The Wrong Label

Words are meant to be used in the right context otherwise we abuse their use and, in the process, abuse them or even change them outrightly. For example, the term “gentleman.” This used to be a man of good social position, a man of noble birth attached to a royal household, a courteous title used for an elected representative of the people, a chivalrous, courteous and honorable man… Today due to its abuse, every man is referred to as a gentleman!

The same goes for a word used ignorantly (also being used now) on Twitter by some uninformed people-bigot /ˈbɪɡət/-a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.

That is the original meaning It has no political relevance, yet many people ignorantly use it to describe those who don’t support their candidate. Every time I see people using it to describe others for their support of a politician other than the one, they support, I cringe.

Such ignorance shouldn’t be flaunted so shamelessly.

In America, Democrats have a support base that does not change and so does Republicans.

You won’t see either party members calling themselves “bigots.”

The reason this word sold among some people is as a result of a victim mentality that they refused to deal with for many years! The “Everyone is against us” mindset.  

If anything, the election of last weekend proved that Nigeria does not have bigots. What the nation has are individuals who choose their own political candidate and voted for such as is their right. A bigot is someone who cannot be swayed by a superior argument not someone who didn’t agree with your argument.

These are two different points of view or even one hundred different points of view, in that case everyone will present their argument and if I am convinced by your argument, I will come over to your side but if I am not, I will stick to my conviction. That is not a bigot.

Pythagoras was not a bigot when he refused to be convinced that the earth was flat. He stood alone at the time and was unable to convince people that he was right. Those who didn’t believe him were not bigots too. They simply didn’t know any better at the time.

Those who believe in Jesus are not bigots for sticking to their faith in Christ and those who didn’t believe are not bigots for not believing. The use of the word in politics is very wrong. A bigot is someone who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas or refuses to accept the members of a particular group. This does not apply in politics.

If a member of a tribe in Nigeria insists that he can never marry from another tribe, that person is a bigot. I remember dating a lady once, one day she said, “How will I go home and tell my father that I am dating a Yoruba boy? He will die of a heart attack!”

I asked her why she said this and she said, “My Father believes Yoruba people are traitors due to the civil war.” Wow! That was a bigot.

A woman who says, “My son cannot marry a woman from Ijebu land because Ijebu people are kidnappers is a bigot.” (I have heard some Yoruba people say this)

I have also heard some Yoruba people say (Don’t marry from Ibadan, their women are cheats). That is a bigoted person.

Someone who voted against Obama is not a bigot, he simply believed in John McCain or Mitt Romney more than he did in Obama or in the Republican party’s manifesto or for another reason. Politics is a game of choice. Either side cannot label each other as bigots simply for choosing one candidate as required by the law. that is Partisanship not bigotry.

Bob Natiello, in his article “Partisan Politics: Acceptable Bigotry?” Posited that the line has now become so thin between the word partisan and bigot that there hardly seems room to slip a piece of paper between them. We must be careful with such labels as Nigerians.

My younger brother got his PVC and told me who he would be voting for in the last presidential election. We were sharing a room Kwara during one of our outreaches when we had this discussion. I told him I will not be voting but that his candidate would NOT win.

I didn’t say this by the spirit. I know how politics work and I tried to explain it as best as I could.

Esau built the city of Edom within 21 years, Jacob in 21 years married two wives, had two concubines and had 13 children. He had slaves too. Total number of the people with him was 72.

Esau met Jacob with 400 Dukes.

If they both contested for the position of the President at that time Esau would beat Jacob hands down! It didn’t matter that Jacob got the blessings of Isaac and even had the support of God.

Politics is a game of numbers and Esau had the numbers QED! He told me his reasons too

I agreed with him on all the points presented. He was right but being right is not the same as having the numbers. A mad man with the numbers will beat a right-thinking man who does not have the numbers.

We chose Democracy, that is the downside! It is however important that we don’t

turn politics to war.

I love my brother and he is not a bigot, neither am I; we just saw things in different ways. He was ideological. I was practical. We remain the greatest brothers God ever made till tomorrow. That is how politics work. There is no reason for us to label each other or ruin a good relationship.

As a nation, and as a people we have had our differences and at the same time our shared glorious experiences. We know we have a huge deficit of leadership, please don’t let us add hatred and distrust to it in the name of politics.

It is unreasonable to call people bigots simply because they chose to vote for their own choice candidate in an election regardless of tribe!

As long as we are humans, we will always have different choices and mindsets.

-GSW-