OUR economic discourse obsessively tracks GDP figures but fails to analyse the standard of living in real terms. Similarly, we pay very little attention to the average Nigerian’s emotional wellbeing in a system where it is virtually impossible to achieve anything without a high level of resources or connections. We talk about attracting foreign direct investment but fail to analyse why it doesn’t seem to have an impact on the lives of ordinary people.

Nigerian culture could be our greatest export, it could also be a way to positively engage communities in telling their own stories through the creative use of mass media

I recently saw a documentary exploring the rise of Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (a 28 year old congresswoman) as well as other candidates who ran for Senate or House of Representatives positions during the 2018 United States elections.

IN conversations with the Nigerian elite, one is sure to hear complaints about the constant calls and appeals they receive from less well-off friends, family or even strangers asking for help with this or that urgent matter.

The system is rigged against the average Nigerian. By saying this, one runs the risk of being labeled a populist. Yet, many of the states where violence and insecurity occur in Nigeria often have the highest poverty indices or the most job losses.

ALL manner of “activists” crawl out of the woodworks to make vague, empty statements (and this isn’t to say they don’t have a right to criticize government’s performance) but one wonders where many of these new voices were when things truly started to fall apart. It’s easy for the middle-class to join the bandwagon and cry out in alarm over the insecurity and violence in Nigeria, the state of the economy, etc. But the reality is today’s armchair activists either did not have the intellectual depth to realise (and therefore oppose) Nigeria’s gradual shift from production to consumption, or they benefitted in no small measure from a said move which also came with state-sponsored benefits and patronage for a small elite.

According to the World Bank, the Nigerian economy has been “slipping” since 1995. Interestingly, a majority of newspapers chose the headline “Nigeria’s economy slips” which mischievously tells a vastly different story from the World Bank’s original submission. Recently, Bloomberg published an editorial telling President Muhammadu Buhari to focus on economic growth in his second term. That statement appears logical until one begins to question what sort of growth pundits refer to.

OUR fundamental problem in Nigeria isn’t the quality of our elections, our problem lies at the heart of our understanding of democracy: up until recently, we had no institutionalized forms of welfare or commitment to equality and social justice.

When will Nigerians be rid of politicians without ideology, who simply go from appointment to appointment, or from party to party, producing nothing, leaving no impact yet expecting to survive at all cost? Beyond our obsession over the “low voter turnout,” these are the questions we should be asking ourselves.

A NUMBER of analysts and gender activists bemoan the low number of female political representatives in Nigeria (only six women won or retained their Senate seats in the just concluded 2019 general elections). However, beyond this appalling statistic, I am more concerned by the policies senators champion, no matter their gender.

ONE hears the often-repeated assertion that politics in our country is rarely if ever based on any real ideology. While this appears true on the surface, the just concluded 2019 Presidential election shows a seismic shift many are yet to reckon with. President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 elections with a margin of 2,571,759 votes and in 2019, he did so again with 3,928,869 votes, meaning an additional 1,357,110 more Nigerians decided to support him. Why? A new understanding of income inequality took centre stage, in a country where the increasing number of private jets was once mistaken for “evidence” the Nigerian economy was doing well.

THE outcome of this election has revealed a division of public opinion on class lines: Looking at the electoral map, it seems President Muhammadu Buhari lost in many areas with a high concentration of affluent Nigerians and won in zones with a higher number of underprivileged people.

OUR contemporary national life and politics is a continuation of a disastrous trend etched out during colonisation. Why was Africa colonised? The short answer: competition between European nations in the late nineteenth century, juxtaposed with economic depression in Europe. Europe needed both natural resources and markets for its products. For the avoidance of doubt, Africa wasn’t colonised because it was “inferior” or needed to become “civilised” through the “kind” efforts of its colonial masters.

THIS question should be of particular interest to Nigerians as we prepare to vote in yet another election. Nigerian governments have traditionally taken a very conservative stance on social issues, choosing to support private businesses belonging to their associates over ordinary people: rather than attempt to fix the structural conditions enabling poverty, the choice has often been to pretend, for example, that foreign direct investment, FDI, alone can lift Nigerians out of poverty.

LAST week Kadaria Ahmed, host of “The candidates” interviewed PDP Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi with interesting results. Atiku said corruption is “the use of your privileged position to enrich yourself, your relatives or friends”. Interestingly, during a business summit in Lagos recently, he said, on live television: “I am not going to enrich members of my family but my friends.”