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One had wanted to do a discourse on the possible voting pattern in the forthcoming presidential election scheduled to hold on January 16, 2027, for which many governors who have made promises to President Bola Tinubu would be in for a big surprise. However, I chose to change because even though voting is crucial, the system is more important.
The campaigns towards the poll are on but they are short on clear policy options. All we see are brickbats with no clear positions on policy options. Rather than encourage Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to tell us what policy options he is bringing to the table, we have seen the Anambra State governor engage a proxy fight for the incumbent president of an entirely different political party, by setting up a committee to carry out hostile investigation on the administration of Obi that ended years ago and has had two other administrations succeeding it.
After all the negative effort all they could come up with was that Obi took loans, which he didn’t liquidate before his two tenures totalling eight year came to an end. It was not that he took the loans and embezzled the money. Yet, the state government had the funds to publicise the outcome on national television channels in the country. What a funny way to shape public opinion in an election season.
From the opposition stable too has come a promise to return petroleum subsidies, the removal which has been at the root of huge economic dislocations of citizens and businesses. Atiku Abukakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) woke up and told a suffering country, “I will return subsidies.”
The statement was bound to elicit concerns and it did. People wanted to know metrics, the statistics available to him, especially in terms of national finances and what effect that could have on national obligations. As you read this, that has been the highlight of his promise. It would seem national unity, educational upliftment, food security, peace, safety, electricity and rail development are of secondary consequences.
That the ruling party has to battle with poor policy outcomes isn’t helping itself and the country. Currently, the party is enmeshed with developments that obviously have high potential to not only distract the party but create challenges that may signpost the gradual disintegration of the party in the months ahead. What was supposed to be an internal family affair has become a national distraction. Nigerians are talking about the fight of coalitions rather than what else the ruling party has to offer.
Truthfully, we have seen such gerrymandering before, it has become part of the national political culture. The political class wait till the last minute and a few months to an election rather than seek votes on account of programmes they resort to mudslinging, ethnicity and religion. Already, we have seen so much in this regard. Is it potent? One must admit it is.
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This is why building our country is looking like rocket science or better put – it is increasingly appearing like an intractable task whereas it is not. The Plain Truth is that we know the challenges, the political class know what should be done, the people know too but the forces that have appropriated advantages seem to have found a way to hold the entire country by the jocular. The hold is strong and strangulating.
Citizens who drive the change are afraid they could become victims, they are afraid they could be shut out of the system. Cabals can be vicious indeed. People and groups can be annihilated. Businesses can be crippled. This is why we have seen so much motion and little movement. It explains why we are not where we should be. Otherwise, building up a country that would be the pride of the black race isn’t much of a difficult task.
We, who want to see a country emerge from Nigeria, insist that we have not yet succeeded in building a country. We have not started. We are still a conglomeration of diverse people who were supposed to be molded into one formidable unit, that hasn’t happened. It is not an issue currently because the section that appropriated advantages through various accidental developments that hit the country see no sense in returning the country to what it ought to be. We are a federal republic but that is in name, not in substance, not in practical terms. State police agitation is one proof.Centralized governance has stifled competitiveness and growth. When decentralization was in place, economic and physical development experienced rapid growth. The question is: why are the political parties and their candidates not addressing such a crucial subject?
The Kenyan President a few days ago told the United Nations General Assembly that his country has a shocker for the world and what was it? They had almost completed the building of a refinery that would serve their country and the whole of East Africa. Nigeria has huge oil reserves and the discussions hinge on purchasing petrol on the international market price or providing a subsidy. What an irony.
Terrorism is widespread. America, Russia, China, in fact the Western countries including Israel, would identify the root causes and the individuals and groups responsible and go for them. It would be about the final solution, no prevarications. In our case no one knows the policy options. It wasn’t clear yesterday and today it still isn’t. Candidates aren’t telling us what it is they want to do.
Electricity supply is not only very erratic, the cost is priced out of the reach of far more citizens and businesses. A Ugandan friend told me: “Our power outage isn’t much, we have near regular power supply.” A Ghanaian hotel worker was asked by a Nigerian would-be guest if the hotel has a generator. The worker replied, “I don’t understand what you are asking about.” They don’t have a generator market as is the case with us.
Why is it that the giant of Africa can’t do things right on this score? Why? The problem is not taking it seriously. That is the cycle of national stupidity Professor Wole Soyinka once talked about.
