Nigerians face a painful reckoning. Three years after they were warned over allowing the APC to continue in office, the country’s security architecture has completely unraveled leaving Nigerians at the mercy of criminals.
All over the country, the territory called Nigeria is now boldly marked by hideouts sheltering bandits. Not just any bandits but kidnappers of men, women, and children—school children.
In Oyo State, school children remain in the bush, as kidnappers reel off one demand after another to a deaf government that has rather dramatically become dumbstruck.
In Kaduna,Oyo and Borno States, children remain captives of terrorists as a country which should lay claim to them as its youngest citizens look on leaden of feet and bankrupt of all competence and compassion.
It would be an understatement to say that the Nigerian government has failed Nigerians. In fact, any statement that stops short of saying that Nigeria has no government would be an exercise in dissembling.
Despite overwhelming evidence that the government is not doing what governments in other places do for their people, those who occupy public office in Nigeria trudge on as if nothing is wrong. In deed, as the 2027 general elections draw ever closer their preferred preoccupation is with how to perpetuate themselves in office.
They ignore the cries of children held in the bush and the grief of entire communities caught in the crosshairs of rampaging criminals.
It is difficult today to point to any other time when life in Nigeria has been more endangered than it is today. Across rural areas in Nigeria, daytime is now lived in desperate dread. At night, absolute uncertainty hangs thick in the air.
With the way things have unraveled in the country, it is safe to say that Nigerians have never got it right with electing into office people who should represent them. Or maybe it would be fairer to say that Nigerians have never had the right system in place to elect into office people who would serve their interests.
It is perhaps not surprising that the calamitous collapse of the electoral system in Nigeria has well coincided with the failure of leadership in Nigeria. This is because with the door left ajar, raptors and reptiles have somehow found themselves into Nigeria’s corridors of power. Their rapacity is perhaps only matched by the voracity of their appetites.
As 2027 draws ever closer bringing with it momentous general elections, Nigerians must ignore the noise and recognize the opportunity on offer. The opportunity to begin to correct some ills of the country must not be allowed to go begging. Nigeria has exhausted its trial and error window and can no longer afford the cost of making mistakes in electing its leaders.
Getting it right will take a lot of sacrifice and commitment. However there is no price too much to pay for a country that works.
Kene Obiezu is a lawyer and writer.
