Gimmick and deceit is their known trademark, members of the national assembly, have of recent introduced a new game of fooling the electorates to believing falsehood as 2027 is fast approaching. The new deceit rests with new states creation.
The said proposal for the mirage called additional 31 new states was hurriedly pushed to the House of Representatives Joint-Committee on Constitutional Review for a final resting place.
The 1999 Constitution (amended) has In Section 8 and other sections spelt out guidelines for the national assembly’s approval of such requests.
The first hurdle has to do with support by at least two-third majority of members representing the area requesting for the new state in each of the following namely, “the Senate, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly.
Then there has to be a referendum with at least two-third of the people concerned in support or against; which will be passed in the State House of Assembly with a two-third majority. The same process is to be pursued in the Senate and House of Representatives to make a head way.
After the rigors, then comes boundary adjustment of states and creation of new local governments, subject to the approval the Senate, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly. Going by the process involved, how can new states be created within the coming few months if not a political gimmick in anticipation for cheap votes from the ignorant by agitators?
Eighth and Ninth National Assemblies had woefully failed in similar assignments and we are today fooled to believe that the weak 10th National Assembly can do the magic.
We all know that Nigerians are approaching another electioneering campaign period that may commence soon tailored to the 2027 general election. The usual electoral fever has started gripping politicians and their supporters. The contagious symptom is glaringly manifesting among key players—and their serious, desperate, sincere and not sincere lieutenants—as the hour for the kick-off draws closer and visible.
Politicians are learning fast that the roads to the seats of power are bumpy, tortuous and hazardous. They have begun to understand that it is usually laced with trends and bends, turns and thorns including thunderstorm and flood.
But while all politics is local, all politicians are not same content and intent. Some people are in the race to genuinely serve not to be served, to give and not to be given. Those are the people who see politics as a vocation not a gainful employment because they are contended. Several others are in politics to plunder. Politics to them is a career and the only source of their livelihood and prominence. They generate the tension that engulfs the country or their immediate communities as campaigns gather momentum. Their activities cause apprehension and uncertainty.
The prevailing political scenario has thrown up such a development, which is not likely to fizzle out until February 2027 when winners of the contests start to savor victory and the losers thrown to garbage heaps.
To those who face the reality, politics is a big headache, money consuming, troublesome and full of betrayals. It is also a big and lucrative business to those in love with corruption, looting, ostentatious living and lust for power. In Nigeria, elections create uncertainties; they often plunge the players into nightmares and poor health conditions.
Ahead of any election in this country, an artificial economic recovery becomes imperative. A common feature of the electoral economy is the increase in spending by the political class.
During electioneering season, stakeholders become extremely busy. Posters are printed. Musicians and other artists are hired to release partisan and offending lyrics. Campaign grounds and accessories are rented. Commercial transporters get busier. Food and snacks vendors become richer. Producers of campaign uniforms and other souvenirs smile to the bank. In most towns and villages, thugs, hoodlums and other criminals retreat while praise singers, sycophants, data boys and their associates, the clowns are gingered. Key players in that fiendish sector temporarily gain employment with some satanically minded politicians until the end of the election season for abandon.
Collective attention is currently focused on 2027 not on good governance. What will the outcome of the next general election bring to the table? Who succeeds who and who gets-re-elected or corners which position? Which of the first-term governors and lawmakers will lose their seats? What are the issues that will shape the contests? What are the possible scenarios?
These questions are begging for answers from same Nigerians who made the questions. But, predictably, voting may not be influenced by these factors in many constituencies based on the level of public awareness.
Voters’ behavior across the six regions of Nigeria is not likely to be the same due to some intervening variables. Poverty, ethnicity, illiteracy and religion will play greater roles in the attitude of the electorates towards many candidates in the five-layer polls.
Globally, politics is characterized by strife and rancor. The antagonism is said to be normal. There is ego war, there is seasonal bitterness. Joining the fray means opening a file of your life to the public for scrutiny. Gossips, hate speeches, character assassination and crude insults are the periodic pastime associated with electioneering in the country. Nigerians so much love rumor peddling in beer parlors, social gatherings, eateries and newspaper stands, on local football pitches, in commercial buses, taxis, markets, places of worship and wherever they meet.
The electorates at most times are misinformed at those gossip meeting points by fellow electorates. Prophets of doom and boom and satanic agents, spring up at all fronts to predict victories and failures without substantive facts. They will not be held responsible if the predictions—often based on conjectures—come true or not. In fact, some candidates will visit soothsayers, fetish shrines, cults, marabouts, juju priests, Babalawos, and other predictions that play god and claim to know the future with confidence.
Candidates are at the receiving of character assassination. They are upset by image malignancy. It is getting worse by the day owing to the massive use and abuse of the social media by sponsored thugs, miscreants, data boys, the idle minded and hooligans that survive on periodic handouts from their thieving paymasters in public offices and corridors of power.
