Nigeria has rocked into another rocky year and the early signs indicate that another rocky ride awaits a country that has known no little shocks in the past few years.
2024 was largely hit-and-miss for the government whose excuse of being in transition is being worn thin by the passage of time every day. It was in 2024 that Nigerians finally felt the hammer blow of the fuel subsidy removal as hardship bit hard. In their lowest moments, many Nigerians accused the government of being insensitive and even clueless.
The tragic death of more than eighty-six persons in a fuel tanker explosion in Suleja,Niger State has been Nigeria’s sorest moment of 2025 so far with the deaths raising the question of just how far Nigerians go to worsen the woes plaguing them.
With 2025 well and truly on, it is interesting to see the narratives that Nigeria will throw up this year. No matter what they are, they promise to be something special. But there are real fears that an event more than two years away will successfully overshadow the year, as young as it is. The event is the 2027 general elections.
If Nigerian politicians are adept at only two things, that would be embezzling public funds and rigging elections. If it comes down to only one thing, that would be rigging elections. In 2023, the election that produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s sixteenth president was marred by widespread irregularities. At the end of the day, while Nigerians raucously protested, many simply appalled at the level of sophistication that went onto the malpractices, simply took a step back, breathed and rationalized that what went down were nothing other than the familiar creaks of an imperfect system.
Many Nigerians are not convinced that the buildup to 2027 would deliver better, or that elected government officials can successfully resist the distraction of seeking re-election to concentrate on delivering the dividends of democracy.
Experience shows that they cannot and will not. The elections are still two full years away but for many elected public office holders, all that is on their plate is re-election. Nothing else matters. Nothing even comes close.
With their priority being re-election, Nigerians can be sure that good governance, usually deemed expendable by Nigeria’s exotic ruling class would really be surplus to requirements.
In Lagos State which is the president’s home state for example, the politics of 2027 is already casting long shadows over governance with the drums of distraction pounding to devastating effect for former Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, who was removed from his post as speaker, where he had fancied himself untouchable in the blink of an eye.
So many other states in Nigeria are already divided over who continues, or who succeeds who in 2027.
In Nigeria, elected government officials and are only proactive when it comes to one thing—obtaining and retaining power. In any other thing especially governance, they prefer to be reactionary.
It has been a tough period for many Nigerians. It would only be in the greater interest of Nigerians if elected public officers can eschew the premature distractions of the 2027 elections and focus on providing the dividends of democracy.
This may be asking too much, but in a country crying out for focused leadership, there is no other way.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com
