Understanding Politics; Examining the different sides

By Inda-John Elizabeth

Politics comes from the Greek word “Politiká” which means “things concerning the polis”. The Polis means the city but in Ancient Greece, it came to mean the affairs of the citizens of the city. However, Let’s also examine three different definitions;
According to Collins dictionary, Politics are the actions or activities concerned with achieving and using power in a country or society.

The British Encyclopedia defines Politics as the activities that relate to influencing the actions and policies of a government or getting and keeping power in a government.

Wikipedia defines “Politics as the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.”
In other words, politics is any set of activities that uses power to make decisions for a group of people. Therefore, politics in AFAS’ context are the activities that are concerned with making decisions for the whole of AFAS.

It is important to know why these definitions are important because as Myles Munroe said, “When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable”.
Moving on, Student political leaders particularly those in AFAS must understand exactly what politics is. The Press must also remind them because like all definitions imply, they make decisions and create policies for the whole group (AFASites).

Emotions and Politics
A man walks up to the newspaper stand and he instantly grins. No, the news isn’t exciting but he cannot explain how the banter makes the stand beside the gutter, feel like home. He meets the supporters of a rival party and they begin. “Tinubu is the best candidate in this election in my humble opinion. I mean have you seen what he has done with Lagos?” One of the supporters asks the man. He replies. “What do you even mean by what he has done with Lagos? Are you crazy? You people are the problem of Nigeria! Obi is obviously the savior!” He finishes with a scream. The fans of the supporter’s party start a rant and others join in the heated argument.
One would think they would break bottles or bring out knives from the tone of their voices. But to most amazement, they leave the stand, enter their cars, drive to Iya Wura’s Buka on the next street, share a big bottle of Heineken, and order catfish pepper soup.

How is this possible? These men have understood the difference between politics and their emotions. They understand the hold of politics over their emotions.
They are not like a set of people called ‘Twitter warriors’. Just like the people at the newspaper stand, these two groups on Twitter have grown to hate each other. Their banter is toxic. How come? One would ask.

The simple answer is that man is wired to be partisan. People feel a need to always support something. No one is truly politically indifferent. People always support someone, an idea, or a party over the other. Man’s emotions are wired to be political. Why? Our emotions reflect just who we are. What we represent and that’s why the political banter is always heated. People support people who they think reflect a bit of them. So, young people would support a younger candidate because they feel he reflects them. The same thing as old people, they are less inclined to support the young because they feel like the younger generation would never understand the values that they grew up with.

Psychological Effects of Politics
On the 20th of October, 2020, many Nigerian Youths took a break from the politics of the country. Why? For the first time, they were interested in something that concerns the state and the state disappointed them.
Why should that event have that much effect on them? Seeing that, at least every 20year old Nigerian has been disappointed at least once in their lives.
Because apart from the emotions involved in politics, it is designed in such a way that every one of the people expects something from it.

Recall that the meaning of politics is making decisions for a group of persons. One expects that the government would do something for the people as they voted for them. It is expected that their choices will benefit the people they lead.
When that doesn’t happen, the disappointment goes beyond the actions that happened. People lose hope and trust in the government they elected. Hope and light built up for months vanish in less.
This is why people seem to be apathetic to political activities in the country and this context, the faculty.

A sad story
What does this mean to the average political leader? A lot depends on the people. They can still maintain their hope and trust.

Hope is one of the greatest things that man has. The myth of Pandora says that it is the only thing that survived her curiosity. It is what makes a man wakes up and go to work each day.

This is why politicians’ actions matter. Student politicians should realize that once they represent students’ hope as soon as they pick up the form to contest. They should make sure the hope and trust in them are sufficiently repaid.