THE COALITION, A CHANCE TO RESET NIGERIA

By Dr Effiong Nyong

It is definitely not going to be a tea party, politics in Nigeria has been given several definitions , and one of the most common and widely agreed meaning is that it is a game of interests of greed and selfishness, where a few strangers gather to share the common wealth of the people, through pretences of service, promising one thing and doing another, with the sole intention to steal ,deceive through make believing tendencies.
In Nigeria, the norm has been to appear and talk tough, tell the people what they want to hear , get into office, stop picking their calls, decamp, defect, handover power to either a certain chief of staff or first lady or anybody that was never elected and just carry on. What can the people do?
Probably grumble or complain, if they appear too vocal arrest them , silence them , ignore them and more. The people are blackmailed into silence.
More tragic is the fact that ,no development plan is ever, contemplated or implemented, appointed heads of government businesses, now become lords.
Yes , and rightly so Nigerians are frustrated and are seeking for messiahs , following the failures of trusted familiar faces , but one thing is clear, no messiah will come from outer space, we have to find them from amongst us, we must give ourselves the chance to redeem ourselves, which is why I am personally satisfied that Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent president Tinubu were given the chance to prove themselves, unfortunately they have both failed.
For our politicians, in cross river state, they offer very little or nothing except to show up during some festive holidays to distribute palliatives of packaged rice and beans, and some vegetable oil, supported by old layer birds. Which they distribute at night like witches and vampires across political wards to members of their political party faction only.
In some cases they support the gifts with small cash , which are given to only members who are perceived to be very loyal. The government may not do anything tangible other than tar a few roads , repair one or two culverts, renovate some abandoned buildings and commission them with fun fair and large televised ceremonies.
And before you know what time it is, another re-election cycle returns and the campaign starts , and only the man who has his hands are in the cookie jar can find cash to move around and induce , lure, and bribe everything to happen in his favour, and for you to be relevant then you must be ordained by him.
And you must agree to lick his boots, share public funds, and do his bidding otherwise he has a right to throw you out, after all he put you there and he will get the support of the people.
No one would query the source of the godfather’s income, as a matter of fact our society would even label you as being ungrateful. That’s our country and what it has turned out to be.
But we now have another chance to positively change things.
So with open arms we welcome the coalition of political partners, as an opportunity.
It has taken 25 years for most of the political heavyweights to gather in one place called the APC, where you can be and your sins are forgiven, a party that calls itself progressive but abhors progressive ideas.
A party that sings democracy but delights in removing democratic structures, a party that came to power through protests but can not tolerate even the slightest text message of descent, a party that grew through civil society but can not even allow civil society organizations to assemble.
A party that has elevated nepotism and propaganda to such an enviable height,that even the Adolf Hitler propaganda machinery of the 2nd world war era , would be envious. Nigerians are today witnessing the worst governmental gamble of the century across all sectors of their existence.
But like I said earlier, one thing we should be grateful for is that both Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu became president’s , under Buhari Nigerians saw how nepotism, corruption and insecurity thrived, and in just two years of the Tinubu administration, Nigerians have witnessed how a nation must never be governed. All the big talk and drama of how Lagos was built with infrastructure and a robust economy have been put to rest.
Today, there has been a redefinition of several words, such as clueless, suffering,pain, forgery, tribalism and bad governance.
The economy is another matter, how could a set of administrators takeover government and a commodity (pms) that sold for #87 naira only, now sells for #905 and the people are told that life is better. How can a bag of cement that sold for #2000 be selling for #10,000 and the people are told that things are changing for the better? How can life be better when our children are dropping out of school daily, 5000 megawatts of power which was the situation in 2014 , still be the case in 2025.
How can experts , remove petroleum subsidy without a well thought out plan, float the national currency, increase tariffs and taxes across board, sparing no sector, maintaining the same salaries,wages and entitlements, meanwhile the same officials are freely spending frivolously, how? In the same breath the citizens are asked to remain patient.
How could our president vote money for solar powered system in Aso Villa ,after he promised the people electricity with no estimated bills. He even asked not to be voted for, if the public power situation does not improve significantly. Why should we be playing the ethnic card in 2025 ?
Why would blood be spilling everyday across the country, why would cattle life be more precious and valuable than human life.?
The massacres in Benue and plateau states in recent weeks have defied any kind of logic , why would a country that is not at war harbour so many internally displaced persons ?
Kidnapping for Ransome has become a huge business.
People whose only source of income is government are flying in jets worth billions of naira , while the citizens live in abject poverty, why ?
The coalition partners must redefine hope to save Nigeria, for the danger is real .
They must throw up new faces with new ideas and bold initiatives.
Integrity in our electoral system should be non negotiable, electronic transmission of results real time. INEC must take responsibility for whatever election results it declares. Its rules must not be ambiguous in any manner.
The national identification number (NIN) should replace the voters card.(PVC)
A comprehensive review of the Nigerian constitution and report of the 2014 confab resolutions should be reviewed and tabled before the national assembly.
For Nigeria to excell, it should be allowed to function as a proper federation, strictly according to the rule of law in relation to the different tiers of government
This is possible, as the coalition presents us with the opportunity after a 25 year democratic experiment, we should know better.