Nigeria is technically a one-party state with the APC controlling 29 out of Nigeria’s 36 states, while the PDP leads four states and the Labour Party, Accord Party, and APGA all govern one state, respectively. This essay could also have been titled: the death of opposition as a metaphor for state capture. Joining the ruling party comes with its perks: unending opportunities to eat at the table, past sins (corruption cases) are easily forgiven, and unlimited access to a war chest, financial and otherwise.
The current Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was at the forefront of the 12th June 1993 democratic struggle, but his current stint as president hasn’t won him many new admirers based on his acclaimed role in the botched restoration of MKO Abiola’s mandate. First, the 2023 presidential election that brought him in was mired in controversy. The electoral umpire had failed to upload the presidential election results in real-time to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) machine because of a technical glitch and had announced a winner to an election that was deeply contested by the opposition and riddled with many altered results, even on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s portal.
Second, to evaluate the fight for the 12th June 1993 mandate, I would say some of those who were at the forefront of the struggle only hated the fact that they were not the oppressors. With some of those figures now leading the Nigerian state in various capacities, the country is worse off by all economic and sociopolitical indexes than before the herald of this democratic dispensation.
The Nigerian politician’s first mandate is to win elections at all costs and damn the consequences. Then they tell the opposition to go to COURT, because going to court is synonymous with a fait accompli – a ritual with a predetermined outcome. Thereafter, they organise a thanksgiving to the Nigerian god who delights in election rigging and many other atrocities too many to mention.
Nigerian democrazy can be explained differently; a government formed by the best election riggers. Who needs the people to win elections when we can snatch ballot boxes, thumbprint ballot papers, write or alter results, buy off voters and use the national treasury to serve personal interests. Then follow up to rule through a well-oiled propaganda machine.
I have a theory about the Nigerian ruling class since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999. We have lacked selfless leaders, leaders who care about leaving an enduring legacy more than the fleeting allure of power. When a nation produces leaders who are poor in character, the way Nigeria does, the result is our present-day reality. Leaders afflicted with the incurable disease of self-interest. Who needs to think about nationhood when we can amass wealth for generations unborn? Who needs credible elections when we can rig our way in and subvert the people’s will? After all, everyone will stand on our stolen mandate.
We have now discovered new ways to win elections, create chaos and crises within opposition ranks, besides the guaranteed methods of vote buying, ballot box snatching, and other electoral malpractices that scream malfeasance.
As a writer who is based in the diaspora, being Nigerian is a rollercoaster of emotions, a duality of sorts, wearing the Nigerian badge with pride and the detachment that comes with the hubris that Nigerian politics and politicians represent. The consolation, maybe we deserve the leaders we get. After all, those leaders are a part of us; they reflect the Nigerian people and the decay in our society.
In the coming elections, the apostles of democrazy are starving the opposition of oxygen; they will snuff out whatever life is left in them before they swallow them like hot Amala and Ewedu.
In conclusion, Nigeria is technically a one-party state, and we are the ashes of bad governance.
Photo by David Rotimi on Unsplash