The biggest threat to Nigeria’s future democracy is the industrialisation of the entire political system.
It seems that politics and political victories often take precedence over efficiency and effectiveness in governance.
While politicians constantly think of how to win the next elections, hospitals do not have enough beds to cater for the sick, schools do not have enough teachers and classrooms to cater for the pupils.
Inflation became a factor of attacks and counterattacks by the ruling and opposition parties, respectively, as opposed to providing a more holistic solution to the problem that affects the whole and not a part of the body polity.
Security of lives and property becomes an asset of weight and measures from both sides. Where opposition actively wishes for more insecurity to increase the probability of their electoral victory. Lives are no longer sacred but some scores on the ballot boxes.
Even infrastructure investments are perceived through the political rather than strategic lenses. Everything becomes about who gets what, not what gets done.
The whole thing is not seeming to be working for the common people, but more like an egotistical contest.
Victory serves the interests of the ego rather than the interests of the general well-being of the country. This is not good at all.
The best schools in Nigeria are built by foreigners, yet we have trillions of naira budget for the education ministry in addition to huge budgets by the states.
Best hospitals in Nigeria are mostly run by foreigners, yet we have trillions of budget for our health ministry and huge amounts for the states.
Someone told me that the whole Nizamiye hospital investment would not cost more than 20 million dollars, yet we are collecting $300 million dollars loan from the World Bank to cater for the “resilience of the IDP”, perhaps making IDPs a more permanent system, rather than putting them back to normality.
Imagine using the same amount of money, $300M for hospitals, we could get the 10 best hospitals in Nigeria. But everyone with the opportunity would rather travel abroad, spend millions on their healthcare, then collect loans only for the IDPs, rather than hospitals in Nigeria.
While we are struggling to achieve food security and food sufficiency, 44.4% of Nigerians cannot afford the needed calories per day. While farms are drying up, politicians are struggling to change their money into dollars and invest abroad for the benefit of foreign nations.
The whole system is rigged. It is not about PDP or APC or ADC or LP; the whole system needs a comprehensive overhaul.
The next generation of Nigerians needs to tell ourselves the brutal truth and begin to work towards a more honest and efficient system. This is not working for us today and would certainly be worse for our future.
You and your boss may be in power today, but I assure you that no matter how much you stole, it won’t last you a generation. The system is replenished with such examples over and over again. Trust me, no one will escape the consequences of inefficiency. No one. Not even YOU.
We must either reengineer a working system for the country, or we should accept that we may not have a standing country within few decades to come.
