By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

It’s the fart of the same excreta we have been feeding on. The Igbo say, from the fart, the taste of the poo can be deduced. Nothing might change. In all likelihood, our president will still patronize foreign hospitals. We lack a basic sense of shame. The leading presidential candidates haven’t hidden it.

Yet we defend them with all our might. So the practice will continue regardless. They have had the opportunity to build world-class hospitals. They didn’t. The new budgets will come with beautiful names, and so much will be voted for the state house clinic, but the new president and his family will waste our resources in foreign hospitals treating sore throats and mundane ailments. 

Our political culture will not change. You can bet on that. The two leading candidates aren’t capable of instigating any cultural or political revolution. They are too entrenched in the old system, too feeble to reinvent themselves. They are too calcified for any metamorphosis. Their hearts no longer throb with passion.

So the major political parties will remain bolekajas for grabbing power and cornering privileges. They will have no ideologies. They will have no governing principles. They might churn out new slogans and hire new dissolute attack dogs. But they will remain what they are: soulless. All, cloak-and-dagger.

Nothing might change. There is neither a Sankara nor a Lee Kuan Yew amongst the top two. Definitely, no Aminu Kano. To bring about the social paradigm shift we need, the leader must represent a new beginning. He can be old wine in an old bottle, but he must at least profess a new lifestyle that espouses moral values and recognizes the sufferings of the masses. He must possess some capacity to mobilize the citizenry and infuse the poor with hope. A tired old politician, incapable of new dreams, might struggle in vain.

What will change? The two leading candidates have no moral authority to lead any serious war against corruption. Who amongst the leading two can hurt corruption if President Buhari couldn’t make the monster bleed? Though the war would rely heavily on institutions and systems, but the leader must inspire the populace to be able to build the requisite institutions.

Some say thieves might be good at crafting traps to dissuade and catch thievery. Nice argument. Others say corruption has become so entrenched we must concentrate resources on productivity. Interesting. That could be pragmatic too. But it tells how low we have sunk. In 2015, we had tangible hopes for Change. Now, we think immediate Change is too big a task.

In all likelihood, vote-buying will continue. We saw the presidential primaries. Nothing changed. The two leading politicians are not our best examples of principled politicking. They seem to care a little more about winning than reforming the process. So nothing might change. Well, they might institute more transparent processes, but they won’t hold their supporters back from undermining them. Perhaps, they are the average Nigerian politician. And that’s the problem. On nearly all fronts, we are being led by average ideas. 

The average Nigerian politician in thought and morality cannot redeem the country. There must be a sea change in how we do politics and run governments. The average Nigerian politician cares more about self-survival, self-aggrandizement, and partisan and sectional advantages than national growth. The average Nigerian politician will rule for eight years, perhaps, but by 2031, Nigeria will be worse than it was in 2023. Because under the average Nigerian politician, the nation will flounder and be applauded for making strides. Honesty and hard work will be relegated by opportunism and cronyism. We will celebrate mediocrity noisily. 

The word has been abused, but we need Change. 

If we end up with any of the top two, we must find a fiery and formidable opposition. The opposition we need must have control of some states where it can walk its talk. A vibrant civil society will be crucial. But the political opposition must offer more than acerbic criticisms. It must show in practical ways how that nation ought to be run.

That is why we must pray that four or more parties win at the state level. Otherwise, we must think out of the box. A national opposition that operates like a sanctimonious civil society organization cannot instigate fundamental Change. A national opposition that runs its own states parasitically while parroting campaign promises will only encourage the indolence and prebendalism of a ruling party. 

2023 is here. The campaigns are about to start. The rhetoric hasn’t changed. Preoccupation with small things and bickerings have taken centre stage. Nobody has asked anybody how a nation-liquidating petrol subsidy can be removed without a national upheaval. It will require the extreme trust of the suffering people in the new leadership. An average politician doesn’t deserve that degree of trust.

Because he can’t show with his life and the lives of the members of his family and friends that he understands the plight of the wretchedly poor. The campaigns are about to start. Large campaign councils peopled by the same old politicians and rent seekers are being formed. The leading candidates have no new messages, no new ideas. They want to depend on those they will hire. They have no more than hollow soundbites and threadbare slogans. They are not convincing. 

Something has to give. Or 2023 will usher in more of the same. The people are riven by ethnic, sectional and religious sentiments into hopeless ineffectual fractions. One day suffering will unite them. Something has to give. If the leaders continue borrowing to finance their opulent lifestyles; if the leaders continue their now weekly junkets to Europe for medical and merriment reasons; if the leaders continue the naked assault on the sensibilities of famished people, something will give. 

One day na one day!