In my secondary school days, we used to fear mathematics. Mathematics periods used to be like hell to us as some of my classmates would jump through the windows to avoid the mathematics teacher’s punishment. This is because he must ask questions and failure to answer correctly would earn you a stroke of the cane. Some of us who had no guts to jump through the window continued to be in the class until we got another teacher who gave us the correct mathematical formula. From that day, I became one of the students that could answer questions during mathematics periods. Till today, students still fear mathematics because they have not been able to know the formula. Once they know the formula, mathematics becomes simple and would never be a nightmare to them.
Some people also fear politics. I have learnt a lot since I partially participated in some political activities. Do I mean political appointment? Yes, since I was coopted into politics as a political neophyte, I have learnt a lot and I have also discovered that the mathematics we fear like death when I was in secondary school was simpler than political mathematics. The mathematics in politics is so complex that political neophytes like me can never understand because it has no known formula. I remember vividly one governorship election held in one of the states in Nigeria many years ago. Was it a re-run? Well I cannot remember now, but what happened then was also a kind of political mathematics that political neophytes cannot understand. What happened was that after the elections and the results were being released, they stated from one of the candidate’s home base. Do you mean the political neophyte base? I do not know, but when the first seven local governments were released in favour of that particular candidate, he started rejoicing and the supporters were sending congratulatory messages to him and other top members of that political party. To him, he was going to win the election, but unfortunately, in less than two days, they released the votes from one particular local government area and that vote alone covered or swallowed all the votes gotten from seven local government areas. The man could not believe his eyes. In fact, he thought he was dreaming but it was not a dream but political mathematics. People jump into politics for so many reasons. Some go there to make it a life career. The career politicians are the ones that formulate new formulas to confront new political developments and situations. The other ones are the money bags that always think their money could help them bulldoze their ways into political El Dorado, but failure to respect the career politicians spells doom for them. In fact, if they are not careful, even the low ranking career politicians can help them chop their money in the process of trying to help them build political structures. The truth is that without being tutored in the art of politicking, you cannot go far in politics no matter your financial status. In fact, there is no permanent formula in politics like it is in mathematics. The formula changes as event unfolds and this makes it difficult for political neophytes to flow very well irrespective of their financial standing.
The recent defection of the entire People’s Democratic Party members led by the Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Elder Sherriff Oborevwori, throws more light on the political mathematics I am talking about, and the need to learn from senior political gurus, who are senior career politicians.
At the tail end of 2024 some PDP stalwarts trying to play a fast game and to score political points, moved to the APC. To them they have scored a big political goal, but the gurus in APC and their likes in PDP took their time to weigh the political situation in Delta State. First, the APC gurus know that the Governor is not a push over and cannot be defeated in any political battle, so they needed to befriend him to ensure a smooth victory for Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. The PDP gurus in Delta State also took time to look at the political situations in the country. Yes, Sherriff has done well and still performing and can defeat any other candidate at the polls, but our democracy in still growing and you cannot underrate the power of a sitting President in African system of democracy, so they needed to do the needful.
The outcome of the political mathematics was the formulation of a new political formula by the gurus in APC and their likes in PDP for the total transfer of the massive and well-structured PDP structure in Delta State to the broom family. Are you surprised? That is political mathematics that can be formulated by the political gurus at any time.