Confusion on the term MASSES

When you listen to people discuss in television talk shows and on pages of newspapers, everyone talks about the masses. How issues affect the masses or what the masses believe and what the masses would want. When you listen to the issues in discuss, you then wonder if the word masses refers to the common

man on the street or some group of people we don’t know about.

I once heard a man on a talk show saying that the masses have been clamoring for a national conference in Nigeria. I was a little disturbed as I have always believed I was a part of this expression called the masses and that issue was not even on the agenda in a public bus or a market chat. I was either not talking to a lot of people to know what really troubles them about the country or I might not be a part of these so called masses everyone on television is talking about.

From my childhood days, the same issues have been troubling the nation Nigeria and those are the issues I hear people talk about in public places. These issues are not far from,  epileptic power supply, numerous bad roads, large percentage of unemployed people, corruption in Government and the latest being increase level of crime and insecurity. If those issues are not what obtains in your state let me know.

When you talk about speaking for the masses and you say things like we would want to discuss the unity of the country or the masses are against Jonathan for 2015. Such Statements simply means you have not been on the streets to listen to the masses or you are just being mischievous because those are not the issues. A good number of people do not believe Nigeria can hold an election that will produce a candidate that is acceptable to majority of Nigerians due to the fact that elections are being rigged in favor of those in power.

I have noticed that the trend has been to use issues that do not address our main concerns for the country to distract and sometimes try to divide us.

I will want to put this question out there for Nigerians out there. What are the issues that get you upset when you think about the country Nigeria? I am very sure it will be related to the same issues I highlighted earlier.

I will love to end by appealing to the people at the top in various political parties to stop bringing up issues that will divide us as a people. If you are doing your job the way it should be done, you won’t need such distractions. Take a survey on the streets of the various places you reside and you will hear the real issues troubling the country.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!