When will the Political Class save Nigeria?
Looking at the events of Nigeria in the past few weeks and months, and looking at how the Nigerian political class have standardised so many irregularities for the past few decades and how the greed of the political class has dragged Nigeria from being an envy of African nations to being a disregarded stock besides Afrobeats, why do we every four years still believe the political class would someday save Nigeria? Every four years, we carry that hope of change from the political class. Many even go into power to say we have to save Nigeria from the parlour of power.
Look at the judiciary, almost becoming the political class. Look at how judgements cannot be trusted anymore except for the trust they get from the political class or friends of the political class. When will the political class stop saving themselves and save Nigerians? Despite our best intentions, the answer to that is unknown. When will it be? In 2023? 2024? 2025? 2026? Or the general elections of 2027? The political class don’t have the incentive to save Nigerians for now, as that might be counterproductive to their ambitions of staying in power for a while.
Why would they be incentivised? When they efficiently use the weaponisation of poverty, the destruction of the economy and the lack of opportunities for Nigerians to perpetuate and establish their power over powerless Nigerians? Why would they give that up? The real question should be, how do we make them give that up? Let me take you on a journey: many people in the Nigerian political class came to power not solely by the people, so why should they owe the people something? They don’t need to save people that didn’t bring them to power. They don’t need to be accountable to us. But the real twist can be when the people ensure that the Nigerian political class transparently comes to power solely by the power of the people. I believe this would accelerate the development of Nigeria both internally and externally.
Look at Rivers State as an example. A man feels so powerful to have enthroned a sitting governor, which is an indictment on the people that they were not the ones who solely gave power to the sitting governor. The House of Assembly, which should be called the people’s voice, threatens to impeach the governor. Now, the sitting governor has been humbled. We cannot continue like this. How the political class gets to power will determine how they perform as saviours or destructors in their term in office. We must be bold, intentional and ready to do better together as a people.
Look at the spending allocation in the 2.17 trillion naira budget recently passed by the Nigerian senate, and it will become evident to any sane Nigerian that the political class is not out to save Nigeria or Nigerians. We have a budget for a Presidential Yatch of 5 billion and 1.5 billion Naira for a fleet of cars for the First Lady. Is this a political class that feels accountable to the people? Is this a political class that believes people can hold them accountable? The way we are governed is totally reliant on the way the political class gets to power.
Now, this is where we are. We, the people, must strengthen our cords. We must move with purpose. We can’t just move with rage but must properly channel that rage into people-backed systems of collective power that bring clarity to the electioneering process that brings the political class to power or keeps them in power. We, the people, must be known to hand over power to the political class every four years, and they must be daily reminded that they are mere custodians of this power as power truly belongs to the people. Until this happens, no one will save Nigeria, especially the political class.
We must help the political class to become responsible. Only Nigerians can save Nigeria, and this would require intentional work by the people to create systems, structures and aggregate power that puts the political class on their toes for our collective excellence, development and prosperity.
