NIGERIA, A MONARCHICHAL APPARATUS by Mafu SHABA

  The game of Nigerian politics is getting hotter by the day. Is it actually a game? No! It was a game before now; maybe in the early sixties, in the formative years of Nigeria as a country when the sane and the sage were involved in the construction and the reconstruction of an entity called Nigeria. In the process of time, the game has metamorphosed into a trade and war. A trade by batter where cash is exchanged for conscience. The resultant effect being a mortgaged future of the target audience who are the already impoverished, and drenched in life-wrenching experiences. It is a war fought by the conspiratorial elites against the deceived and docile populace which constitute their booty of war. It is a war of attrition armed viciously on tramping on the consciences of the sufferers with cash being the major arsenal, an irresistible condiment to the famished populace who are laced with programmed poverty. It is another war fought in the theatre of those who have spent and may be schemed out among the elites.  It is a vendetta by snuffing life out of the perceived or real opponents, the instruments of war this time is the army of the energetic unemployed who like a baited fish sink its gills in a deadly hook. Their lives are wasted as well as those who are the major targets of vendetta. The picture is a recurrent decimal at every election period in Nigeria.

Close to a year gone by now, no serious governance has taken place among the two of the three tiers of government in Nigeria. These are the Federal and State governments. The Local Government, the third tier of government are grossly handicapped. It is an appendage of the State Government, so they are not relevant in political discourse save that they the cows that are milked for the financial fortunes of the States that host them.

 Nigeria is broiling for general elections in 2023. This involves election into the highly esteemed seat of the President of the country, and into the two national Houses of Parliament - the House of Senate and the House of Representatives. Most States will be going into gubernatorial and Houses of Assembly elections. In fact, it is an election season. Very soon, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will clear the political atmosphere for campaigns in Nigeria. For now, it is the conduct of primary elections to choose various candidates who will stand to contest with other candidates of other political parties to determine who becomes what, in the final analysis, in the national political space. The final conclusion of all these will come to bear in 2023 general elections.

For the political parties to successfully elect a candidate who would be the standard bearer of the party, each party would choose its system of primary election; that is, they would choose between direct or indirect primaries. In direct primaries, all eligible voters within the political party would queue to elect their candidates but in indirect primaries, delegates would elect the candidates of the various parties. This is like electoral college in a Parliamentary system. It is one of the avenues for the elites to sell Nigeria by buying of votes.

The elites who have ‘ruled impeccably well, and preserved our common heritage and patrimony without any iota of corruption issues’ are coming back in full force to continue their divine assignment of governance. These politicians must burrow holes like earthworms to get the ticket by all means. For instance, the former Governor of Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria, Mr. Ayodele Fayose is gunning for the presidency under the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party. Meanwhile his son, Joju Fayose has already secured the ticket to run for the House of Representatives under the same party. He will represent Ekiti Central Federal Constituency 1, if he wins in the general election. This is not new, anyway. It is just adding to the catalogue of those making Nigeria a Monarchy, by extension of their selfish and greedy political ambitions. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, is also gunning for the Presidency, he will meet his wife, Mrs. Remi Tinubu, who has been a Federal Senator for quite a number of years now. So, husband is the President and the wife an ‘eternal’ lawmaker. In Delta State, former Governor of the State, James Onanefe Ibori has pleaded with Deltans to vote for his daughter, Erhiatake Ibori Suenu who is gunning for the House of Representatives. She will represent Ethiope West federal constituency. She will continue to make the Ibori family politically relevant in Delta State. This is how governance goes in Nigeria. It is now by heritage, graduating into monarchism.

More intriguing in this parade is the manner in which these contestants secured their tickets. For instance, in Kogi State, it was alleged that some aspirants into the House of Representatives shared motor-cycles worth N370,000 to each delegate, some got deep freezers worth N120,000 while others received $200 each. An aspirant was even alleged to have shared N500,000 to some delegates. Meanwhile, a new dimension was said to have been added to the vote-buying, the buying of Nigeria by the elites family. In another dimension, it was alleged that a representative who contested for the House of Representatives under the PDP gave a computerized pen to each delegate to vote for him. Unknown to the delegates, the pen which would be used to write his name as they voted for him, automatically records the name of the contestant on it. This was to ascertain who actually voted for him or not. But to his chagrin and anger of the contestant, some of the beneficiaries did not vote for him, therefore the pen did not record his name on it. He therefore, in an unfeigned anguish and anger, collected back his pens from the deviants. About fourteen of those who defaulted returned the pens - by force, with the accompanying N500,000 each earlier attached to the pens.

The question is how did they get all these monies, especially those who are civil servants? Why are they so desperate to get to that seat? What is so special in being a “Servant-Master” that should command such desperation if not that these people are set to finally ruin this country with untamable corruption? Local newspapers are currently inundated with the story of how former NIMASA  boss, Basiru Jamoh has allegedly looted the sum of N1.5 Trillion, $9 Million, while an Oyo-born Ex-Accountant General of the Federation,  Otunla  has allegedly refunded  the sum of N6.3 Billion to avoid prosecution. Meanwhile, the recent Accountant-General of the Federation also, Ahmed Idris, who is currently under suspension has been accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of looting the sum of N80 Billion. All the aforementioned are civil servants. Only God knows how much these present crops of politicians who are even ready to exchange their private parts for votes would embezzle if they eventually get to these exalted and coveted political positions.

 Nigeria has been shared by the politicians who are running this country. It is now run like a monarchy where each ruler steals for himself and his generations unborn, while those visibly living could go to Hell for all they care. Each State is ruled by a particular family of Descendants. Which way, Nigeria? Which way, the electorates?