Nigerian politicians are already busy reaching every reachable community seeking votes releasing realistic and unrealistic promises just to defeat opponents even, if the opponents are the best qualified for the votes. The end justifies the means so they say.
It is a season for those with sleaze funds to deploy to purchase of conscience, and votes buying for elective offices. It is a season for betrayal, mischief, blackmail and deceit.
In the Nigerian context, promising the electorates what may not be possible is a fashion and an accepted norm because the people are usually not given the opportunity at campaigns to ask questions. They are assembled by party parasites to be deceived with promises and given token amount to silence them.
Nigeria is a country in urgent need of significant and essential change. Yet, the change the country is desperately, seeking may not begin with a new political party, a different system of government, or the emergence of another charismatic voice promising to rescue the nose diving country from its troubles.
It must begin with a fundamental transformation in the relationship between citizens and political power. Our world is deeply sleeping in the dark, but we have fallen asleep in the Light. We have access to information, democratic institutions, education, religious teachings, historical experiences, and the painful lessons of our collective existence.
But we continue to surrender our judgment to political interests that have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to exploit our hopes, fears, poverty, and desperation. If we do not begin to use our freedom to defend our freedom, we may eventually lose the very liberties we take for granted.
One of the greatest dangers facing a democracy is not merely the dishonesty of its political leaders but the willingness of its citizens to accept political narratives without sufficient scrutiny. When citizens become emotionally attached to politicians, they may eventually begin to defend what they would ordinarily condemn, excuse failures they would never tolerate in their freed personal lives, and celebrate promises that have no credible foundation for believe.
Political deception flourishes where critical thinking is weak and personal dependence on political patrons is strong. A citizen who believes that his future depends entirely on the goodwill of a politician may find it difficult to own his mind, think positively for his good, or has the courage to question that politician with honesty.
A young person who expects employment through political connection may hesitate to condemn any failure of his paymaster including corrupt tendencies. A struggling family that depends on occasional handouts as palliative may feel compelled to defend a political benefactor, even when the wider economic circumstance remain unbearable and catastrophic.
Government should create conditions in which people can flourish independently; it should not become the sole source of their identity, confidence, ambition, or hope. History offers grave warnings about the consequences of organized deception and unquestioning obedience. Otto Adolf Eichmann, a major organizer of the deportation of European Jews during the Holocaust, became one of the principal defendants in the 1961 Jerusalem trial.
His role in the Nazi machinery of persecution demonstrates the terrible consequences of bureaucratic obedience, dehumanization, and the systematic organization of wrong doings. The Nuremberg trials, held after the 2nd World War, also exposed the machinery of lies used by the Nazi Regime to perfect their crimes against humanity. Over six million Jews were burnt to ashes through a blast furnace on the order of Adolf Hitler.
As the 2027 elections approach, Nigerians must learn to distinguish sweet promises at political campaigns, and political communication from political evidence. A politicians’ eloquence is not proof of competence and capacity for trust.
A large crowd at a campaign rally is not evidence of endorsement and economic transformation. In most cases, the crowd is either hired at a fee to grace the occasion for deceit or at the scene for one personal reason not far from extortion and praise singing for expected peanuts.
A party’s popularity does not establish the integrity of its candidates nor does a candidate’s reputation as a courageous reformer automatically guarantee the existence of a workable recovery plan. We must learn to ask difficult and stressful questions. A question and answer session between contestants and the electorate should be in our Electoral Law.
Every contestant to an elective office must face the public court for a drill. No appearance by proxy. If that’s encouraged, we may be heading to better days because candidates have to explain their sources of income that is worth supporting their aspiration etc.
A known public servant, supposedly on a monthly salary cannot have the legitimate financial support to finance his contest even to a State House of Assembly. In such encounters, the chaff can be separated from the grain. We may be able to fish out those on sponsorship by godfathers, and those heading to re-equipping what they spent, and those in possession of loans for repayment after victory through corruption and stealing of public funds.
Then, what measurable outcomes will a candidate pursue to logical conclusion if victorious? A leader who possess, a credible blueprint for any elective office for national recovery should ever be prepared to explain it, defend its assumptions, acknowledge its limitations, and revise it when evidence demonstrates that a different approach would work better.
Such a leader does not need to silence every critic to establish authority. Peaceful protest, responsible ethical journalism, opposition politics, judicial independence, and public scrutiny are essential elements of democratic accountability.
Nigeria has experienced various administrations, political realignments, changes in leadership, and transfers of power between competing political parties. Nevertheless, many citizens continue to struggle with insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, unemployment, rising cost of living, unreliable electricity supply, and declining confidence in public institutions, especially in the judiciary.
The persistent challenges demand a more searching national conversation. Citizens must develop the capacity to earn, save, invest, learn, organize, cooperate, and solve problems.
The younger ones should be encouraged to acquire practical and intellectual skills rather than regard political connections and domestic slavery masquerading as employment as the only route to success.
Professionals should defend standards in the fields of specialization. Teachers should cultivate independent thoughts. Religious institutions should encourage moral responsibility and public accountability. Business owners should create value rather than depend exclusively on political patronage.
Communities must also strengthen local cooperation, support credible enterprises, protect public property from vandalization and theft, and hold elected and appointed representatives accountable for the use of public resources.
Freedom is not preserved by passive admiration of those who exercise power. it is preserved by citizens who understand their rights and responsibilities and are willing to defend both no matter what. Our task as responsible citizens is not to manufacture another political savior.
It is to create an electoral ward, a local government, a state and a country in which leaders are chosen for the competence, restrained by effective institutions, evaluated by their performance, and duly replaced lawfully when they fail. Nigeria does not need citizens who surrender their judgment to political personalities for patronage. It needs citizens who can recognize a good policy, question a bad one, distinguish evidence from propaganda, and insist that public office remains a responsibility rather than a private entitlement.
The real Nigerian revolution must therefore begin in the mind as a movement away from political dependency towards civic responsibility, away from blind allegiance towards informed judgment, and away from the worship of personalities towards the pursuit of accountable, leadership. A nation is not rescued by changing the face on its political posters alone. It is renewed when its people refuse to surrender their future to the promises of any single individual or political party. Nigerian’s future must be built by responsible citizens committed to good governance, governed by accountable, leaders, and protected by institutions strong enough to serve public interest without attached strings. This is what real change worth fighting for is. Not mere rhetoric and deceit for acceptance without credibility.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
