An Oblong Media Global Exposé
There is something fundamentally wrong with a country where a man leaves home before sunrise, works until nightfall and still cannot feed his family properly. Something is even more wrong when we begin to accept this as normal.
Nigeria is simply too rich for Nigerians to be this poor.
As of January 2026, Nigeria had about 37 billion barrels of crude oil and condensate reserves and more than 215 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Add our enormous agricultural potential, solid minerals, Atlantic coastline, huge domestic market and a population of more than 230 million people, and you begin to understand the absurdity of the Nigerian situation.
We are not a country without resources. We are a country that has consistently failed to convert its resources into prosperity for its people.
The World Bank estimated that about 63% of Nigerians were living below the national poverty line in 2025 and projected roughly 141 million Nigerians living in poverty in 2026. Long before that, Nigeria’s own National Bureau of Statistics reported 133 million people as multidimensionally poor in 2022.
Nakwa echecki.
Just negodu.
One of Africa’s greatest concentrations of oil and gas wealth sits underneath a country where well over 100 million people are poor.
That should make every Nigerian angry, irrespective of political party.
Instead, something strange has happened to us. We have become so accustomed to hardship that we are beginning to mistake suffering for reform.
Petrol goes up. Food goes up. Transportation goes up. Electricity goes up. Rent goes up. School fees go up. The purchasing power of salaries falls. Families cut meals, postpone medical treatment and withdraw children from schools they can no longer afford.
Then someone appears on television and tells Nigerians to be patient because “the reforms are working.”
Reforms may indeed be necessary. Nigeria had serious structural problems that required difficult decisions, and there have been improvements in some macroeconomic indicators. But reform cannot exist permanently on spreadsheets while the human beings supposedly benefiting from it become progressively poorer.
At some point, reform must arrive at the dining table.
It must become affordable food, electricity, jobs, functioning hospitals, decent schools, security, transportation, housing and purchasing power. Otherwise, what exactly are we reforming?
Nigeria does not have to become Dubai. That comparison is often misunderstood. The lesson from places such as Dubai is not skyscrapers or luxury shopping malls. The lesson is what deliberate leadership can do when natural resource wealth is converted into infrastructure, ports, aviation, tourism, investment, enterprise and a functioning society.
Oil does not automatically make citizens prosperous. Leadership and institutions determine what oil becomes.
In one country, natural resources can become roads, hospitals, universities, electricity and sovereign wealth. In another, the same resources can become political patronage, corruption, abandoned projects and unexplained fortunes.
That is the real Nigerian tragedy.
And now another election is approaching.
Before 2027, Nigerians need to understand that an election is not a football match. APC, PDP, Labour, ADC, NDC or whatever party you support is not Manchester United or Arsenal. A political party does not deserve lifetime loyalty simply because you have always supported it.
Your loyalty should be to yourself, your children and Nigeria.
Stop asking whether the candidate is your brother, tribesman, church member, Muslim, Christian or party man. Ask what that person has actually accomplished. What has he successfully managed? What happened the last time he occupied public office? Where are the roads? Where are the hospitals? Where are the schools? Where are the jobs? Where is the security? Where is the evidence that he understands how an economy creates wealth?
Most importantly, ask yourself one very simple question: Did my life improve under this person’s leadership?
One of the strangest things about Nigerian politics is watching poor people quarrelling and insulting one another in defence of politicians who are considerably richer and more comfortable than they are.
The politician moves around with a convoy while you struggle with transport fares. His children receive excellent education while you negotiate school fees. He can obtain first class medical treatment while your family raises money on WhatsApp for surgery. His house has generators, solar panels and inverters while you complain about electricity.
Yet somebody criticises him and suddenly you become his unpaid public relations officer.
Why?
The politician will survive the criticism. The more important question is whether you will survive his governance.
There is nothing patriotic about unnecessary suffering. Reform sometimes hurts, but there must be a destination. There must be measurable results, timelines and accountability. You cannot operate endlessly on a patient and continue shouting that the operation was successful while the patient is dying.
And that is why 2027 matters.
A politician may give you ₦10,000 or a bag of rice during an election. The rice may last one week. The money may disappear tomorrow. The campaign music will stop, posters will come down and the convoys will disappear.
But the person you help elect will influence the price of your food, transportation, electricity, security, healthcare, education and economic opportunities for the next four years.
Think about that transaction.
A bag of rice in exchange for four years of your life.
Nigeria does not lack brilliant people. We do not lack entrepreneurs. We do not lack natural resources. We certainly do not lack hardworking citizens.
What we have repeatedly lacked is leadership equal to the enormous possibilities of this country and a citizenry sufficiently determined to punish failure at the ballot box.
Nobody is coming from Washington, London, Beijing or anywhere else to choose good Nigerian leaders for us. We will make that choice ourselves, and we will live with the consequences ourselves.
So when 2027 comes, don’t vote because somebody speaks your language. Don’t vote because your political godfather instructed you. Don’t vote because somebody handed you food or money. Don’t defend failure because the person responsible belongs to your party.
Look at your bank account.
Look at your electricity bill.
Look at the price of petrol.
Look at your children’s school fees.
Look at your food bill.
Look at your roads.
Look at your hospital.
Look at the security around you.
Then vote.
Because Nigeria is too rich for Nigerians to be this poor.
We cannot continue making the same political choices and then act surprised when we receive the same consequences.
Your vote may take only minutes to cast. The consequences last four years, and sometimes your children inherit them.
Duruebube Chimazuru Nnadi-Oforgu
For
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE
Independent.
Unapologetic.
Nigeria First.
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