The failure to ameliorate persistent issues of unemployment, economic instability, insecurity and corruption, has led to an increasing sentiment that All Progressives Congress (APC) administrations lack what it takes to move the nation out of crisis and must be dispensed with in 2027.
Despite this the APC has every reason to march confidently towards the 2027 elections expecting to win no matter how poorly they govern or how much worse they perform before then.
With the current Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and current Inspector-General of Police (IGP) still in office despite massive criticisms of their performance, the APC remains the dominant political force in Nigeria.
Defeating them won’t be easy because Nigerian politicians don’t defend what is right, they defend who they like and benefit from. To paraphrase the late Steve Jobs, Nigerians are living in a day where their politicians are proud of what they should be ashamed of. They have proved Mark Twain to be correct when he said that “politics is the only profession where you can lie, cheat and steal and still expect to be respected!”
This is why Nigerians are consigned to continue living with injustice which the political class has adopted as their modus operandi.
As Socrates so succinctly put it, “injustice is not an accident it’s an act of deliberate evil”. So without encouraging revolution or a further breakdown of law and order the fact is, as Albert Einstein said, “the world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil, than from those who actually commit it. It’s also difficult to disagree with Noam Chomsky who said he doesn’t know what word in the English language applies to people who continuously demonstrate their willingness to sacrifice an organised and equitable society simply in order to be able to put more money into their stuffed pockets.
The word “evil” doesn’t even begin to approach it. The modern Nigerian political class controls the massive uneducated electorate by first making them believe that they are responsible for their own misery, and then presenting themselves as a saviours.
As the seemingly endless cycle of increased hardship continues, former President Olusegun Obasanjo continues to raise concerns about the growing discontent amongst Nigerian youths who, truth be told, have every reason to be ashamed of their country. “Uncle Sege”, as he is fondly called, highlighted the widening gap between the expectations of our younger generation and the reality of governance by our old guard. To paraphrase Karl Marx their accumulation of the wealth that allows them to participate in our overly expensive politics has been accompanied by the accumulation of poverty and oppression! Today’s youths are fed up with governance of the old guard whose only solution to their problems lies in palliative measures like distributing free money, beans, rice and soap. There is simply no polite way in which to tell Nigerians who believe that any of yesterday’s men has a solution to the nation’s problems that are suffering under an illusion.
The World Bank makes it clear that there are no poor countries in the world, only failed systems of resource management. Yesterday’s men must be held fully responsible for the resource mismanagement which placed the nation in the current mess.
Bearing this in mind it’s surprising that the likes of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai still believe that they have a meaningful role to play in governance. Their ego outshines their intellect. El-Rufai called upon opposition leaders to unite under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which he recently decamped to. It is his fourth political party, having previously sought refuge in People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Congress for Political Change (CPC), and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Claiming somewhat incredulously that he “cherishes” progressive values El-Rufai criticised the current administration for failing to meet up with expectations. It would be interesting to know whose expectations other than his own he thinks he met up with as a governor and minister. There is a native American proverb which says “never follow a leader who is more in love with power than with people”. Such leaders are a scarce commodity in Nigerian politics! Perhaps the best warning against a return of the old guard was by a former governor of Jigawa State Sule Lamido who replied El-Rufai by saying that good leadership is not driven by anger, frustration or personal ambition. Truthfully the most appropriate thing for him to do is apologise to the Christians whose persecution he presided over during his disastrous administration of Kaduna State.
Adewole Adebayo, a former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) believes that the 2027 elections should focus on electing a government that genuinely serves the people rather than one that benefits only a few individuals. He believes, quite correctly, that the call for a northern or southern presidency distracts from the real challenges of hunger, unemployment, and economic hardship affecting citizens from all regions. Nigeria desperately needs a government which follows the constitution, prioritises the welfare of the people and serves the interests of all citizens not just a select few.
Although the SDP happily welcomes the old guard, the truth is that such politicians have nothing to offer. Time and time again they have failed in office. As far as showing them forgiveness and giving them another chance this should be discountenanced.ercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent!
