Nigeria’s Heavy-handed Empty Barrels -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

It is no state secret that governance, if ever there was anything like that, has temporarily ceased in Nigeria as political fever has gripped public officeholders over the 2027 general elections. It is a time of excitement for many of Nigeria’s power brokers as they scheme on how to pillory power and perpetuate themselves in office so they can continue what is largely a disservice to Nigerians.

It is also a time of chaotic political migration. While many politicians skirt party lines, flit across political affiliations, and openly flirt with different alliances, many are also moving from one political position to the other, seeking office. Both at the center and state level, politicians are on the move. Some former federal ministers have resigned to seek office.

Nigeria is a country, perhaps the only country, where a politician can occupy a lowly political office, fail spectacularly to affect the lives of people or even the most basic metrics of government, and yet someone finds themselves flying up the political ladder.
This is because the polity and politics in Nigeria reward brigandage, political patronage, moral vacuousness, and everything else that thickens into the cocktail of destruction that does a country in.

In Nigeria, many of those who manage to fulfill their potential, from rising political stars to rising superstars, are often the most loquacious and rapacious. Because the system and people here are wired to reward them, the most odious, egregious, and savage often meander and maneuver their way into public office, leaving a trail of destruction, dysfunction, and destabilization in their wake.

Nigeria’s last general elections came around in 2023. It was the beginning of another cycle, as from the presidency to many states, new people were sworn into office. They proceeded to hand out appointments to a sea of political appointees. Together with their appointees, many of them have had almost three full years in office with pathetically little to show for it. Yet, as 2027 beckons, they are on the hunt like the raptors that they are, desperate to cling onto power or seeking new political opportunities.

One of Nigeria’s greatest failures as a country is that somehow it continues to find unexpected ways to reward those who should be banished from the political space forever. It rewards them with new opportunities and resources, always failing to hold them to account for the time spent in office.

Knowing their penchant for the bizarre and baleful and their precedents, many of which are stacked with pride, are those seemingly moving from one political office to another spreading flowers of fecal matter?

The unsightly debris of Nigeria’s developmental ruins places a grave responsibility on those who mill around and follow these failed politicians about like headless sheep. They should be able to hold them to account and ask them probing questions. But, alas, their sycophancy is likely to have made them irreparably irresponsible.

Without accountability, responsibility often remains a ruse. Without sanctions, action often remains weak and ineffectual. As long as Nigeria continues to reward irresponsibility, ineptitude, and incompetence, the country will remain a plaything for political misfits, miscreants, and mercenaries.

Ike Willie-Nwobu is a policy practitioner and social thinker. He can be reached on Ikewilly9@gmail.com.