Bernie Sanders demonstrate the power behind i will try again

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People ordinarily wouldn’t vote for any unknown third party. This is the same all over the world. Voting for an unknown third party will be extremely hard, especially a third party, whose campaign they are not seeing on TV and Radio almost all the time.

But you can still break the jinx, says Bernie Sanders, a strong U.S presidential candidate in the 2016 general election.

Before venturing into politics, many thought it was impossible for a third party candidate to win election in U.S. To a lot of people, only Democrats and Republican are destined to win, but Bernie disagreed. He believes that, if Democrats and Republican can do it, others can do it too.

In 1971, Bernie Sanders contested for U.S Senate election as an independent candidate and lost. He didn’t only lose that election; he got just 2% of the total vote cast. But he said to himself, this isn’t bad. I will try again.

In 1972, he ran for Governor. This time, he didn’t only lose; his votes went down to 1% of the total vote cast. He said to himself once again, this isn’t bad, I will try again.

In 1973, he ran again for Senate and lost. This time, he got 4% of the total vote cast. In 1975, he ran again for governor and still lost. This time, he got 6% of the total vote cast.

In 4 years, he ran 4 times and lost in all 4 attempts. This time, he retired from politics for 5 years.

But in 1981, 5 years later, some people from his state came to him to run for city mayor. It’s more like a Local Government Chairman Election in Nigeria. He was reluctant at first due to his 4 previous failures, especially after running for Governor and senate, but he oblige.

Bernie Sanders ran this time again for Mayor as an independent candidate and surprisingly, he won the election by just 14 votes.
It was unbelievable; an independent candidate defeated the almighty Democrat and Republican Party. While they were celebrating the victory, the Democrat runner up could not believe this unknown independent could win, he challenged the election result. The votes had to be recounted. After the vote recount, Bernie still won, but this time with less than 10 votes.

Although has won and scaled through the first hurdle, he has to work with the elected democrat city council official. This means that, he can’t hire his own staff. As a matter of fact, the personal secretary he hired was sacked by the city council officials. Those democrats didn’t allow him govern with his own ideas. This went on for about a year, until in 1982 when another city council election took place.

Bernie urged many new guys to run for City Council election and they did.

He campaigned for them and among these guys, 6 won. This 6 gave him the required veto power to get his ideas running. After taking charge fully, he embarked on several pro masses reforms and he got re-elected after 2 years in 1983. He ran again in 1985 and still won.

Faced with opportunity to move up in the political ladder, Bernie ran again for governor in 1986, but he lost the governorship election. This time, he got 14% of the total vote cast.

2 years later in 1988, he ran for Congress seat and lost. He was the runner up with 31% vote, trailing the winner who got 34%. He was determined to run again. He said to himself, if as an independent candidate, I can have 31% of the votes, definitely, I can get even more. So in 1988, he ran again for U.S Congress and this time, he won with a very wide margin. He got more than 50% of the total vote. Ever since, he has been re-elected.

Today, Bernie is the longest serving Congress man in the history of U.S. In 2016, for the first time in history, he joined the Democratic Party to run for U.S presidential election. He was rigged out by the establishment, but despite losing due to rigging, he has remained consistent with nationwide advocacy for the issues affecting the ordinary people. Today, he his the most popular politician in U.S, even more popular than the President.

After losing the Presidential election, he created a massive peoples organization called the Our Revolution, a nationwide organization that is forcing those in authority to listen to the people. Our Revolution is articulating the issues and proffering solutions. Through his position at the Congress, Bernie is sponsoring bills to advance the cause of the people and mobilizing them to hold their representative accountable to ensure those bills scale through.

Today, Bernie is 74years old, but he his being urged to run again for President in 2020.

No doubt, if he runs again, he will become the next President of United States of America.

The point here is that, it doesn’t necessarily have to be one of the two major parties. Young people must be courageous enough to go under smaller parties. A small party of yesterday may eventually become the big party and the unknown candidate of yesterday may become the most popular candidate.

Also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about age. An old competent and dedicated person maybe more useful than a young thoughtless person. Age is not a reason to throw competence and capacity to deliver in the gutter.

As we approach the 2019 general election, I urge all Nigerians, old,young, male and female to get involved in the political process. This is so because, politics is the only realistic means to good governance. If you elect a fool to be your representative, you will be forced to live by the law he makes. If you elect a looter, you will live by the consequence of his looting. And provided the wrong people remain in government, status quo will always remain.

Abdulrazaq O Hamzat is a Peace Professional and Conflict Transformation Expert.

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