WHY DO PEOPLE
Sen. Shehu Sani
People often ask or wonder what happens to people when they assume the positions of power. Why do people change when they assume positions of authority. You suddenly see that the man or woman you know as a friend, neighbor, brother or sister turns to someone else. Does power have a certain magic, charm or ‘jazz’ that metamorphosed people from what you used to know them to something of a stranger?
Why does the person you used to call and chat with no more pick your calls or seldom do? why does the person you used to know now talks and acts differently, sometimes with arrogance and sometimes with a behavioral pattern that suggests you need favour from him? Why does the person you used to know and relate with freely now seem a bit or fully withdrawn. A lot of things have happened to the person you used to know. He is the same person physically but not the same person psychologically, emotionally and characteristically. Many things happened to him with new responsibilities and burdens and opportunities that alter or deformed his normalcy.
Power is a force that pushes, pulls, tempts and derails. It’s left for the spirit of the person in power to maintain his balance between his old self and new self or risk being drawn and intoxicated. It’s evident that only a small percentage of people remain unchanged by power or authority. The person you used to know is now ‘abnormal’. He is now a prime target and a major subject. He battles with bigger responsibilities and challenges. He battles with known and unknown foes. His heart and his brains are stretched and stressed beyond the normal. He has millions to attend to and to respond to. He can’t be the usual person you know.
There are other negative factors that change the known ethics and behavioral orientation of people when they assume positions of authority or power:
1. A good number of them become obsessed and carried away by the new found fame, riches and prominence associated with power.
2. A good number of them forget that power is a phase in life and it’s temporary.
3. A good number of them don’t take lessons from the life of their predecessors after power.
4. A good number of them think they are different and theirs will be different.
5. A good number of them have bad counsels or no counsels but hangers on.
6. A good number of them see power as ‘their time’ to enrich themselves, settle scores, dominate others and perpetuate themselves.
Undoubtedly power leads many to blindness and deafness and a feeling of ‘supernatural superiority’. Many people in power especially in underdeveloped countries keep the company of religious clerics, soothsayers, prophets and marabouts.This specie of human beings give their clients in power a false sense of confidence and comfort even when on the wrong path.They point at and define who their enemies are and what ‘lies ahead’. People in power in the grip of these mystic men most often misled and cut off from the realities of life.
Power is a lonely peak where there are more favour seekers and praise singers than real friends. A good friend who dares to tell the truth to persons in power may not have a second opportunity or listening ear. People around persons in power play great roles in building their principals or running them permanently. They are supposed to be assistants, aides and advisers but in most cases they become barriers. Persons in power need to go beyond the barriers and the fences around them to know the truth and to reach out to those who truly love them and can offer useful and practical support for them to succeed.
On the last note, it’s left for people opportune to hold positions of power or authority to choose where they want to end up after power. After the music stops playing and the paraphernalia is gone and the friends of the throne have shifted base and loyalty to another person, persons once out of power will now have to return to the families and friends that could not be properly attended to because of the schedule of power.
People who were just, fair and caring to others when they were in power will always enjoy the goodwill of their people and harvest the seeds of respect, love and brotherhood they nurture.
