election day and shout "No voting here!"
And for that work, they give him N5,000, or N10,000, or a bottle of gin and a t-shirt with a face on it.
He does it. He feels important for one day. The politician calls him "my strong man."
Then election ends.
The politician moves to Abuja. His own children are in private university abroad, or in Maitama preparing for Masters. The thug? He remains in the same community, but now everyone fears him. The police know his face. He has an injury he never treated. He has made enemies. He has no skill, no future, no reference. When he goes to beg the same politician, the gate man will tell him, "Oga no dey."
That is the story of political thuggery. It never ends well for the youth.
WHY PARENTS MUST NOT ALLOW IT
Some parents have started saying, "Na politics, make my son hustle." No.
No mother carried a child for nine months for that child to become a political weapon that can be wasted in one afternoon.
No father should watch his son being used to destroy the same community he is trying to build. When your son is used to cause mayhem, he is not just fighting the opposition - he is destroying the market where his mother sells, the school where his sister learns, the peace that your own house needs to sleep at night.
A child used as a thug today can become a bandit, a cultist, a permanent criminal tomorrow. And no politician will take responsibility for him when it goes wrong.
Talk to your children. If a politician comes with money for violence, let the parent be the one to say NO. Better to be hungry with dignity than to eat blood money that will chase your family forever.
WHY POLITICIANS MUST STOP IT
To the politicians: If your idea is good, why do you need thugs to sell it?
If you must use our children to win, then you have already failed as a leader. Leadership is not about who can shout loudest or fight dirtiest. It is about who can solve real problems - water, school, hospital, jobs.
You cannot say you love Niger East, or Bida, or Lapai, or any community, and at the same time arm the youths of that community to destroy it. You cannot preach development in the day and fund destruction at night.
The youths you are using are someone's hope. If your own child cannot carry a cutlass for you at a polling unit, why should another man's child do it?
History is watching. The same youths you use to burn down will grow to remember who sent them.
THE BETTER WAY
Communities develop when youths are empowered, not weaponized.
Give them training, not thugs uniforms.
Give them jobs, not hard drugs.
Give them scholarships, not ballot papers to snatch.
Give them tools, not weapons.
A single empowerment that teaches 100 youths how to make a living is better than N10 million shared for mayhem.
Let us agree: In our communities, no more youth will die for a politician's ambition. No more parent will bury a child because of election. No more politician will be allowed to turn our streets into a battlefield.
The thumb should vote, not fight.
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