It has never ceased to amaze me that whenever an average income earner gets into government in Nigeria, any branch of government and in whatever capacity, they always come out as billionaires, oil well tycoons, wealthy realtors and private jet owners. In other words, they come out as one-chance leaders, akin to kidnappers of innocent commuters from whom we got the name.
It wasn’t exactly so during the First Republic when Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu and his cohort toppled Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa’s government on the excuse of political corruption. Although violence marred the power struggle prevalent at the time, political corruption or outright looting of public coffers like we have it now was taboo.
Yet, for alleged profiteering and 10 per cent cut in contracts, politicians were killed and driven out of office in 1966. These days, nobody would have bothered much, if anyone took 10 per cent bribe in a contract value, so long as the job was done.
However, before our very eyes, politicians steal 100 per cent of contract monies running into billions of dollars.
What Deziani Allison-Maduekwe allegedly stole is enough to fund the budgets of some African countries. For all the corruption-soaked regime of military Gen. Ibrahim Babaginda, no high-ranging military officer could attempt to steal that much. In fact, IBB reminded us that a military governor in his much-maligned regime was sacked for misappropriating just N300,000. If Abdulrasheed Maina, who is serving term for his massive looting of pension funds, had done that in IBB’s days, he probably would have been shot.
The atrocious looting of public funds became the primary attraction for public office with the advent of the Third Republic, when “money politics” became the order of the day. Since then, election into public office has been auctioned to the highest bidder. Under the watch of the election regulator, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the political elite or governing cabal have been putting price tags on election forms for aspirants, and the costs are so outrageous that only rich persons can afford them.
In effect, the huge cost of buying party forms to run for offices has literarily disenfranchised poor but competent aspirants. What an injustice!
This has opened the door to criminals, who have amassed wealth by dubious means to have easy access to political power. This is the genesis of one-chance leadership in Nigeria.
Several faceless nonentities have been elected into strategic public offices because of their ability to fund elections, or run political structures and pay for whatever power demands. A retired police AIG, Nuhu Aliu, an elected senator in the first Senate, once lamented that some of the criminals he detained while in service sat side-by-side with him in the hallowed chamber. Some later went on to become governors and ministers!
This sort of thing is possible only in a one-chance society. Apart from the Balewa administration, all other governments have been one-chance regimes because they were products of coups and counter-coups or, in the case of the others, flawed elections, heavily manipulated by the ruling elites. Operators of our democracy and government pretend to be working on behalf of the people but in typical one-chance fashion, they get power for themselves.
If power could be purchased, it is open to abuse. If you make elections into public a very expensive process, which only the rich can afford, you have put the destiny of our nation firmly in the hands of the rich, powerful few. And we know that in this country, riches are rarely ever earned through hardwork or in a transparent manner. Most of our rich folks, apart from wealthy pastors, are 419ners, drug barons, fraudulent government contractors, retired public officers, political office holders, top civil servants, etc.
If you scrutinize the CVs of our political public office holders, you’d find that most of them are from the aforementioned clique. Most of our rulers bought their ways into power. They replaced our military dictators who used to shoot their way into power, in a protected game of musical chairs and palace coups. We now have criminal element posing as political actors only to grab power for the purpose of looting our common patrimony.
So now, the frequent question: how do we get Nigeria back on track? Unless we put an end to this one-chance leadership that has entrenched itself in our polity, using ethnicity/religion as a weapon of mass deception, Nigeria’s woes would never end. Nigerians must say “No” to the one-chance leaders parading the political landscape across the nation, seeking our votes for 2023, and demand a new leadership structure that could produce fresh, creative, patriotic and purposeful young politicians with solid orientation to move this great nation forward.
The 2023 election is set on a familiar template of corrupt leadership with a self-serving agenda. Nothing changed from the PDP to the APC. Our problem is not about Muslim-Muslim ticket or Christian-Muslim ticket. It’s about the wicked elite who have been holding power to serve their selfish ends. None of our contestant is seeking power to bring relief to the people. Their main desire is to add the presidency to their trophy cabinet. This is not the kind of president we need.
Therefore, moving forward, it is left for the youth to come and look for ways to reclaim Nigeria from the hands of our oppressors. It’s convenient to seek succour in the pursuit of division of our country into weak, smaller independent republics. That would complicate matters and postpone our woes. We can still achieve regional autonomy by other means, if that’s what some of us earnestly desire, because of their loss of faith in the hopeless leadership we always have. Whatever the case, lets’ deal first with this one-chance leader!
Weekend Spice: No solution is ever easy. If it were not so, there won’t be problems.
Ok folks, let’s do it again next time. COVID-19 is still here. Keep safe. Stay motivated.
•Ayodeji, author, pastor and life coach, can be reached on 09059243004 (SMS, WhatsApp and and Email: [email protected] only)