Newsie Events: #Opinion
Now Let’s use Football Analogy to explain structures in politics. This will be very simple and exciting if you understand football. 😄
Politics like football is a game. To win, you have to put a strong team in place. In football, while a team can be a football club or national team. In this explanation we will focus on football clubs.
A football club is a team of players, managers, staff and even spectators all playing different roles to ensure that the club is victorious. Every one plays a role, in different positions and different capacity in order for the team to succeed. The most successful clubs are those who make sure they have the strongest persons in different roles and positions. Every new season, they evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and then make serious moves to fortify areas where they are lacking and eliminate non-performing or weak links.
To win trophies, you must have a good manager, a good support staff and then, you must have good players in different positions who can match and outplay the players in other teams. You must have good strikers, good midfielders, good defenders and good goalkeepers. You must be active during the transfer window so as to be able to ensure that your team is strong enough to compete with others. A team with Ronaldo and bad midfielders and defenders will end up like Manchester United. A team with Messi and 10 good players but a bad coach will end up like PSG in the champions league. A team with the right players and right coach who fail to deliver in crucial stages will end up like Mancity in the champions league too. We can go on and on with examples. The point however, is that, you need a strong team of great players in different positions from striking to defence and a great manager. In addition to that, your great players and managers must be able to perform at crucial stages.
Now, let’s say Real Madrid and Manchester City has been the two dominant clubs and another club suddenly became tired of these two. How do they dethrone these two almighty clubs ? Do they say they do not need to build a strong team to rival what these two have on the pitch ? The answer is No. The only they can take away the trophy from these two is to build a strong team of great players in different positions and a great manager with his supporting staff, all working together without crisis and with the capacity to not just match what the two dominant team have but to deliver in crucial moments. That is structure.
15 years ago, Manchester City was a very small club. A new owner came in and built a strong team of great players, hired great managers and staff, today, Manchester City have become the Kings of England. 22 years ago, Chelsea was a nobody. A new owner came in, invested in building a strong team with great managers and support staff. In the last ten years, Chelsea is the most successful English Club in Europe. For 10 years, AC Milan, a one time great club became so weak and won nothing. A new management came in and for 5 years, they have invested in building a team with great players and managers. This season they got back to winning trophies. We can go on and on.
Just like Football, politics is a game. A game of team players. A political party is like a football club. Tinubu, Buhari, Oshiomole, Amaechi, El Rufai, Ganduje, and so on and so forth are all players of the APC. Atiku, Wike, Tambuwal, Dino, Okowa, Orton and so and so forth are all players of the PDP. In the team, everyone needs to deliver their area and contribute to the success of the team. Take for instance, as Ronaldo is helping the team in the striking role, Sergio Ramos is helping the team in the defence role, Modric is there at the midfield to ensure that nothing goes wrong in that area while keeper Casillas is protecting the goal area. Everyone is delivering. No matter how good one player is, he cannot deliver the team. They all need to be best in their roles including the manager. That is structure.
Just like you have striking, midfield, defence and goal keeping positions in football, in elections, especially presidential Elections, there are many positions. You must have capable players in different polling units around the country, capable players in different wards, capable players in different villages, capable players in different senatorial zones and constituencies, capable players in different states and regions who are all working together to deliver their team. That is structure.
If Team A and Team B has all these. The only way Team C can defeat Team A and B is to build a better team of great players and other staff. Imagine coming into a game and claiming that you don’t need a formidable team in all the important areas to win. That is ignorance and self-deceit. You need a team, you need a structure. You need a very strong one that can match and outplay what the dominant teams have.
In the transfer market, Football clubs build their teams by buying and selling. In elections, there is a transfer market too. Big politicians who are big players in the game move to other clubs (political parties) and we all know what happens when big players move to strengthen a club.
Leaders of your party in wards are like defenders. Leaders of your party at state and zonal levels are like your midfielders and strikers. National leaders of your party, I mean the party executives, are like your manager and supporting staff. All the support groups working for your party are like your huge and passionate fanbase in the stadium ( we all know how teams with passionate and supportive fanbase fare in crucial games, how supporters cheer their team to victory in important matches)
You need a strong team in every position from the Ward level up to the national level. Like we have also seen in football, your team may not have or need the biggest players to win. But one thing is sure, it needs players in different positions and then those players must be capable enough to outplay the players in the other team. That is structure.
It is not enough to have big players. Are they committed ? Are they United ? Is there any sort of crisis in the team ? Can they give their all in a game ? A small team whose answers to these questions is Yes will beat a big team whose answers to these questions is No. Bit one thing is constant, to win, both the small teams and big teams need players in different positions, players who are capable of delivering. That is structure.
Now, wrap these things around the elections. There you have it.
Okay bye bye.
© Caleb Onyeabor
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