There is an old political lesson that humanity has repeatedly refused to learn: power does not always make a person wise; sometimes, it merely makes their foolishness more expensive. And when power stays too long in one place, something interesting happens. The person who was once afraid of losing an election begins to behave as though the election was created to prevent anyone else from winning.That is when the lion grows horns. A lion is already a formidable animal. It has strength, speed, teeth, claws and an intimidating roar. Give that lion horns, and you have created something considerably more difficult to confront. In politics, the “lion with horns” is the incumbent who has accumulated so much political power that ordinary democratic competition begins to look like an insult. He may possess money, political machinery, loyalists, influence, access to institutions, government visibility and a network of people whose political careers depend on his survival.Soon, an amusing transformation takes place. The politician begins to confuse public office with private property. He starts behaving as though the state belongs to him, the party belongs to him, the institutions belong to him and, occasionally, even the people belong to him. The people, fortunately, have a rather inconvenient habit.They vote.

The Incumbent and the Disease of Permanence. There is nothing inherently wrong with incumbency. Every government deserves the opportunity to defend its record before the electorate.The problem begins when an incumbent stops seeing an election as a contest and starts seeing it as an obstacle. At that point, politics becomes less about governance and more about survival.The administration begins to measure success not by the quality of schools, hospitals, roads, jobs or public institutions, but by the number of political enemies it has neutralised. A governor may have spent four years in office and still ask, “Who is planning against me? ”A minister may have responsibility for an entire sector but spend more time calculating who might contest against him. A legislator may forget the constituency that elected him but remember perfectly the names of those who criticised him. This is the tragedy of political power without philosophical discipline. The office becomes more important than the purpose of the office.And once that happens, the incumbent begins to believe that losing power is equivalent to losing life. It is not, It is simply losing an election.Democracy was designed precisely to make political power temporary. Why the Lion Looks Bigger Than It Really Is.A powerful incumbent often appears invincible.But appearances can be politically deceptive.The lion has the government apparatus. It has money. It has political structures. It has experienced loyalists. It has the ability to fill venues with supporters. It has enormous publicity. It has people who praise it every morning and people who praise it again at night, just in case the first praise was insufficient.Then there are the professional praise singers.These remarkable creatures can discover success in almost anything. If a road is constructed, they proclaim the wisdom of the leader.If the road collapses six months later, they explain that the collapse was caused by enemies. If the economy improves, it is the leader’s genius.If the economy deteriorates, it is the fault of previous administrations, global forces, opposition politicians, social media, colonialism, the weather and possibly the ancestors.In this environment, the incumbent can develop a dangerous illusion:“Everyone loves me.”But political applause is not necessarily political support.Sometimes people clap because they are happy.Sometimes they clap because they are afraid.Sometimes they clap because someone is watching.And sometimes they clap because the microphone has been handed to them.The wise politician must therefore distinguish between noise and consent. Never Fight the Lion by Becoming a Lion…Here lies one of the greatest philosophical challenges of opposition politics. When confronted by an arrogant, oppressive or heartless political establishment, there is a temptation to respond in the same language. “If they intimidate us, we will intimidate them.”“ If they insult us, we will insult them.”“If they use violence, we will answer with violence.”This is how political struggles descend into madness. One side claims to be fighting tyranny and gradually begins behaving like a smaller version of the tyranny it opposes. The objective should not be to replace one political monster with another political monster.What good is it to remove the lion only to discover that the people who defeated it have grown their own horns? A democratic struggle must have a moral destination.Otherwise, victory becomes merely a change of management. The First Weapon Is Understanding. A dangerous incumbent should not be underestimated.But neither should the incumbent be mythologised.The first task of serious opposition is to understand the political terrain.What are the government’s genuine achievements?Where has it failed?What are citizens complaining about?Which communities feel neglected?What issues unite people across ethnic, religious, class and geographical divisions? What does the electorate actually want? These questions are more useful than shouting at one another on social media.Unfortunately, social media has produced a new species of political strategists, who believes that twelve thousand angry comments constitute an electoral structure.They do not. A hashtag cannot vote.A viral video cannot replace a polling agent.A WhatsApp group cannot automatically become a political organisation.And a thousand people saying “We are tired!” online does not necessarily mean a thousand people will wake up early enough to vote. Politics is not merely the art of making noise.It is the science of converting public sentiment into lawful political action.The Opposition Must Offer More Than Anger……It is easy to campaign against a bad government.The harder question is:What will you do differently? “Remove the incumbent” is not a complete political philosophy. People deserve to know what comes after removal.Who will govern?How will healthcare improve?How will education improve?How will unemployment be addressed?How will corruption be confronted?How will public resources be managed?How will institutions be strengthened?How will citizens be protected? A successful opposition must therefore become more than an anti-incumbent movement.It must become a credible alternative government.The electorate should not be forced to choose between a government they dislike and an opposition they do not understand. That is not a choice.That is political gambling. Unity: The Incumbent’s Favourite Opponent…Nothing pleases a powerful incumbent more than a divided opposition. Imagine five