Political Feature
By Chukwudi George Ozalla
Nigeria is barely a year away from another general election cycle, with February 2027 already looming large in the national consciousness. As has become customary, the political atmosphere is thickening with early manoeuvres. Consultations are multiplying. Former office holders are resurfacing. Incumbents are suddenly more visible among the people. Empowerment programmes are being announced. Bags of rice, scholarships, medical outreaches and token cash gifts are making their familiar rounds. To the casual observer, democracy appears to be alive and active. To the seasoned electorate, it is the opening act of a long and predictable drama whose ending is already known.
The deeper question, which Nigerians rarely pause to interrogate honestly, is this. What do the electorates truly gain from this cycle after the votes are counted and the celebrations fade. Beyond slogans, beyond promises, beyond charity driven politics, what has improved structurally in the lives of the people election after election. The uncomfortable answer is that for a large majority, life has steadily worsened, governance has become more detached from public interest, and the distance between campaign rhetoric and lived reality has grown wider with each administration.
Nigeria’s democratic experience since 1999 has been defined more by regression than progress. Each government arrives with lofty promises of reform, national rebirth and economic revival. Each one departs leaving behind deeper debt, weaker institutions, and a more cynical population. The current administration did not invent this pattern, but it has deepened it in ways that are both striking and troubling.
Chinua Achebe observed that the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. That statement remains painfully relevant. Leadership failure in Nigeria is not merely about incompetence. It is about a governing class that treats power as entitlement rather than public trust. It is about a political culture that rewards loyalty over capacity, noise over substance, and survival over service.
The progressive failure of government is evident in how each administration leaves the country more fragile than it met it. Security has deteriorated steadily. From communal clashes to insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and urban crime, the state has increasingly lost control of its most basic responsibility. Economic hardship has intensified. Inflation has wiped out wages. Food prices have climbed beyond the reach of ordinary households. Young people graduate into a labour market that has little use for their skills and even less concern for their dignity.
Yet during elections, the same political actors responsible for these conditions return to ask for renewed mandates. They speak of continuity, reform and renewed hope. The electorate, worn down by survival pressures, often accepts these narratives, sometimes out of desperation, sometimes out of fear, and sometimes out of ethnic or religious loyalty.
Barefaced deceit has become normalised in Nigerian politics. Manifestos are treated as ceremonial documents rather than commitments. Promises are made without timelines and without consequence. When they fail, excuses are supplied with ease. The previous administration is blamed. Global conditions are blamed. Opposition sabotage is blamed. The people are rarely offered honest accountability.
What makes the situation more troubling is that each government does not only fail on its own record. It weakens the very institutions meant to protect the public interest. Agencies that should check executive power are compromised through patronage or intimidation. Legislatures often surrender oversight in exchange for political comfort. Anti corruption institutions are applied selectively, punishing adversaries while shielding allies.
Election manipulation has evolved rather than disappeared. From vote buying to voter suppression, from result tampering to abuse of state institutions, elections are treated as battles to be won at all costs. Violence, intimidation and legal manipulation have become routine tools for retaining power.
Wole Soyinka warned that the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny. In Nigeria, silence has been replaced by resignation. Many citizens no longer believe their votes matter. Others believe resistance is dangerous. This apathy benefits the political class. A disengaged electorate is easier to control than an informed and united one.
The role of the electorate in this democratic decay cannot be ignored. Nigerians are deeply divided against themselves. Ethnic, religious and regional identities are weaponised during elections. Instead of demanding competence and integrity, many voters retreat into identity politics. This fragmentation ensures that accountability remains elusive.
This division is not accidental. It is cultivated. Politicians inflame differences to distract from failure. When governance collapses, blame is shifted to imagined enemies. When policies hurt the people, emotional narratives are deployed. The result is a society too divided to confront the real source of its suffering.
Opposition politics, which should offer alternatives and accountability, is almost non existent at the national level under the current administration. Rather than standing as a coherent ideological force, opposition parties are fragmented and compromised. Defections are frequent. Principles are negotiable. Silence is rewarded.
Obafemi Awolowo once said that politics is a serious business. In Nigeria today, politics has become performance without responsibility. Opposition leaders spend more time negotiating personal survival than articulating policy alternatives. Some are weakened through legal pressure. Others are absorbed into the ruling structure through patronage. Democracy suffers when choice disappears.
The crisis within the opposition is driven by both external pressure and internal decay. The ruling party benefits from fragmentation and quietly exploits it. At the same time, opposition leaders undermine themselves through ambition, lack of ideology and absence of internal democracy.
As 2027 approaches, Nigerians are once again being courted with promises and performances. Projects will be announced. Appointments will be shared. Empowerment schemes will multiply. The cycle will repeat unless the electorate chooses disruption over comfort.
Nigeria is not short of ideas, talent or resources. It is short of political will and civic unity. Until voters demand performance rather than charity, governance will remain transactional. Until elections are genuinely competitive, leaders will feel no pressure to govern well. Until opposition parties rediscover purpose and courage, power will continue to concentrate.
The coming election is not just about who wins. It is about whether Nigerians are ready to confront uncomfortable truths about their democracy. It is about whether silence will continue to be mistaken for peace. Achebe warned that a people who accept bad governance should not be surprised when it becomes normal. Nigeria stands at that point again.
Publisher Editor-in-Chief, NEWSCOUNT
