“Those who have been disappointed by President Buhari’s lackluster past seven years believe that Tinubu believes Nigerians should reward him for bringing us the worst disaster since the founding of this country. They argue that Nigerians will not reward him for the hunger, unemployment, killings, division, inflation, police brutality, kidnapping, corruption, and misery they have experienced over the past seven years. For the so-called giant of Africa, choosing the wrong person for the election could turn the country into a catastrophe.”
After the festive season, the focus in Nigeria is gradually turning to the February Presidential and legislative elections. The reason for this shift is to vote on who will run Nigeria’s affairs. The race will be between Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or Bola Tinubu of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) or Peter Obi of the Labor Party or Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). Now that Muhammadu Buhari is to step down after completing the maximum two terms of office allowed under the constitution, there is a feeling that his political party has failed to meet the needs of young, ambitious Nigerians.
There are two types of Nigeria in this contemporary era. The first is the Nigeria we often depict on television: the aging political bigwigs, the entrenched corrupt, and unreliable power drunk. On the other side of the spectrum is a Nigeria represented by visionary technocrats, tech innovators, globally admired writers, performers, and artists, and a vibrant younger generation that are hugely ambitious and well-connected via social media. Several among these second groups have yearned for leadership that will enhance their ambitions and abilities, but those in leadership have failed to develop their talents. The consequence is that they preferred to immigrate to other countries. It is easy to explain why the former dominates the political culture of Nigeria. It comprised the dominant role of a handful of influential men, often with a military career behind them. These retired army generals get involved in politics to prevent the army from staging a coup that would undermine democracy. Although we cannot deny anyone from participating in politics, Nigeria has become more stagnant with these retired generals than it was before. The established political parties are no longer working. The economy is unable to generate adequate growth. The obsession with oil has also failed to serve the interests of even the oil industry itself, with prominent oil companies pulling out of the Niger Delta, thus making the Nigerian crude output steadily decline. Corruption remains a massive problem. The state seems to do less to help the many talented young people in the country. As a result, living standards have stagnated even while sections of the economy have gained. When Buhari came to power in 2015, he promised to tackle insecurity, the economy, and corruption. Although he invested heavily in this regard, it is fair to say that he has failed on all three counts, with most services and infrastructure remaining sorely inadequate.
Less than two months into the presidential and legislative elections, potential candidates from several political parties are jostling to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as the president of Africa’s largest economy. They started by personalizing politics as a do-or-die affair. For example, recently, a veteran politician and former Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu, while speaking during a campaign in Ogun state, said it is his turn to lead Africa’s most populous nation. In a speech broadcast on local TV, Mr. Tinubu told a party meeting in Ogun state that he had supported Buhari seven years ago to become the president of Nigeria as long as he would contest the 2023 presidential election. In his word: it is my time; I am educated, experienced, and have served the nation for a long time. He appealed to people to grant him the presidency because it was his turn. While speaking to Nigerians, Tinubu reminded them that if not for his support of Buhari in the other elections, he (Buhari) would not have become the president. But throwing a swipe at Bola Tinubu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo described such a mentality as wrong. According to him, the ‘Emi Lokan’ (My turn) principles and ‘I have paid my dues’ are the wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now. For him, these slogans cannot form the new pedestal to reinvent and invest in a new Nigeria based on a Government for the liberation and restoration of Nigeria.
But Nigerians are unhappy with Bola Tinubu because of his comments about it being his turn to rule. Many took to social media and said that the presidency is not his inheritance, a thank-you gift, or a souvenir. For many, it is crazy how Bola Tinubu genuinely believes we should reward him with the presidency for ushering us into the worst president in the history of Nigeria. Those who have been disappointed by President Buhari’s lackluster past seven years believe that Tinubu believes Nigerians should reward him for bringing us the worst disaster since the founding of this country. They argue that Nigerians will not reward him for the hunger, unemployment, killings, division, inflation, police brutality, kidnapping, corruption, and misery they have experienced over the past seven years. Instead, they cannot wait to see an underdog slug it out and defeat these two political heavyweights. Who will win is very important for all of us. The outcome of this election will be crucial to the future of Nigeria as Nigeria’s population continues to increase. Experts have said Nigeria’s population will double over the next 30 years to 400 million. By this time, it will surpass the U. S. as the world’s third most populous country. A nation with an increased population and enormous talent ought to be an economic powerhouse. Instead, it is in deep trouble with about 90 million Nigerians living in abject poverty, two-thirds of its population lacking jobs with a life expectancy as low as 55. According to experts, all these issues are recipes for instability. In the northeast, the government made efforts to neutralize Boko Haram, but its efforts gave birth to another Jihadist movement, Islamic State West Africa Province. The instability caused by herders and bandits has made farmers stay away from their homes instead of returning home to work. Kidnapping for ransom has become a major moneymaking enterprise. The absence of economic prospects has pushed more people into it than before. Since 2015, the crash in oil prices has offered no solace or strength to our situation.
