Every four years since 1999, Nigeria runs a political calendar where the country is subjected to a grotesque ritual to certify those to loot our treasury dry for the next four years. In our characteristic self-preserving wicked mischief – we call it a general election and pretend that it is so. The truth is that what takes place is neither an election nor is it done to give the people an opportunity to choose. Nigerian political class has created its unique brand of crass electoral culture that mocks the very notion of voter/ popular choice as the basis for securing electoral success.

A general election in Nigeria is often an orchestrated elaborate political theatre designed to periodically distract the suffering masses of Nigerians from their frustrations while selling impossible hope to the gullible.  One cannot also fail to observe the uncritical attitude of many who seem to get cut up in collective temporal amnesia as if the previous cycles of political theatre marked by ‘failed elections and unfulfilled electoral promises’ never happened. That these politicians always seem to succeed in re-hashing the charade every four years and always manage to sell an illusion of re-set and possibility of change to many with each coming election is increasingly challenging to understand.  We must admit that they are many Nigeria out there who desperately want to believe – ‘that this time it is going to be different.’

However, careful observation of the political landscape clearly shows that the Nigerian political class live in a bubble. These politicians are distant and out of touch with the rest of the country. Hence, they go on with ‘business as usual’ – looking out for themselves alone. The Nigerian political class are now more like the infamous Emperor Nero, who was busy making merry while Rome burned. While this insular and impervious insensitivity is true of the Nigerian political class, it is also doubtful if we – the masses, the ordinary Nigerians have given them reasons to behave otherwise or conduct themselves better.  We seem to have developed an infinite capacity to tolerate and condone their impossible excesses. Whilst many of the frustrated amongst us have unfortunately turned to apathy as a survival mechanism. Consequently, these politicians will continue to live and function in their bubble removed from the reality of the living conditions of the people.

It is said that – those the gods want to kill, they first make mad. I believe that the gods have orchestrated mass insanity on Nigerian politicians.  And so, no matter who wins the coming election, the current unqualified looting and plunder of the country will continue to worsen unabated while the needs and deprivations of Nigerians will equally continue to worsen unabated. It’s indeed a recipe for unmitigated disaster. Therefore, the rising of the young people and progressive’s resistance must continue after the 2023 general election. We must show better resolve to resist and demand the type of change we want. The current movement that has rejected the old political class in the major political parties must continue. This movement must sustainably galvanise to articulate and negotiate a fundamental change that would lock the country into a trajectory of genuine growth and development. As has been the case in the past, we must not allow our resistance to fizzle out of steam.   We should not allow the status quo to reconstitute and continue with their wanton plunder, unchallenged.

The current movement of change must converge on a singular focus – how to enable a fundamental restructuring of the country into a governable nation-state that would genuinely respond to the needs and aspirations of its people. Many insightful minds have continued to argue that which seems very obvious to any close observer, Nigeria as presently constituted and structured is fundamentally flawed both in intent and design. It is impossible to build a great nation on the foundation of sand.  We must build on a solid robust foundation. We must rethink the current poor and faulty foundation, which has been foisted on us by a selfish few driven by parochial interests.  We must insist on and win an appropriate fundamental constitutional restructure of the country to enable a nation that works for all.

This is the only solution to pulling back Nigeria from the current precipice.

By Dr. Okey Ndubueze