people standing outside a house, all insisting that they are the best person to enter it.Each has a different key. Each claims the others are traitors. Each spends more time attacking the other four than confronting the person occupying the house. Inside the house, the incumbent is probably laughing. Political egos can be extraordinarily useful to political incumbents.A fragmented opposition may have excellent candidates and still lose because everybody wants to be the hero. But democracy does not require every politician to be the hero. Sometimes the greatest political wisdom is knowing when to step aside for a more broadly acceptable candidate. Coalitions, alliances, consensus-building and negotiated political arrangements may not satisfy everyone’s ego, which demands unity to be effective. A divided opposition protects incumbency. A disciplined opposition challenges it.The Politics of Fear remains the most dangerous horn on the political lion ….Fear.People can tolerate poor leadership for years if they believe that challenging it is dangerous.Fear makes citizens whisper what they should be saying publicly.It makes professionals withdraw.It makes community leaders cautious.It makes young people believe politics is a profession for people with money, guns or powerful fathers. Fear is therefore not merely a political emotion.It is a political weapon.The answer, however, is not counter-violence. The answer is collective courage within the law. Citizens should know their rights. Political parties should train their agents. Civil society should educate voters. Journalists should report responsibly. Electoral observers should monitor the process. Institutions should enforce the rules impartially.And citizens should understand that democratic courage is not the absence of fear.It is the decision to participate despite fear. Protect the Vote, Not the Violence. An election is not finished when people cast their ballots.The counting, collation, documentation and dispute-resolution processes matter.That is why serious political movements must understand the electoral system.Qualified party agents and volunteers should know what lawful procedures require. Electoral irregularities should be documented. Evidence should be preserved. Complaints should be made through the appropriate channels. If something goes wrong, record it.If a rule is violated, document it.If a result is disputed, challenge it through lawful procedures.But do not burn down the house because you dislike the tenant. A country belongs to everyone.Political victory that destroys the political environment in which future elections must occur is a very expensive victory. Beware the Politics of Revenge. There is another temptation that comes after defeating a powerful incumbent: revenge.The opposition wins and suddenly begins searching for enemies.People are investigated not because of evidence but because they belonged to the previous political camp. Appointments become rewards for loyalty.Public institutions become instruments of punishment. The new government begins saying:“We suffered under them; now they will suffer under us.”And the cycle continues. This is how political history becomes a revolving door of victims and victimizers. The better philosophy is simple:Accountability without vengeance. Justice without persecution. Reform without hatred.If wrongdoing occurred, let credible institutions investigate it according to law. If someone is innocent, let them be free.The purpose of democratic government is not to provide citizens with new enemies.It is to provide them with better governance. The People Are Not Subjects Perhaps the greatest philosophical mistake of the political lion is its misunderstanding of the people.Citizens are not subjects.They are not servants of politicians.They are not electoral merchandise to be purchased every four years.They are the owners of democratic authority.Politicians are temporary custodians.The office is borrowed.The mandate is borrowed.The convoy is borrowed.The official residence is borrowed.The title is borrowed.Even the microphone is borrowed. Eventually, someone will ask for everything back.That is called an election. Defeating the Lion. So how does one defeat the lion with horns? Not by pretending the lion does not exist.Not by insulting it every morning.Not by throwing stones at it.And certainly not by becoming another horned lion.The answer is more sophisticated.Study the lion.Understand its strengths.Expose its weaknesses with facts.Identify the genuine grievances of the people.Build a credible alternative. Unite where unity is necessary.Organise beyond social media.Educate voters.Mobilise lawful participation. Protect the integrity of the electoral process.Communicate with discipline.Reject political violence.And above all, give citizens something greater than anger:give them hope.Because the strongest political movement is not necessarily the one that hates the incumbent most passionately.It is the one that can persuade ordinary citizens that tomorrow can be better than today. The Lion Is Not the Kingdom….There is one final truth every incumbent should remember.The lion is not the kingdom.The government is larger than the governor.The country is larger than the president.The constituency is larger than the legislator.The political party is larger than its chairman.The state belongs to the people. No politician, however powerful, should become so convinced of his own importance that he forgets this elementary truth.Political office is temporary. Power changes hands.All political empires eventually discover the same uncomfortable fact: The chair has no permanent owner.Today, the lion may roar.Tomorrow, another candidate may stand where the lion once stood.And the people will still be there.That is the beauty—and occasionally the cruelty—of democracy. It reminds the powerful that they are not immortal.It reminds the fearful that they are not powerless.And it reminds every politician that there is always something more powerful than political machinery:the informed will of the people expressed peacefully and lawfully at the ballot box. So, when the lion grows horns, do not panic.Do not become a monster. Do not surrender.Do not underestimate it.And do not worship it.Understand it. Organise against it. Offer the people a better alternative. And let democracy do what democracy was designed to do.Because ultimately, the question is not whether the lion has horns.The question is whether the people have finally discovered that they do not need horns to change the government.They need courage.They need wisdom.They need unity.They need organisation.And, when election day comes, they need to vote.

The incumbent Lion and it’s Horns.

LIVY-ELCON EMEREONYE WRITES FROM LAGOS, NIGERIA. Dr. Emereonye, the Propounder of Herbaceutics, could be reached on: +234 803 392 2445