How many abusers can candidates take to court for defamation of character or slander? Few of those defamations are sustained against candidates out of envy and hate by their detractors and opponents.
Personalities are elevated far over issues of importance to development and human progress. Unlike in the First and Second Republics, ideology is now a non-issue. A political party should be an association of people united by similarity of ideas. Some Nigerian First Republic parties—-Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC), Action Group (AG), Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), Habe Tribalistic Union (HTU), United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) and National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) —were different. At least, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was different from the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) of the Second Republic. Indeed, Third Republic’s Social Democratic {Party (SDP) was different from National Republican Convention (NRC). But, what is the difference today between All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labor Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) etc?
In the political game of yester-years, defections were common, but serial defections were uncommon at that saner era. Today, it is possible for a politician to traverse three political parties in a year on the grounds of freedom of association and assembly. It smacks of political harlotry and lust for power.
Many of those that birthed today’s ruling party APC were defectors from other parties in 2014. Having failed to realize their inordinate ambitions on the platform of the cobbled entity, they hurriedly defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the other parties to cover shame while some joined the PDP for failing Nigerians with the APC’s 2015 deceitful Change Mantra gimmick and 2023 Muslim/Muslim ticket propaganda.
Some PDP gladiators have also defected to the APC or the other parties, shortly after governorship and parliamentary primaries or even before without genuine reason other than selfishness and failure to realize personal ambition.
For instance, in the spate of three months, a former governor of a state, who was a senator, traversed the APC, NNPP and finally to the PDP. As they jump ship, they are accompanied by gullible supporters, appendages and sponsored morons and clowns. The goal is usually personal and selfish interest for survival.
Each time a party receives defector into its fold, the defector is celebrated as a big fish, a big catch which is always laughable, demoralizing and entertaining because it lacks seriousness and commitment. How can a disappointed inconsequential politician be celebrated for abusing a trust?
Real politicians of substance that believe in the tenets of democracy, hardly vacate their habitats for whatever reason. Think of those great politicians and democrats of repute of this generation the likes of Goodluck Jonathan, Peter Odili, DT Sango, Bode George, Peter Odili, Hassan Dankwambo, Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu, Emmanuel Magnin, Adamu Maina Waziri, Caleb Manassah Mutfwang, Ahmed Ibrahim Dandija, Senators Abdul Ningi, Sani Ahmed (Yeriman Bakura), Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Ladi Nimlan, Prof. Jibril Aminu and Prof Dimis Mailafiya.
Others include Ahmadu Fintiri, Aminu Aliyu Garu, Auwal Jatau, Gabriel Suswan, Beni Lar, Dayyabu Dauda, Idi Waziri, Golu Timothy, Amos Gombi and few others.
While Nigerians were fascinated by party manifestoes in the past, they now no longer rely on promises advanced by politicians before electing who should govern or represent them on the poll day. Some critics argue that people are used to the deceitful mechanisms and parochial lies of politicians that include distribution of federal government donated constituency items; motorcycles, grinding, sewing and water pumping machines, tricycles, over used secondhand vehicles and few federal appointments to either selected data boys or certified miscreants who murdered shame for crumbs.
Also, since candidates are only within reach when shopping for votes, hungry, poverty stricken and angry citizens seem to have converted election time to an opportunity to struggle for the crumbs falling off the table of privileged leaders in desperation for election.
While the first generation political leaders attracted mass following based on their credibility, reputation, sincerity and quality of politics, many today’s politicians only seek for support through financial inducement and other Greek gifts at election time including votes buying and bribing electoral and security personnel in-charge.
In the circumstance, senior citizens are seized by nostalgia. In their times, they vetted political parties and leaders, aspirants and candidates before endorsement for support.
They took ownership of political parties and, indeed, the political process at the levels of cells, units, wards and local governments, brimming with loyalty and pride of political association. They were always eager to pay their dues. They volunteered as vote canvassers and guides.
Their expectation, particularly in the Northern States, was the fulfillment of the promise of “Freedom for All, Life More Abundant”. Poll-confident and politically conscious North believed in the Cardinal Points of the First Generation Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC): Free and Compulsory Education, Free Medical Services, Full Employment and Integrated Rural Development. It was a model for development that made the region under Sardauna’s leadership to soar ahead of other regions.
Politics should be for service, but ironically political involvement is now, more or less an employment and a business venture. Idle and restless youths are turned to thugs and data boys sponsored by weak and heartless politicians to wreak havoc, on opponents, and hangers-on anticipate petty, ad-hoc political or government appointments after wreaking havoc on their targets.
From my understanding, most Nigerian politicians are fools, especially the lawmakers for always dancing to the tunes of praise singers and sycophants. As a lawmaker, I have no business with a praise singer because I make laws for his good while constituency projects are funded from the federal treasury. What is there then to be praised for if not for foolishness and cluelessness? Do I deserve to be praised for being a talkative in a talking shop making laws that I cannot translate or impose? Praise the Lord!
