By Promise Adiele
It is needless to repeat or chronicle Nigeria’s multi-layered, hydra-headed woes ranging from a moribund economy, evident social dislocations, and unrecognisable political identities. Of course, there is an unpronounced but palpable consensus that the country, presently constituted under the APC political machinery operated by President Bola Tinubu, is in grave jeopardy. Never mind all the arguments and counter-arguments in defence of the government by a section of our deluded polity. Everybody is feeling the heat. No one is spared. The geography of victims includes people of all classes. The conditions in Nigeria have ominously defied the discernible procedures of continuity such as waking up every day, going to work, returning to the family, and having a good meal.
Such predictabilities of existence have all collapsed due to erratic economic conditions which defy legitimate incomes and structured sources of livelihood. But the political class and their cronies live in material obscenity, not because of any identifiable enterprise or industrious preoccupations, not because of distinguished vocational forbearance, but because they are opportune to occupy positions which grant them unfettered access to public patrimony.
Those who defend the present privation in the country are guilty of a crime against humanity and they know it. Perhaps it is a way of reconciling their psychological unease for enthroning an infernal government that subscribes to penurious outposts for its citizens. The government’s attempt to institute a mechanism of resistance against genuine reactionary voices of protest is symbolic of a reprobate, degenerate system that does not have the interest of the people at heart.
The government is lucky that the Nigerian voices of protest are still on social media. However, if the collective misery of Nigerians does not improve, the streets should be ready to welcome enraged, ireful visitors in their millions devastated by hunger and eviscerated by dreadful living conditions.
But that is stating the inevitable. We can no longer pretend that all is well when the lives of over 200 impoverished million people, united by anguish, are threatened under a government that derives its popularising tendencies from fragrant profligacy, political patronage, and wayward economic policies. Nigeria’s adverse conditions have exploded all boundaries of ethnicity, religion, and even political parties. Everyone is affected by the unrelenting economic onslaught in the country.
While the conditions in Nigeria persist, what calls for immediate concern is the commitment of the current government and its foot soldiers to retain power in 2027. It is unconscionable, inhuman, and unsettling that while Nigerians die every day from imposed but avoidable economic misadventure, the present government is considering retaining power in 2027, perhaps on the grave of millions of Nigerians including children and women. It smacks of extended apathy that while the country grovels under an economic crucible inflicted by the subsisting governance apparatus, there are talks and plans for the current government to cling to power in 2027.
It is a demonstration of an innate propensity for evil. By speaking and considering a return to power in the next election, the current government aspires to erect a flag of electoral triumph on the grave of Nigerians in 2027. It is impossible to aggregate the number of Nigerians who will die due to hardship and poverty before 2027. We definitely cannot know how many Nigerians will die at the hands of kidnappers and terrorists due to insecurity. Yet, those responsible for these conditions are already, discussing electoral victory in the next election.
One would expect everyone, irrespective of party affiliation, to urge the current government to concentrate on positive governance that would ameliorate the sufferings in the land rather than prematurely speaking about 2027. The current government has redefined democracy as the government of the government, by the government and for the government.
The current government exists for the government and its officials, it is by the government and its officials, and it is for the government and its officials. By speaking about the APC electoral victory in 2027, those culpable are committing a crime against Nigerians believing that the people are immaterial in the electoral process that would enthrone the next government.
Every Nigerian is concerned with survival as inflation tears through the roof and the value of the naira nosedive as a matter of depreciation. No one should talk about 2027 now because life till then is not guaranteed for anyone. Therefore, the government and its officials should concentrate on pulling the country out of the doldrums before it is too late.
To be sure, it is the legitimate ambition of any new government to complete a term and contest the next election. It is a lawful objective but that can only happen in the last year of the government’s current term and not immediately a year after ascending the throne. Should a free and fair election hold today in Nigeria, it is improbable that the APC will win any local government, that is if we consider their performance at the federal level and across the country.
On what conditions would anyone vote for the APC? Although conditions in the country may improve in the coming years which would justify the current government to succeed itself, until then, proponents of a victory for APC in 2027 should please stop the insult.
It appears that the desire to position itself for electoral victory seems to motivate many profligate decisions of the government. Perhaps ninety billion naira was spent on subsidizing religious pilgrimage to be in the good books of Muslim faithfuls come 2027. It means that the government would have to subsidize that religious pilgrimage for three more years to ensure the loyalty of our Muslim brothers and sisters. Ninety billion naira in a country where millions of people go to bed daily without food? Ninety billion naira in a country where all the teaching hospitals are grappling with decay? It is a misplaced priority.
Already it is reported that the current government has borrowed over twenty trillion naira in the last year, yet there is no significant change in the quality of life of Nigerians. So the big question is, where is the money? Is the money being stockpiled towards the 2027 election while Nigerians perish of hunger and deprivation? Or are all the borrowed funds a way of recouping the massive financial outlay expended by the government in power during the last election?
These borrowed funds must be somewhere. Is the 2027 election the reason Nigerians are being taxed on all fronts to raise money for electoral success for the incumbent government? Is the 2027 election the reason almost everybody known to the president is appointed into one position or another irrespective of qualification and competence, thereby creating the most bloated governance structure in the history of Nigeria?
The lives of millions of Nigerians matter and should matter to this government. The atmosphere of despondency and ennui hovering around the country should worry the present government. The high cost of living and prices of essential commodities in the market should keep this government awake. The hidden and open taxes, immediate and remote taxes on goods and services should bother the government. The price of petroleum products and different anti-people policies in the country should disturb the current government.
The salaries, wages and conditions of service of Nigerian workers should concern the government too. The healthcare sector, educational sector and infrastructural development should be the concern of this government. In a normal clime, a government that respects the citizens will justify its intentions to retain power through equitable, impactful governance.
The same scenario of a morbid desire to retain power in 2027 is also driving many state governors. In some states, the governors have barely settled down to good governance but they are already planning ahead of 2027. Most governors have practically gone to bed, sleeping on their people. Most governors are not regular in the payment of salaries. Infrastructure in some states is dead and buried. Yet, preparations for the 2027 election are in top gear, albeit remotely. The Senate and House of Representatives in Abuja are busy endorsing every whim and caprices of the executive arm headed by the president.
The State Assemblies are all extensions of the governors’ executive rascality. Every action and realignment is geared towards electoral victory in 2027. It is a challenge for millions of Nigerians vanquished by poor economic policies at all levels to rise to the occasion and resist the entrenchment of political criminality in 2027. It is a challenge for the millions of Nigerian youths whose lives have been violated by a greedy, debased political class to take action beyond social media musings and confrontations. The intentions of Nigeria’s current political class towards 2027 must not be achieved on the grave of millions of Nigerians. The masses have the numbers and the numbers should count.
Promise Adiele PhD
Mountain Top University, Promee01@yahoo.com, X: @drpee