By Glen Mpani| In every election cycle, a familiar figure emerges — the wealthy hopeful, the moneyed messiah, armed with vaults of cash and the arrogant conviction that power is for sale.

They arrive with billboards before beliefs, slogans before soul, and jets before journey. Their campaign is choreographed in boardrooms, not birthed in communities. They confuse transaction for transformation. And they almost always make the same fatal mistake: They mistake money for movement.

Money is a tool. Yes. But it is not a voice, not a value, not a vision. You can rent applause, but not loyalty. You can drown the airwaves, but not ignite hearts. You can even buy silence, but never trust.

Power, real power, is earned in the trenches of truth, not wired through bank transfers. History is littered with the graves of the rich who thought they could shortcut the soul of politics. They failed to understand that politics is not a business deal. It is a battle of belief. They forgot that the poor, the marginalised, the weary majority, have something money cannot buy: a story, a wound, a cause.

These are the invisible currencies of politics, the ones that rally the ground and electrify the ballot. These are what carried leaders from prison cells to presidencies, from exiles to exaltation, not platinum cards but purpose. The irony? Those with the least often understand the stakes the most.

And those with the most often understand the people the least. Every time a rich man enters the arena thinking his wallet is his weapon, he reminds us why revolutions are never led by billionaires.

Movements are born in hunger and hope, not in luxury and entitlement. Money can amplify a message, but it cannot manufacture one. It can oil the machine, but it cannot summon the spirit.

So let this be a warning to the oligarchs, the tycoons, the trust fund warriors seeking office: if you bring only your money to this fight, you will lose to someone with nothing but a cause. Because in politics, money is necessary, but never sufficient. And the arrogance that it is, is the very reason why so many with everything… end up with nothing.