Politics: The Art of Many Faces, One Story.

By George Omagbemi Sylvester | Published by SaharaWeeklyNG.com

When Mr. Olamilekan, a close friend also known as Baba Elizabeth asked me, “What is politics and do you understand how it works?” my mind did not run to the classroom definitions from textbooks. Instead, I remembered a true life story about Jacob, a Russian Jew who emigrated to Israel. His experience captured politics in its purest form; ONE STORY, THREE AUDIENCES, THREE MEANINGS and ONE ULTIMATE ADVANTAGE.

At Moscow airport, Jacob was questioned about carrying a statue of Lenin. To the Russian customs officer, he described LENIN as a NATIONAL HERO who laid the FOUNDATION of SOCIALISM; an answer that FLATTERED SOVIET IDEOLOGY. At Tel Aviv airport, facing Israeli officers, Jacob described LENIN as the very man who PERSECUTED JEWS, forcing him to flee; a completely opposite narrative that RESONATED with ISRAEL’S POLITICAL HISTORY. Finally, in his new Tel Aviv home, Jacob revealed the true meaning: the STATUE was NOTHING but FIVE KILOGRAMS of SOLID GOLD, smuggled past CUSTOMS as POLITICAL THEATER.

That, in essence, is POLITICS. It is the art of telling the same story in different ways, to different audiences for different benefits. Politics is not always about TRUTH, but about PERCEPTION. It is not about CONSISTENCY, but about ADAPTABILITY. And as Machiavelli once wrote in The Prince (1532): “A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.”

This story is more than a CLEVER ANECDOTE. It is a mirror reflecting the contradictions, manipulations and strategies that define political life across the world.

Defining Politics Beyond the Textbook.
Aristotle called politics “the master science” because it determines how societies are organized, governed and directed. Max Weber, the German sociologist, famously defined politics as “the striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.”

In reality, politics is not only about institutions, constitutions or elections; it is about narratives. The power of storytelling, framing and persuasion often outweighs the power of policies or ideologies. A politician who can bend one story to fit three audiences, just as Jacob did, can control hearts, minds and eventually, resources.

The Power of Narratives in Politics.
From ancient Rome to modern-day democracies, the ability to tell stories that adapt to circumstances has defined great political figures. Julius Caesar was not just a general but also a master of propaganda, writing Commentarii de Bello Gallico not for military records but to sway Roman citizens and the Senate in his favor.

In the United States, Abraham Lincoln could speak of freedom and unity in the North while subtly assuring border states that emancipation was gradual; a political balancing act that kept the Union together. Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Yes, we can,” was not policy; it was narrative. It spoke differently to minorities, liberals, youth and even moderate conservatives, yet carried one story of hope.

Politics, therefore, is never just about ideology. It is about packaging ideology to suit different ears. ~ George O. Sylvester

The Nigerian Example: One Nation, Many Stories.
In Nigeria, politics is practiced as a theater of narratives, where politicians tell different stories depending on whether they are in Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt or Enugu. A politician campaigning in the North may wrap his speeches with religious undertones, while in the South, the same politician may emphasize economic empowerment.

As Chinua Achebe warned in his classic The Trouble with Nigeria (1983): “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.”

Leadership failure often comes not from incompetence alone, but from the dangerous art of tailoring narratives for political survival rather than national progress. Politicians, like Jacob, often present themselves as patriots in Abuja, tribal champions in their villages and reformers in foreign conferences; all while smuggling their “SOLID GOLD” in the form of power and wealth.

Politics as DECEPTION or DIPLOMACY?
One may ask: is politics merely deception? Not entirely. Politics is also Diplomacy, the art of managing conflicting interests without descending into chaos. Yet the line between DIPLOMACY and DECEPTION is thin.

Philosopher Hannah Arendt, in her book Truth and Politics (1967), wrote: “No one has ever doubted that truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other.”

This tension is why politicians must shape-shift. To survive, they must speak the language their audience wants to hear, even if it contradicts what they said yesterday, survival does not always mean progress. A politics built on deception may buy short-term gains but risks long-term collapse.

The Global Stage: Politics Without Borders.
The Jacob story also reflects geopolitics. Nations, like individuals, tell different stories to different audiences.

Russia, for instance, presents itself domestically as a protector of traditional values, while abroad it claims to be resisting Western imperialism.

China promotes itself in Africa as a partner for development, but in the West, it markets itself as an emerging superpower advocating multipolarity.

The United States sells democracy abroad while tolerating political polarization at home.

The art is the same: one statue, many stories, hidden gold beneath.

When Politics Becomes Dangerous.
The danger of politics lies in its ability to manipulate people into believing what suits the political class, not society. In Jacob’s story, the customs officers in Moscow and Tel Aviv were both deceived. They allowed the statue to pass because each believed the narrative they wanted to hear.

This mirrors how citizens can be deceived. A politician promises jobs to the unemployed, subsidies to the poor, tax cuts to the rich and reforms to the international community. In reality, he carries only “GOLD” for himself.

George Orwell, in Politics and the English Language (1946), warned: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

In Nigeria, promises of stable electricity, reduced corruption and food security have been recycled for decades. Yet power outages remain constant, corruption thrives and food insecurity deepens. The stories change, the gold remains hidden.

Politics and the Citizen: How Do We Respond?

If politics is storytelling, then citizens must become critical listeners. Blindly accepting political narratives without scrutiny is what allows politicians to smuggle their gold. Democracy thrives only when citizens interrogate leaders’ words with facts.

Nelson Mandela once said: “A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy.”

The media, civil society and the people must force leaders to reconcile their different stories into one consistent truth. Otherwise, politics will remain a circus where one man plays three characters while the audience applauds without realizing the trick.

Final Analysis: Politics as the Art of Many Faces.
Politics is not merely about governance, laws or elections. It is about narratives; crafted, bent and reshaped for survival and advantage. Like Jacob with his LENIN STATUE, politicians tell different stories to different audiences while concealing their real treasure.

The challenge of our time is to DEMAND AUTHENTICITY. Politics may always involve some degree of persuasion, but persuasion must not become deception. Nations collapse when politics becomes only about stories without substance. As Abraham Lincoln wisely declared: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Jacob fooled customs officers with his statue. Politicians may fool citizens with their narratives. In the end, truth has a way of emerging and when it does, history judges harshly.

Politics is, indeed, the art of many face; but citizens must insist that at least one of those faces is honest.