The phrase “all politics is local” is an American coinage commonly used in United States politics. it gained notoriety back in 1932 through Tip O’Neill, a former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who was most prominently linked with the phrase, although he did not originate it.
The weight of “all politics is local” is mirrored in what sociologists call gemeinschaft, “social relations between individuals, based on close personal and family ties,” where there is high-touch human relationships.
The opposite is gesslachaftt, “a rationally developed mechanistic type of social relationship characterised by impersonally contracted associations between persons,” or the mass, or atomised, associative society, where relationships are more psychologically distant and formalised.
Generally speaking, political leaders and politicians must always pay attention to the everyday concerns of their constituents, and not only the so-called national issues.
The “localness” of politics informs the tiff between the divergent elements and interests in a given locality.
Because politics is indeed local, everyone must pay close attention to the next round of elections, which is focused on governorship and state Houses of Assembly seats holding on Saturday, March 18. The governorship election would hold in 28 states, with the exception of Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo and Osun where the election was conducted off-cycle. The Houses of Assembly election would hold in all the 993 state constituencies across the country.
Unlike the February 25th presidential elections involving 470 constituencies (one Presidential, 109 Senatorial Districts and 360 House of Representatives seats), the State elections will involve 1,021 constituencies (28 Governorship and 993 State Assembly seats). It means that there will be more candidates involved and also more collation centres.
Due to the keenness of the local contests, I implore all political parties to consider the March 18 States election as a mere contest and not a sweepstake or dogfight. All stakeholders especially the politicians and their supporters should refrain from acts of violence that may mar the polls.
For INEC and its thousands of personnel and adhoc staff including the security agencies, Nigerians are looking forward to an improved performance from the presidential election.
Come Saturday, Nigerians should troop out in their millions to their polling units and exercise their franchise in a responsible manner and conduct themselves in a way that is congruous with the expectations of the larger Nigerian society.
For Nigeria, it’s another dive into the dark pond of democracy as Saturday’s polls provide a further test to its wavering democratic credentials.
Away from Nigeria’s undulating politics and further ashore into the murky waters of international politics which is becoming murkier by every passing day, the world witnessed something extraordinary last week as Iran and Saudi Arabia overcome their seven-year rift and announced a landmark deal, brokered by China in Beijing, to formally restore diplomatic relations. The agreement saw the two sectarian arch rivals in the Middle East agree to put aside their differences and to normalize ties.
Both Tehran and Riyadh now have two months to agree on the details before reopening embassies. Reports said that Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers are expected to meet to seal the deal soon and the GCC summit with China will come “sometime after that.”
Iran has already agreed not to encourage cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia from Yemen by the Houthi rebels, while Saudi Arabia has agreed to tone down critical coverage of Iran.
But for some countries, the news of a restored diplomatic relationship doesn’t come as a welcomed development.
It was the first ever deal of its kind overseen by China, framing itself as a peacemaker. Some have described it as a sign of a “changing global order.”
To put it mildly, it is bad news for the United States and deals a massive blow to the near-unlimited geopolitical sway Washington has long held over the region through its strategic relationships with countries such as Saudi Arabia. Additionally, it effectively ruins a US led campaign to pressurize and isolate Iran and hinders American efforts to shape regional politics in Israel’s favour via the Abraham Accords. It is no surprise that the Western media is calling the Chinese-brokered deal a “challenge” to the international order.
For Israel, the Iran-Saudi Arabia detente is a huge blow and threat to the corporate existence of the Zionist nation. According to Israeli officials, the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and a reduction in tensions in the Middle East is hugely unacceptable.
Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid reportedly said that the renewal of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is “a serious and dangerous development for Israel, a political victory for Iran and a fatal blow to the effort to build a regional coalition against Iran.”
The United States also last week orchestrated the AUKUS alliance at a summit in San Diego which saw the actualization of a trilateral agreement between the three nations, the US, Britain and Australia, to boost their presence in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly amid concerns from Western nations about an increase in China’s international influence.
The pact, which also includes building and selling nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, enhancing cooperation on cyber, artificial intelligence, and military technologies, as an effort to create deterrence against China in the Pacific region.
This move further infuriated Beijing which considered the nuclear submarines deal as “a security threat and an act of aggression,”
The trilateral bloc has “gone further down a wrong and dangerous road,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Currently, only six countries have nuclear submarines: the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and India.
Observers warned that the deal could have broader implications towards peace in the Indo-Pacific region, and might stimulate an arms race, undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation system and damage regional peace and stability.
Already, tension is escalating in the South China Sea between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan in which the US had successfully enlisted the military cooperation of Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.
In Asia, we have a looming conflict on the horizon as Chinese flexes its muscles in the international arena against the existing global order. But Beijing is not alone and not without friends of it’s own just as last week’s event in the Middle East demonstrated.
