Ahead of the 2027 general election, the presidency has seemingly twisted itself into election mode with its eyes fixed on retaining power in 2023. The result is a country teetering on the brink.
It has been more than three weeks since schoolchildren were kidnapped in Askira-Uba. It has been two weeks since schoolchildren and their teachers were kidnapped in Oyo State. A beheading later, and those in the innermost recesses of Nigeria’s corridors of power have made up their twisted minds that their enemies are at work. How they desecrate Nigeria’s corridors of power!
To President Tinubu, the members of his cabinet, and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, the rampant insecurity currently ravaging the country is the work of the opposition and all those who want to take over office in 2027.
All over the world, what is ideal is that a government that fails in office should be replaced. This is not to spite those who may have tried their best or to ensure change for the sake of change; it is crucial for the very survival of the entity. This obtains in any country that truly desires growth and development. From all indications, Nigeria desires neither growth nor development, or at least those in positions of authority do not desire growth or development for Nigeria.
Many of them who are in office now have only one wish—to remain in office. In fact, for many of them, if they had their way, they would wish to stay in office for life. The reality is that the desire to stay in office indefinitely is not matched by any achievement on the ground.
Public officers in Nigeria are also so adept at playing the blame game. They like to blame everyone else but themselves for all the challenges Nigeria is having as a country. For example, it has now been weeks since schoolchildren and their teachers were snatched from their school in Oyo State, and the unfortunate chain of events has again exposed Nigerian government officials for whom they truly are.
Since the incident, which has seen one of the teachers bizarrely beheaded by their captors, the Oyo State government officials and federal government officials have expended precious energy trading accusations and innuendoes.
This has become a common practice among public officeholders in Nigeria, and now they are playing it with the welfare of children well and truly on the line.
It Is all too common for public officeholders to blame their predecessors for their failure in office. Whenever Nigerians demand dividends of democracy and the heat becomes too much, public officeholders in Nigeria usually find a way of deflecting blame either to those who were there before then or to extraneous factors.
Following the seismic upset in the general elections of 2015, former President Muhammadu Buhari practically spent the next eight years blaming Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for his own scalding incompetence.
The current administration has also played its own blame game, albeit with more subtlety.
Ahead of the general elections in Nigeria, Nigerians must be able to sift the wheat from the chaff. Choices have been poor in the past. It would do incalculable damage to the country if this tragic trend continues.
Nigerians must summon the willpower to reject bushels of rice, packs of semolina, and paltry sums packaged in envelopes and insist that they want long-term security, development, and guarantees for the future of their children.
It Is time for Nigerians to place the buck where it belongs and insist that it must not be passed.
Kene Obiezu is a lawyer and writer.
