The Nigeria Political Arena and its unending fallacies

The 2019 election is fast approaching and politicians are already in their usual business of trying to woo unsuspecting electorate with their unending promises. This has been the norm right from the inception of democracy in the Nigeria political sphere.

An average Nigerian would, in the normal practice, be convinced to vote for an aspirant with incentive like a mini bag of Rice and a litre of groundnut oil. These are normal prerequisite for any Nigerian politician to get himself or herself into office. The question is “how long are we going to keep doing this?” The Nigeria politician post is a cycle where everything revolves and comes back to the same state it started from after a period of time.

We have continually seen old an respected politicians; who have nothing to offer the masses, in the corridor of power over and over again and we seem not to have the killer instinct to negotiate our part to freedom.

Recently, I have been observing the Buhari VS Atiku tussle I ask myself, “if Nigeria is a progressing country, are these the people we should present come 2019?”. does it mean that out of hundred million adults according to the National Population Commission, NPC, we can only present two respected politicians for the top post of Aso Rock who happens to be 75years (Buhari) and 71years (Atiku) respectively?. Sadly, the Nigerian political system is positioned in such a way that electorates would have no choice than to vote for any candidate presented by the elite parties. Parties primaries are seen as the real deal even though, in actual sense, they are rarely representative or transparency enough.

The problem Nigeria politicians is that many of  them see themselves  as demigod Once they assume office, they automatically place themselves above the law; giving no room for accountability and inclusive governance, and this limit their performance. They seem to have forgotten that the illiterate of the 21^st century is not someone who can neither read nor write, but someone who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

The problem of Nigeria began with the May 1999 constitution which allows for political office holders to occupy political position for two terms; this is a major blunder. The best would have introduce a single five years tenure system as I fail to see why a purpose driven individual would not be able to impact the society in five years unless he or she is allowed to rule foe eight years.

*****This article is dedicated in compilation of the present state of mind of the nation

Written By Shotunde Oladimeji.