There is a lesson about human behaviour that applies just as strongly to politics:
You cannot fix someone who refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem.
Increasingly, I wonder whether this is one of Nigeria’s greatest tragedies.
Every election cycle, some of us warn, write, analyse, expose incompetence, question candidates and demand accountability. We remind people about abandoned roads, collapsing schools, dysfunctional hospitals, unemployment, insecurity, poverty and the absence of basic infrastructure.
We explain that politics is not entertainment, elections are not tribal competitions, and parties are merely platforms. What matters is the competence, character, capacity and record of the individual seeking power.
Yet election after election, millions return to the same behaviour that produced the misery they complain about.
A bag of rice arrives. A few thousand naira changes hands. Tribal, religious and sectional sentiments are activated. Party slogans return. People who have suffered for four years forget why they were suffering, and vote accordingly.
Months later, the complaints begin again: no jobs, roads, electricity, water or healthcare; children sitting on classroom floors; graduates without opportunities; businesses suffocating under poor infrastructure; young people desperate to leave the country.
Then another four year cycle of anger begins.
At what point do we admit that leadership is only part of the Nigerian problem?
Politicians do not elect themselves. Somebody votes for them, defends them, campaigns for them, collects money for them and attacks those who question them. Sometimes, the people suffering most fiercely defend the political arrangements responsible for their suffering.
This is the uncomfortable lesson:
You cannot rescue people who refuse to recognise their own role in the cycle.
People like me can continue writing, shouting, presenting evidence and challenging governors, senators, representatives and local government officials. But ultimately, the voter must want change badly enough to change the way he votes.
If you sell four years of your future for ₦10,000, do the arithmetic. That is roughly ₦6.85 per day over four years, your children’s education, healthcare, roads, security, employment opportunities, electricity, community development and future exchanged for the price of a small meal.
By all means, if politicians bring money, take it. But inside the polling booth, remember that your vote is secret.
Take their money if you must, but vote for your future.
Vote for competence, capacity, character and the candidate with the clearest programme for your community, regardless of political party.
APC will not educate your child. PDP will not repair your road merely because you shouted its slogan. ADC, NDC, Labour or any other party will not put food on your table simply because you wore its colours.
Human beings govern. Parties are platforms.
Interrogate the human being. What has he built? What has she managed? What problems have they solved? What did they accomplish before seeking power? What exactly are they promising? Most importantly:
Do they possess the competence to deliver it?
Nigeria cannot continue doing the same thing every four years and expect a different country.
Those of us who keep sounding the alarm must also understand that we cannot want progress more desperately than the people we are trying to awaken. We cannot force political consciousness upon people determined to remain politically unconscious, or spend our lives warning those who repeatedly walk towards the same cliff.
Still, we must continue speaking, not because everybody will listen, but because silence would make us accomplices. History must never be able to say that nobody warned them.
So I will continue to speak, question and challenge incompetence wherever I see it. But ultimately, Nigeria will change only when Nigerians change what they reward at the ballot box.
Leadership follows incentives. When incompetence stops winning elections, politicians will stop presenting it. When voters stop rewarding empty rhetoric, politicians will bring ideas. When handouts stop buying loyalty, politicians will have to offer development. When citizens demand measurable performance, parties will be forced to present better candidates.
The revolution Nigeria desperately needs may begin with something remarkably simple: a voter standing alone inside a polling booth and refusing to repeat yesterday’s mistake.
We cannot keep voting for yesterday and praying for tomorrow.
At some point, the voter must become the change he keeps demanding from government.
Nigeria has been warned enough.
2027 must be about choices, and choices have consequences.
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