For the so-called giant of Africa, choosing the wrong person for the election could turn the country into a catastrophe. Above all, Nigeria needs fresh ideas and minds. The next administration needs to do better. It should turn its attention away from maximizing revenue from oil — something it has not done well anyway — to maximizing opportunities. That means removing all obstacles that prevent businesses from flourishing and providing public goods, from fundamental education and health to reliable power and a well-functioning justice system, which builds any nation successfully. Only with better systems will the grave security problems of Nigeria begin to fade. The shoots of a new kind of politics are visible. Nigeria needs a third political force that will flicker into life. The two main parties that have dominated power in the democratic era are machines lubricated by cash. An apparatus with such tendencies will unlikely field a candidate willing to take on vested interests. So unappealing was the choice in 2019 that only 35 percent of Nigerians bothered to vote. This time, it is vital that candidates emerge with a coherent strategy. Ordinary Nigerians must get involved. Politics in Nigeria is far too serious to fall to politicians with do-or-die motives alone. The question now is, what if the nation decided its governing leaders must come only from the richest and most influential of its families? What if those political leaders holding status and wealth are not only higher but growing faster than anybody else in Nigeria? What if, even though they wielded unrivaled influence, those leaders installed security on every strategic street corner? What if those leaders operated without counterbalancing competition, with no checks and balances? Most of us would find such a political system troubling because the noblest leaders will become tyrants if their reign is unchecked, just as democracy will degrade into mob rule if there are no constraints on popular power. A just government must emerge on a system of checks and balances. Beware of leaders who set aside constitutional rules by claiming the need for profit or security. But why ever would Nigeria consciously and willingly settle on a person so distasteful?
So, how should we choose our world leaders? For those who will listen, Marcus Cicero has important lessons to teach us about making a choice. Cicero would never have thought Christians would use his natural law concept. However, speaking on his notion, he firmly believed that divine rules of time and place guarantee fundamental freedoms to everyone and constrain how governments should behave. As scholars of Cicero carefully wrote: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that God created all people equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those who govern a country must possess courage, ability, and resolve. Therefore, true leaders should always put the interest of their nation above their own. They should be people of exceptional character and integrity. As Cicero says, governing a country is like steering a ship, especially when the storm winds begin to blow. If the captain cannot control a steady course, the voyage will end in disaster. We should choose someone who will keep his eyes on the ship. Leaders fail when they take their responsibility for granted. A president should never neglect his supporters but always understand what those who criticize him are saying. Our president must be someone who is not afraid to reach out to those who oppose him. Pride and stubbornness are luxuries we cannot afford. To govern a country like Nigeria, one must be the best, healthy, and knowledgeable of the land. As Cicero says, if leaders do not have a thorough knowledge of what they are talking about, their speeches will be a silly prattle of empty words, and their actions will be dangerously misguided. Cicero writes that in politics, it is irresponsible to take an unwavering stand when circumstances are consistently evolving. There are times to stand one’s ground, but frequently refusing to yield is a sign of weakness, not strength. Hence, the leader we want must not compromise the key to getting things done. Every country needs revenue to function, but Cicero declares that the objective of any government is to ensure people keep what belongs to them, not redistribute wealth.
On the other hand, he condemns the concentration of such wealth into the hands of the few and asserts that a country must provide essential services and security to its citizens. Our president must be someone who will not increase taxes for his selfish interest. He should be a person who, in making a decision, would consult in the interest of the country he serves. Rome grew from a small village to a mighty empire by welcoming new citizens into its territories as it spread across the Mediterranean. Even former slaves could become full-time voting members of society. New indigenes bring new energy and ideas to a country. Hence, our leader should be someone who welcomes strangers. Corruption is not merely a moral evil but a practical menace that leaves citizens at best disheartened, at worst seething with anger and ripe for revolution. We need a president who has track records. We need someone who is corruption free. Greed, bribery, and fraud devour a nation from the inside, leaving it weak and vulnerable. A person with these qualities will be able to tackle the menace of corruption and take us out of the cancer of corruption we are all experiencing. We call on the electorates (young people and the constructed group of intellectuals and civil servants) to vote for a trustworthy leader with their collective strength and power. Instead of looking only at the most powerful, we should seek those who are benevolent and wise, accepted not only by the privileged few but by the great majority of humanity, to be the leader of our great country.
Nigeria needs a new model of governance in which it builds its political leadership on the knowledge and competence of both political leaders and the electorate. One solution is to implement what Jason Brennan refers to as epistocracy, a system of governance in which the votes of politically informed citizens should count more than the less informed. For Justin Klocksiem, epistocracy is a political system in which political power rests exclusively on highly educated citizens. This idea drew its philosophical influence from John Stuart Mill, who believed that a nation should accord eligibility to vote to individuals who satisfy particular educational criteria. The notion that educational attainment should be the prerequisite for the electorate to choose their leaders, as proposed by Brennan, Klocksiem, and Mill, is an essential proposition we should take seriously. However, one cannot ignore that such thinking originates from societies where civic education is high, while electorates can make informed choices about leadership. In Nigeria, the majority of citizens are uneducated on political issues. Simultaneously, those highly educated are increasingly becoming indifferent to political participation; they have lost faith in their votes and the political system. For an epistocratic system to work in Nigeria, there must be significant improvements in literacy levels so that citizens are educated about the issues and can use their knowledge to make informed decisions about Nigeria’s political future. Today, Nigeria is grappling with governance challenges orchestrated by two decades of a failed democratic project. Governing these challenges requires knowledgeable leaders and an equally informed electorate. Like any new experiment, there are concerns about the viability of epistocracy as a political system, particularly in a Nigerian context fraught with ethnoreligious and political challenges. But Nigeria will only have effective governance when it saddles the right people with the responsibility to govern. However, change cannot be spontaneous. The implementation of an epistocratic system of government in the Nigerian context must be incremental, bearing in mind that Nigeria’s democracy is still evolving. Like many other things, many elections we have labeled democratic have no democratic qualities. The reason is that those elections are often based on a do-or-die affair. Elections based on a “do or die” attitude will allow corrupt politicians to present dishonest candidates for their own benefit. When we trade like this, we drive the country to extreme levels of injustice and inequality.
Rev. Ma, S.J, is a Jesuit Catholic priest and PhD candidate in public and social policy at St. Louis University in the state of Missouri, USA.