Vote buying which is now a phenomenon was rampant in previous dispensations. The polity has been turned upside down by the antics of vote traders who sell and buy votes, unconscious of the fact that they are polluting the polity by selling their conscience and promoting bad governance to the detriment of their development and progress.
More pathetic is the political behavior of youths who wallow in ignorance, excruciating poverty and parental neglect. Youths of today do not mirror the youths of pre-independence era and immediate independence period who learnt at the feet of wise, credible elders. They cannot be acknowledged for any initiation and communication of values.
Youths activists of the 1950s played notable roles in the foundational politics. Many of them were not found wanting. They were not in blind pursuit of money, political patronage, appointments and luxuries.
Activism became a training ground for future leadership. Youths and students’ organizations fought military regimes to stand still. But, following the factionalization of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), youth bodies have not been same again. Can society expect any meaningful thing from the disarticulated students’ organizations that now compete with politicians and criminally-minded civil servants in the quest for wealth by all means?
Many youths are gullible and fickle-minded. They lack the necessary skills to make informed or rational choices. They are more active on the social media posting nonsense as data boys than thinking and planning their future. They lack the understanding of history and the imperative of the national question: the etiology of the Nigerian political mess, the lopsided distribution of power in favor of a certain geo-political zone, the flawed unitary system masquerading as federalism, the decayed dictatorial constitution hoisted on the people in 1999, and circumstances that warranted the push for unity in diversity.
It is noted that more youths had registered to vote in the 2023 general election. But many ended up voting without a proper focus or selling their votes to the wrong and undeserved contestants. It was predicted that many youths would vote due to peer pressure or sponsorship. While they are understandably lovers of entertainment, luxuries and sports, with majority of them needing proper political education, sensitization, guidance and enlightenment to vote wisely in 2027.
No doubt, politics was rough and tough in those early days especially in the Northern region between Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) supporters and the elitist Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) supporters but it had a direction, focus and commitment to the good of the region.
It is incontrovertible, that the players of the old order were much more credible and patriotic than those of today. Their motivation for joining politics was not for wealth accumulation or luxury but fame and respect. The current monetization of politics, as further shown by the payment of millions of naira for nomination forms by the parties, is highly condemnable. Political participation becomes an investment, and aspiring politicians, as investors, who would want to garner returns after winning or losing elections. The implication is that they may be eager to recoup when power lands on their palms through corrupt practices.
The huge financial involvement is a factor in political desperation and electoral fraud. Yet, the apprehension has now been increased because the chances of malpractices have been reduced due to the gradual recourse to electronic voting. Many thanks, to the 9th National Assembly for introducing several mechanisms to ease the electoral process.
Things are changing gradually. Politicians are bound to make hard adjustments to the new voting schedules. In the past, there was a line of demarcation between those who played politics of virtue, who were in the majority, and a few master riggers, who were targets of spontaneous and popular revolt. In this dispensation, university lecturers and other professors recruited as ad-hoc electoral officers were involved in various malpractices, an ignoble act that was unimaginable and unbelievable in the sixties, eighties and nineties.
The moment of propaganda is now here. Sweet talkers arouse, incite and manufacture falsehoods, taking along with them the naïve on the perfidious journey. Some party flag bearers are contesting and winning the election only on the social media, where influencers peddle rumors and falsehood.
Fortunately enough, one million fake voters for the 2023 election were detected by INEC. The fate of those contestants for double positions of president and senators (Ahmed Lawan and GodsWill Akpabio) were before a court of competent jurisdiction to have served as an eye opener for future reference, but the Supreme Court announced the opposite. The opposite is a clean bill of health for future occurrence of such abnormality.
Smaller parties on INEC register are already dwarfed and may soon be swallowed by the bigger whales. APC and PDP as the leading lights are battling with defections of aggrieved chieftains in some states but the PDP seems to be contending with a bigger trouble than that of the APC, a tall hurdle to scale the “Damagun Must Go” importunity and the Nyeson Wike trademark of madness, betrayal, hypocrisy and threat.
The 2023 electioneering was full of drama play, humour, shocks and surprises laced with disappointments and betrayals. Supporters Clubs and Associations were hurriedly cobbled to extort from innocent contestants. In some cases, crowds were hired by extortionists and other armchair politicians and even political amateurs to deceive contestants to believe in false support. The scene was heavily polluted by thugs and poorly educated data boys masquerading as image launderers on social media, hoodlums and vandals who claimed to be saints that could deliver positively to extort from contestants.
Despite all the intrigues, many candidates were still bubbling with hope, the elixir of life that 2023 would usher in a new era full of goodies. Political events in the next few months towards 2027 will determine the reality or mirage of that hope. We shall soon begin to realize where the pendulum may swing but hopefully and prayerfully not to APC direction again in history. We have endured too much bashing and sufferings in the hands of Change Agents and those of Renewed Hope Agenda. But Allah De!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
