THE much awaited April 2011 general elections have come and gone. We must therefore congratulate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a job well done and all the contestants, winners and losers alike.

As a matter of fact, all the contestants are winners for as the great contemporary American philosopher, William Durant said, every activity is a success, not to act is the only failure.

As the real winners get poised to assume offices, they should appreciate the fact that politics and governance, though intertwined are separate and distinct. Where politics ends, the act of governance begins. Good governance is knowledge-driven.

It consists of political intelligence, the application of knowledge and the creation of values for sustainable development. The quest for good governance thus, calls for engagement of seasoned professionals and not mediocre or party thugs as political aides.

Having said that, while I pondered on the above theme, the proposition of John Steinbeck, popped from the deep. He wrote thus in his book, Once there was a war: “The practice is by no means limited to the ignorant or superstitious man.

It would seem that in times of great danger and great emotional tumult, a man has the reach outside of himself for help and comfort and has to have some supra personal symbol to hold. It can be anything at all – an old umbrella handle or a religious symbol but he has to have it”.

The purport of this dictum is that in moment of national distress or socio-economic emergency as in the instant case of Nigeria or in the quest for urgent development, it is imperative for us to think outside the box for the instruments that we must utilize for our economic salvation.

Thus we must ask ourselves, what additional gains we can make out of politics and politicking to fault the assertion of Jonathan Swift who described politics as “a game of madness of many for the gains of a few”. It is my contention that we can make some economic gains from productive use of party symbols or logos.

Nigeria presently has about 63 political parties. If INEC works with each of these parties in designing their symbols/logos and make it compulsory for the political parties to produce them in large quantity and use same during rallies, convention and every official party forum, the nation will achieve meaningful economic development therefrom.

A cursory survey of the symbols of the political parties will show that with a few exception, the symbols or logos of all the registered political parties are mere intangible concepts which have no meaning in concrete terms and do not add value to the economy.

In our quest for agricultural rebirth and industrial development, time calls for productive party symbols. For example, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has a bundle of broom as its symbol. The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has an umbrella, while the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, has a pineapple. All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, uses maize as its symbol, and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has a cock.

During the campaign in the just concluded April 2011 general elections, the entrepreneurial energies of many farmers and traders were put into the production of bundles of broom, pineapple fruits and maize for the use of the political parties that have them as their symbols. The parties who have these symbols carry the products to their conventions, rallies and every forum. Their prices went up and the producers were better for it. In this circumstance, politics became a game of madness of many, for the gains of many.

An example from the agricultural revolution in Spain is instructive. In its bid to increase its national production of orange, Spain conceived of a festival called “Collective Madness”. These annual agricultural feasts were often scheduled to fall within the orange harvest season.

During the festival, the people loaded oranges into trucks and as different trucks move in different directions, the occupants of each truck throw oranges from their truck at the occupants of others. That was the fun of the festival but not the spirit.

The spirit was to create a national market for orange. Since demand draws supply, more and more people went into the production of orange and in no distant time, Spain became the world’s largest producer of orange.

Along this trajectory, INEC can stimulate agricultural and industrial growth of the nation by working out with political parties, economically meaningful symbols and which are capable of tangible production and making it compulsory that they be used in all party meetings, rallies and conventions.

Mr.  IGNATIUS ORISEWEZIE , a  lawyer, wrote from Asaba, Delta State.