The ‘new and improved’ trouble with Nigeria | by Ayo Sogunro

"Certainly, Achebe is right: we have a failure of leadership. But what we are rarely told, from primary school to adulthood, is that we also have a ‘success of followership’. Most Nigerians of my generation and after have been taught to follow, to conform, and to revere the wisdom of existing political leadership."

- Ayo Sogunro -

 

 

(Ayo Sogunro) - "Political news in Nigeria is generally depressing. This is not because it is bad news – which it mostly is – but because it is, tiringly and achingly, an endless torrent of reality show drama featuring politicians and their antics. There is no political discourse, no ideological direction, and no intellectual proposals. Our news is either just politicians fighting politicians or politicians reconciling with politicians; it is a hot mess of political gossip and low drama where every issue starts with an ego tussle and ends with a power struggle.

In the rare instances that governance issues take the stage, they are merely used as self-aggrandising props by political leaders or wielded as score-keeping tabs against their predecessors and opposition. Although our leaders decry corruption, they do not honestly engage the causes of corruption as it involves ordinary people – such as poverty, burdensome laws, and general desperation to survive. Instead, they think of corruption in relation to their political opponents.  Similarly, they hardly engage the scope and limits of the rights of ordinary citizens, instead they complain about abuse of power by their rivals when it affects them.

They do not reflect on insecurity as an issue destroying  real human lives, but as a game plan to make the country ungovernable for them. Nigerian politics has long ceased to be a conversation about the people and the ideas that best represent their interests. Instead, our politics continues to be a drama about politicians and what affects them. Meanwhile, ordinary Nigerians are compelled to watch this horror show, captive audiences of a serial killer nation."

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