2023 elections: Is Nigeria for sale?

 

Dr Promise Adiele

By Promise Adiele,

There are ominous indications in Nigeria’s current political atmosphere that the country may be sold to the highest bidder in the 2023 general elections. If reports from the venue of the just concluded primary elections of the twin behemoth political parties, APC and PDP are anything to consider, the leadership of the country may be traded in a grave rehash of feudal mercantile tyranny. At the forefront of these dissimulations are power desperados searching for fame and prominence through disreputable practices to the detriment of core governance. Nigerians must vehemently resist the impending gloom that, like overcast weather, has the potential to submerge our democracy. Following the conclusion of the primaries by the two major parties, reports emerged that they gave US Dollars to the Delegates to influence their votes. Nigerians gleefully watched the video of one Delegate on social media with millions of naira, which he shared in his constituency after the primaries. Towards the 2023, while the PDP maybe be financially handicapped to participate fully in the electoral bazaar, the APC will be invigorated by the vast financial outlay from State coffers. Some people argue that the APC rigging schedule is already being implemented in instalments across the country. Hmmmm!!!

Something is beguiling about the hypnotic conviction which pushes some people to spew the mantra that politics requires money. That mantra, in all its monotonous possibilities to benumb the mind, seeks to validate the ‘the end justifies the means’ analogy. Those who peddle that trite mantra unconsciously negotiate their sentiments by remotely excusing such degraded practices as inducement of the electorate. In developed countries of the world, politics requires money to take care of protocols, logistics, and different contingencies. But in Nigeria, when some people, in their feeble attempt to promote a shamefaced idealism, advance the ‘politics requires money’ narrative, they confer relevance to politicians with deep pockets – those richer than some states with underbelly that oozes of heist and corrupt enrichments. In Nigeria, ‘politics requires money’ is simply for vote-buying and compromising the electoral process.

The historical inconsistencies that trail some of our presidential aspirants are disconcerting. If their educational background does not quirk with contradictions, their place of origin is in doubt or their ages are a matter of infinite conjecture. Because we are in Nigeria, these things can be defended and covered up. But to shamefully earmark millions of dollars to buy Delegates and voters during elections is at the height of innate, moral decay. Some Nigerian politicians are masters of the dark art – they can never operate in a free and fair environment. In a chaotic ordering, they thrive and shine like the Shakespearean Northern Star. For them, ascension to Aso Rock is some kind of primordial appetite to be nourished by the fantasy of political power. When these politicians move around the country, they derive joy from the ecstasy fawned by ignorant citizens lacking an understanding of the prevailing economic matrix that defines their meagre existence.

If we introspectively ponder the issues in Nigeria in the last twenty-three years or so without bias, then we will be faced with one truth – the strenuous conflict of Nigeria finds resolution by implicating the two major political parties as responsible for plunging the country into the abyss of hopelessness. While one party destroyed Nigeria for sixteen years, another party has perfected that destruction for seven years. Every politician under the two parties shares blames for the present shell-shocked conditions pervading the country. They supplant what they should supplement. Yet, these same politicians are posturing for another opportunity to finally liquidate the Nigeria. Anybody arguing otherwise is deviously upholding the present cataclysmic conditions in the country. Currently, the APC government under Buhari has incurred a total debt of 41 trillion naira. Between January and March 2022 alone, the government incurred a debt of 2 trillion naira. IMF has raised the alarm that Nigeria may spend 10.74 trillion naira on debt servicing in 2022 alone. Ask yourself, what is Nigeria’s annual revenue? Yet, some people want APC to remain in power. Wahala dey o!

Nigeria is burning and unfortunately many people do not know. The economic and financial figures are scary. They present an apocalyptic future of the country. The two major political parties are directly responsible for the tragic conditions in Nigeria. There is no other way to say it. Recently, the accountant general of the federation admitted that the country borrows money to pay salaries. That is at once disturbing and at large infuriating. Yet, some people decide to look away from these realities but commit to enthroning the same people responsible for creating them. These victims of monomania are with us, they are everywhere, in our offices, social media, estates, clubs, and other social circles. But we must endeavour to accommodate them because we believe that exorcism is achievable. If Titubi, in Osofisan’s Morountodun, could transform from an old consciousness to a new one, there is hope that our brothers and sisters baying for blood to have APC and PDP return to power will be transformed before 2023.

 

Nigeria is burning and unfortunately many people do not know. The economic and financial figures are scary. They present an apocalyptic future of the country. The two major political parties are directly responsible for the tragic conditions in Nigeria. There is no other way to say it. Recently, the accountant general of the federation admitted that the country borrows money to pay salaries. That is at once disturbing and at large infuriating. Yet, some people decide to look away from these realities but commit to enthroning the same people responsible for creating them.

 

2023 holds a special space in Nigeria’s democratic maturation. It is either the country hits the depths of pandemonium and finally becomes another Zimbabwe or it will mark the beginning of a redemptive transformation for a country heavily saturated with political parasites. The plans are on to rig the election, buy votes, threaten the youths, stop them from voting and use every known and unknown underhand means to win the elections. Millions of youths in Nigeria, especially the educated ones are aware of the conditions in the country and are poised for a change. But some are irredeemably lost to ignorance and sophistry which betrays the inherent infirmities in their cognitive process. It truly defies reason that APC and PDP are applying to occupy Aso Rock in 2023. How can Nigerians desire to outsource their future and that of their children by entrusting power to megalomaniacs that have serially pillaged our land? If we consider what APC and PDP have done with power in Nigeria in the last twenty-three years, do they deserve to hold power at any level in this country? Nigerians must wake up and refuse a prolongation of the misery in the land.

In 2023, bullion vans will convey millions of dollars across the country for vote-buying. The strategy of the party in power is to utilize the weapons of poverty and capitalise on the collective deprivation in the land to induce voters with money. They caused the poverty, now they want to reap the fruits of that poverty. Going by what happened during the Ekiti elections where people openly received money to vote, next year’s election will be determined by the same old corrupt practices. It is commendable that the youths are all united to enthrone a new Nigeria. But will it be possible to resist money when these desperados offer them to hungry people? Will our country be bought over by the party with the deepest pocket in 2023? Are we in for a final journey to Golgotha, the iconic place of crucifixion? Can anything be done to rescue this country from the grip of vicious wicked men committed to promoting the immediate resolve of Satan? Can those who have failed the country for twenty-three years redeem the same country? Every concerned Nigerian (not all Nigerians are concerned) towards the healing and revival of the country, whether at home or abroad should commit to propagating the gospel of a new dispensation for the benefit of our future and those of our children. We have suffered enough under APC and PDP. It is time for a new beginning. Get your PVC.

Promise Adiele PhD

Mountain Top University

Promee01@yahoo.com