The period allowed for 2019 elections campaigning is fast approaching and predictably the number of insults, threats, and dire predictions is increasing as is the degree of their severity. Detractors of President Buhari are demonizing him, rubbishing his appointees and not recognizing his successes, while his supporters are deifying him, denigrating all opposition and not recognizing his failures. In the growing political confusion talk of another “mega-party”, political decamping, ethnic violence and preparedness for election rigging, is making many people wonder if Nigeria is coming to its long predicted end.
The thing called an “end” doesn’t exist in relation to a country. Whether or not it still bears the same nomenclature, the land mass currently called Nigeria will still be here when all the major political actors of today are long gone. Former Military Dictator Ibrahim Babangida has said the path to a better nation is for people to support the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with their “Reposition, Rebrand and Regain agenda”. The problem with that suggestion is the adage in Nigeria that no matter how many times a snake sheds its skin, it remains a snake! The return of PDP cannot possibly be considered as a forward step or viewed with any positive anticipation.
Consequently the attempt to set up a “third force”. But in all truthfulness there is no need for another “Mega Party”.
They have no illusions about the morality of governance, because they know that those who hold power in Nigeria do so for themselves, their friends and families.
The idea of the State being an instrument for people’s development is a Western concept. Intelligent Nigerians should stop talking as if the country is in Europe where the ideas of democracy have been refined believe over centuries. Nigerians are used to being ruled by paramount rulers to whom the idea of equality is alien. They do things the “Nigerian way” in which compassion and accountability are treated as inapplicable foreign western concepts.
Nigeria is a typical African country and people must stop entertaining the illusion that a day is coming when the nation will look like America or Europe. Our future will be determined by our continuing mass illiteracy and the fact that our politics will continue to be driven by tribal sentiment. Those commentators forecasting that Nigeria is coming to the end don’t realise that we may be actually coming to the beginning of a real African country away from Western illusions of exceptionalism. Nigeria is not some outpost of European values, yet what makes people restless about the nation’s future is that they have western models in mind. The “end of Nigeria” is an expression of a Western value system where the rule of law, accountability, political morality, reason, and compassion, are absent.
These are lofty ideals proposed by philosophers like Socrates and Hegel who were not Nigerian. Together with constitutionalism they are concepts far ahead of us as a people and are not part of who Nigerians are. The real hindrance to progress in Nigeria isn’t the number of political parties, it’s the absence of leadership. What needs to be replaced isn’t the APC or PDP, it’s the entire political class which has collectively failed and continues to take the nation for granted. A new political order is required because our current crop of politicians are short-sightedly only interested in their personal progress and winning the next election rather than national development. Nigeria is in dire need of farsighted leadership.
In Singapore the Finance Minister presented a budget which proposed tax increases from 2021 to 2025 to fund the social services required to take care of their aging population. In Nigeria we don’t even have a 2018 budget! Those who claim to be trying to create a new Nigeria must not get starry eyed. Amilcar Cabal the liberator of Cape Verde used to tell his followers never to confuse the idea in their heads with the reality on ground. Nigeria’s problems are not only about political leadership.
There is no leadership from the clergy, civil society, intellectuals, or from businesses in the “organised private sector”. Nigeria is in decline because the likes of Volkswagen, Michelin, BATA, Nigeria Airways, and BEREC batteries are no more.
Even though Nigeria is the fifth largest consumer of Japanese products there is no assembly plant for Toyota. Incredulously Nigeria doesn’t assemble any of the vehicles massively imported by government annually for their own use! In spite of Nigeria’s huge electronics market the nation doesn’t have a single production plant for Samsung, Sonny, Nokia, or HP appliances. Corporate executives and politicians prefer foreign training, foreign medical services and foreign clothing. All major software development contracts are farmed out overseas.
Worst still Nigerian brands now sponsor foreigners. The voice over in Arik Airlines is done by an Englishman! Nigerians now prefer foreign football teams, foreign holiday destinations and foreign drinks to their own. It’s time to take a reality check and accept that the “Giant of Africa” nomenclature is simply a myth.
To reverse the decline in the nation isn’t a matter of increasing the number of political parties or altering election time tables, it’s about ensuring that those elected are not simply opportunists fighting for their personal interests, but far-sighted leaders who understand the problem and can provide a viable solution.
