The Ondo Aspirant--To What Extent Can We Trust Him?
The Ondo Aspirant--How Much Can We Trust Him?
He had not been compromised by tyranny, and had reacted well to the reagents of the ethnic laws. He had been an opaque but reliable man in whom one could trust: and experience teaches us that just this, trust-worthiness is the most constant virtue, which is not acquired or lost with the years. One is born worthy of trust, with an open face and steady eyes, and remains such for life. He who is born contorted and lax remains that way: he who lies to you at five, lies to you at fifteen and fifty.
One cannot vote just anyone to the position of a Governor. It is a delicate and complex job, not much different from that of diplomats: to perform it with success you must infuse faith in the people, and therefore it is indispensable to have faith in yourself and in the ideas you sell; it is therefore a salutary activity, which helps you to know yourself and strengthens your character. It is perhaps the most hygienic of the specialities that constitute the decathlon of the Ondo governor: the speciality that best trains him in eloquence and improvisation, prompt reflexes and the ability to understand and make yourself understood; besides, you get a chance to travel to see the Okitipupa Oil Palm Industry, Oluwa Glass, Honey Processing Mill, and it brings you into contact with all sort of people; The Ikales, Ilajes, Akokos, Owos, Akures.
I must also mention another peculiar beneficent consequence of an Ondo Governor: by pretending to esteem and like your fellow men, after a few years on the seat you wind up really doing so, just as someone who feign madness for a long time actually becomes crazy. In the majority of cases, at first contact you have to acquire or conquer a position superior to that of your fellow Ondo man: but conquer it quietly, graciously, without frightening him or pulling pranks. He must feel you are superior but just a little; reachable, comprehensible.
Never, but never, for instance, talk politics with a non-politician: this is the ABC of the trade. But the opposite danger is more serious, that the Ondo people outrank you: and this can easily happen, because they play at home, that is, they put the ideas you're selling them to practical use, and so they know their virtues and defects as a wife knows her husband's, while usually you have oily a painless, disinterested, often optimistic knowledge of them, acquired from praise singers, personal and special assistants.
The Ondo people have a collection of dirty stories from 1976 continually brought up to date, and review them diligently together with others at the market-place Idi Ayo(Ayo Olopon and draught playgrounds) and under the trees at the local government Secretariat before returning in the evening, to his un-homely house, which has not seen light in three years; since they have faulty memories, they keep a record of which they have told to whom, because to administer the same joke twice to the same person would be a serious mistake.
They know they cannot trust, in entirety, any of the aspirants; but their voters' cards cannot fail them.
Kunle Adegunoye.
He had not been compromised by tyranny, and had reacted well to the reagents of the ethnic laws. He had been an opaque but reliable man in whom one could trust: and experience teaches us that just this, trust-worthiness is the most constant virtue, which is not acquired or lost with the years. One is born worthy of trust, with an open face and steady eyes, and remains such for life. He who is born contorted and lax remains that way: he who lies to you at five, lies to you at fifteen and fifty.
One cannot vote just anyone to the position of a Governor. It is a delicate and complex job, not much different from that of diplomats: to perform it with success you must infuse faith in the people, and therefore it is indispensable to have faith in yourself and in the ideas you sell; it is therefore a salutary activity, which helps you to know yourself and strengthens your character. It is perhaps the most hygienic of the specialities that constitute the decathlon of the Ondo governor: the speciality that best trains him in eloquence and improvisation, prompt reflexes and the ability to understand and make yourself understood; besides, you get a chance to travel to see the Okitipupa Oil Palm Industry, Oluwa Glass, Honey Processing Mill, and it brings you into contact with all sort of people; The Ikales, Ilajes, Akokos, Owos, Akures.
I must also mention another peculiar beneficent consequence of an Ondo Governor: by pretending to esteem and like your fellow men, after a few years on the seat you wind up really doing so, just as someone who feign madness for a long time actually becomes crazy. In the majority of cases, at first contact you have to acquire or conquer a position superior to that of your fellow Ondo man: but conquer it quietly, graciously, without frightening him or pulling pranks. He must feel you are superior but just a little; reachable, comprehensible.
Never, but never, for instance, talk politics with a non-politician: this is the ABC of the trade. But the opposite danger is more serious, that the Ondo people outrank you: and this can easily happen, because they play at home, that is, they put the ideas you're selling them to practical use, and so they know their virtues and defects as a wife knows her husband's, while usually you have oily a painless, disinterested, often optimistic knowledge of them, acquired from praise singers, personal and special assistants.
The Ondo people have a collection of dirty stories from 1976 continually brought up to date, and review them diligently together with others at the market-place Idi Ayo(Ayo Olopon and draught playgrounds) and under the trees at the local government Secretariat before returning in the evening, to his un-homely house, which has not seen light in three years; since they have faulty memories, they keep a record of which they have told to whom, because to administer the same joke twice to the same person would be a serious mistake.
They know they cannot trust, in entirety, any of the aspirants; but their voters' cards cannot fail them.
Kunle Adegunoye.
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