THE ALMOST ten years exposure of Nigerians under the APC change-fixated administration (2015), elevated to a higher level in 2019, transformed into renewed hope in 2023, has left Nigerians gnashing their teeth in pain, contingent upon avoidable hardships. With eyes set on the next elections, and with an obsessive disposition by the government to weaken the major opposition parties, to clumsily reproduce itself in power in 2027, Nigerians have seemingly resigned themselves to fate, mainly left to invoke the weapon of the powerless: prayers seeking the Lord’s protection against their worsening conditions.
Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) promised to renew the hope of Nigerians. But on his first day as president, their hope was extinguished. Over a year later, national hopelessness was reinforced when the government violently truncated nationwide peaceful protests against policies making the people poorer and hungry.
APP’s quest for a credible presidential material in 2003, with the charismatic charm and moral trajectory to confront the ruling party (PDP); and General Buhari’s quest for a political shade intersected at a crossroads satisfactory to both, paving the way for his serial presidential candidature up to 2015, when he was elected president.
Bereft of the bookish traits of Dr Nmandi Azikwe, General Buhari was a composite persona dreaded by corrupt Nigerians, an embodiment of the humanist disposition of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the down-to-earth communalism of Mallam Aminu Kano, the uprightness of the late General Murtala Muhammed, and the taciturnity of the late Shehu Shagari, qualities uncommonly blended in a Nigerian politician, fuelling a myth that his quest for political power was driven by concerns for ordinary Nigerians. Inducing another myth that among Nigeria’s big men, he was the only genuine friend of the poor, transforming him into an all-season tribune of the people.
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Without a dull moment since 2003, General Buhari resembled a people’s ambassador at large. If he wasn’t leading protests against increases in the prices of petroleum products, he would be on air denying petroleum subsidy as a scam; or, he would be taking the government to the cleaners for letting ASUU to go on a prolonged strike, or he would be consummating political mergers to upend the PDP from power, etc.
Overcoming their political apathy, ordinary Nigerians became parallel kingmakers to the established political jobbers in the nation, set to crown someone they regarded as their tribune as president in 2015. With the General atop an APC government, ordinary Nigerians expected that there wouldn’t be any need for public protests again in the nation. At least, prices of petroleum products would remain for long unchanged, and should they be reviewed upwards, the increases would be so marginal to be unnoticed. They might even be revised downwards. ASUU, a perennial thorn to previous administrations, would finally sheath its swords, because most of its demands would be met without being demanded, etc. Henceforth, Nigerian jail houses would be the permanent abode of corrupt public officers and unethical businessmen.
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But in a demonstrated unpreparedness for change, President Buhari revealed a unique leadership style, unconstrained by time, spending six months, one eighth of his four-year term assembling a cabinet of ministers.
To the chagrin of Nigerians, political considerations stalled the war against corruption. There was a dangerous trade-off between ditching opposition parties for the ruling party, and discontinuance of criminal prosecutions. Once public officers being prosecuted for financial crimes dumped their parties for the APC, they were granted the Attorney General’s nolle prosequi. And the pardon granted two convicted former governors, unceremoniously ended the regime’s fight against corruption.
In 2019, only very few individuals were privy to the level the nation was being taken. Four years later, rather than taking the nation to a higher level of economic prosperity, and enhanced security, Nigeria regressed to a highly indebted and insecure nation. Hopes were dashed, whilst business flourished as usual.
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Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) promised to renew the hope of Nigerians. But on his first day as president, their hope was extinguished. Over a year later, national hopelessness was reinforced when the government violently truncated nationwide peaceful protests against policies making the people poorer and hungry.
If the APC should acknowledge that almost ten years after its failed tall promises to change the nation, elevate it to an enviable level, and renew the hope of its citizens, that it is on the last lap of conquering the nation, it would for the first time, since the consummation of its merger, reveal its real predatory essence.
With President Tinubu’s lopsided appointments, and with some policies set to empower a particular section of the nation, Nigerians belatedly realised that it wasn’t the hope of every Nigerian that was set for renewal in 2023. It was only the hope of the dramatis personae, and the cronies of the patron-client system established in Lagos in 1999 that was intended to be renewed.
If the APC would offer a social contract to Nigerians in 2027, it shouldn’t be as deceptive as its earlier contracts of change, next level and renewed hope. Wikenising the opposition parties; Akpabionising the National Assembly; and Yorubanising the commanding heights of the economy, etc, underscore the last lap to the conquest of the nation. Only the Mighty Lord knows where the nation is headed. As an about to be conquered nation, the APC social contract with Nigerians should reflect the near state of the conquest, founded on the long absence of public accountability in the political system.
A political system devoid of public accountability, would sooner than later, opaquely empower strong men and women to emasculate state institutions, towering above them, converting them into personalised political toys, dribbling them anyhow they like, which could dangerously take the nation to undesired levels. Such strong men and women hardly differentiate themselves from the state. In their power drunk relegation of state institutions to personal political appendages, they wrongly conclude that they are interchangeable with the state. A French emperor once boasted and thumped his chest that he was the French state. The commissions and omissions of such strong men facilitated the North African Arab Spring in 2010.
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Reinventing the nation from its drift, requires unparalleled commitment, sacrifices and patriotism from opposition politicians, to forge a patriotic front to rescue the Nigerian state from its strong men, replacing their rule at various levels, with the seamless operations of strong functional institutions (national and state assemblies, independent and incorruptible judiciary, free and independent anticorruption agencies, impartial electoral commission, free press, robust civil society, labour and students organisations, etc). Coordinated political action should be complemented with the prayers of the hungry, seeking Allah’s protection against political evils.
If the APC should acknowledge that almost ten years after its failed tall promises to change the nation, elevate it to an enviable level, and renew the hope of its citizens, that it is on the last lap of conquering the nation, it would for the first time, since the consummation of its merger, reveal its real predatory essence.
Jahun, a commentator on public affairs, writes from Dutse, Jigawa State capital. He can be reached via email@ aminuhabibu58@gmail.com.
