By Kayode Emola
With the tenure of President Mohammadu Buhari coming to an end and the election for the next political dispensation fast approaching, a number of politicians in Nigeria have started positioning themselves for various offices. However, with the current tensions and unrest in multiple regions of Nigeria, and the ongoing calls for independent Yoruba and Igbo nations, only time will tell if these elections will be held, or not.
Doubtless many people recall that the Goodluck Jonathan government was one of the worst regimes in Nigerian history, with reckless looting being the order of the day. The problem is that it was not just Jonathan’s government that was bad, but the whole Nigerian system that was decayed. Radical intervention was needed before calamity descended on the nation.
In 2014, when a lot of my friends were preparing to cast their ballot for the 2015 general election, I made it my mission to demonstrate to my colleagues and professional acquaintances that another round of elections was not what Nigeria needed. Instead, we needed to sit down at a conference to collectively decide the type of Nigeria we wanted. Then, if no solution could be found, the tribal components that constitute Nigeria should be free to leave, to build the type of nation they desire and deserve.
Many people naïvely believed that once Buhari was elected as president, all the problems plaguing Nigeria would be fixed the next day. Similarly, we see many people believing that the coming 2023 elections will usher in a breath of fresh air, a relief from the harsh reality of everyday living.
Before I go further, let me take a few moments to outline some of my thoughts for those who care to know. Nigeria as a country is already decayed, dead and buried long time ago; and those running the country today are not honest or up front with their citizens. Nigeria has never been a country that was going to succeed. From its conception, it was designed as a trading post for the British government, and so any attempt to meld the disparate tribes into a single, homogenous country was always going to be an exercise in futility.
I won’t digress into the details of this history, as I believe many of us are already familiar with Nigeria’s many and varied woes, from Boko Haram, Niger Delta Militants, Fulani herdsmen, struggle for Biafra and Yoruba nations, fuel subsidy, government borrowing; the list goes on and on.
Today, less 120 years since the founding of Nigeria, we are heavily indebted to the tune of billions of dollars, yet have nothing to show for it. Millions of our youths are roaming the streets searching for jobs that do not exist, with a sizeable number of people fleeing the country for greener pastures abroad. Whereas before the British came, our forefathers ran their little enclaves for thousands of years without needing to heap debt upon the people.
And yet my people are being asked to vote for a round of new oppressors in 2023 who will do nothing concrete for them other than borrow more money on their behalf from the Chinese and other foreign governments. In the end, these borrowed funds will find their way into individuals’ overseas bank accounts, ultimately benefitting the development of other nations, but not our own.
In my view, I believe now is the time to take a step back and critically assess the 2023 elections, in order to ask ourselves genuinely if what we need is truly another round of elections. Last week, in my analysis of the national budget, it was demonstrated that of the budget of over ₦17 trillion, Nigeria does not realise even one third of that as revenue. How, then, do we think anything will change for the betterment of the people, in view of such level of increasing indebtedness?
*What does Nigeria need going forward?*
A number of candidates are beginning to demonstrate interest in becoming the next president of Nigeria, professing lofty ambitions of what they will do when they get there. Each of the six regions of Nigeria are claiming the right to hold the central command of Nigeria, yet without first dealing with the fundamental issues on the ground.
For a start, no region has the automatic, deserved right to produce the next president of Nigeria. Equally, no region should be made to feel superior or inferior in the race for who will become the leader of Nigeria. The disheartening thing is that everyone who wants to contest for the position of the president now visits Aso Villa to notify the president of their intention and to seek his approval. In my opinion, this is a big slap in the face of the electorate of Nigeria. After all, it is not the outgoing president, at least ostensibly, who is responsible for the selection of the new head of state, but the general public whose votes are the decider; so why is not that same public whose favour is sought?
In the 2020 election in the United States of America, I do not believe any of the contestants went to kneel down before Donald Trump and beg him to allow them to run for office. Likewise, in the UK Boris Johnson resigned from his position as Foreign Secretary within the cabinet of then Prime Minister Theresa May when he did not believe in the way she was handling Brexit. Yet Boris Johnson still went on to become the UK Prime Minister in 2019, not because his predecessor anointed him, but because the UK people voted for him.
If Buhari’s approval is a pre-requisite for anyone who wants to become the president of Nigeria to contest, then it reveals that what we are practicing is not democracy but an extension of the colonialism bequeathed to us by Britain. Remember that in British Nigeria, the votes of the people did not count – indeed there was no vote in the first place. Whoever became the Governor-General back then did so by appointment of imperial Britain, not through the vote of the Nigerian people. Unfortunately, this mentality is still prevalent in the running of Nigeria today, in the 21st century, and our gullible countrymen still cannot read between the lines.
Nigeria does not deserve another chance from the public. It is no longer fit for purpose. The good people of Nigeria must now rise up with one accord, facing down the oppression, and saying enough is enough. Every Nigerian, both at home and abroad, must vehemently resist all attempts to perpetuate this slavery within this British-created contraption. Voting in the next general elections is merely a recertification of our gullibility, despite the wealth of information and lived experience surrounding us.
I urge my Yoruba people to know that Nigeria is beyond redemption. Any attempt by the politicians to sell us hope will not change the true reality on the ground, with the endless killings of innocent citizens, not only in the northwest, but virtually every region of Nigeria. We need to urgently sit down and tell ourselves the truth: that the only way forward for us as Yoruba is apart from Nigeria. Many people have underestimated the determination of the Yoruba people. But with God on our side, just as Egypt was shocked when God determined to free the Israelites, the world will be stunned when Yoruba eventually gets her emancipation from this current quagmire. Let us not become distracted by arguing over which candidate standing for election is the least detrimental. Rather, let us continue to focus all our time and efforts on the true solution to our situation: freedom and independence in a nation that is our own.
