Although the political campaign for the 2023 elections is officially yet to commence later in the month, the hot race to Aso Rock Villa, the seat of power of Nigerian presidency, where the fate of over 200 million Nigerians are seemingly determined by the powers that be, has already started in earnest. The media is awash with analysis by political pundits, authentic and hired commentators and political supporters of the major political parties on how the candidates will fare in the poll. Whatever they have said is just a reflection of their political views and not a prophecy on the poll. While the social media is awash with so much political activities by supporters of the main presidential candidates, Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the same cannot be said of the mainstream media, especially the print media and the television.
The political campaign tone was seemingly set at the recent annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) where the three major presidential candidates were given the chance to tell Nigerians what they will do if elected into office. All the candidates, including Tinubu who was represented by his deputy, Kashim Shettima, used the opportunity to sell themselves to the electorate. Most of what they said are already public knowledge that a repeat in this article is therefore unnecessary. In her keynote address at the event, renowned novelist, essayist and public speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, dwelt on Nigeria’s leadership deficit and dearth of heroes and mentors in the land of great promise, the land flowing with milk and honey until the recent misgovernance set in. According to the award-wining novelist, “we are starved of heroes. Our young people do not find people to look up to anymore. Nigeria is in disarray. Things are hard and getting harder by the day. We can’t be safe when there is no rule of law.” Adichie’s theme of lack of heroes reinforces Chinua Achebe’s thesis that the problem with Nigeria is lack of leadership. Let me quote Achebe in great detail: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”
Drawing attention to the need for justice and self-criticism, Adichie stated: “A bold transition must embrace audacity and innovation. They have called me troublesome. Although it is never enjoyable to be called troublesome, I never set out to provoke for its sake. But I refuse to silence myself for the fear of what I might inadvertently provoke. It has always been important to me to say what I believe, to call out injustice.”
Without mincing words, we really lack heroes in practically all spheres of life. Apart from dearth of political heroes and mentors, we also lack cultural and educational heroes. We lack role models in business, teaching and even among clerics. We live in a nation without the dignity of labour. We live in a country where people romance idleness and laziness, believing they will make it in life through luck, lottery, betting and criminality. We need to go back to the seven heavenly virtues of chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility as opposed to our current obsession with the seven deadly sins of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Our incoming political leaders should embrace the virtues and cast away the vices from their life. Our politicians can guide against Mahatma Gandhi’s seven vices which include, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion with sacrifice and politics without principles. Our politicians should play politics with principles, politics with morality, and politics with justice. They must play politics without bitterness, hatred and jealousy and malice. We suffer from failure of morality. Our country suffer from erosion of moral values and social ethics. We are no longer the happiest people on earth. We are among the most miserable and most insecure people on earth. Our current abysmal misery and poverty index support this assertion. Our people are no longer contented. What rules the land now is the craze for wealth without work, lack of spiritualism and trying to belong to the happening class.
As we move towards the political campaign season, the electorate should look up to those who approximate the qualities of a hero, a mentor and even a savior and someone who will tackle the nation’s problems. Good enough, the presidential candidates are aware that the country is disunited, poverty is everywhere, and there is insecurity and unemployment and even corruption in official circles, where termites, snakes and gorillas are said to eat millions and billions of naira. We need selfless leaders, leaders who can sacrifice themselves for the country, leaders who are willing to die for the country. We need leaders will be willing to tell us the truth at all times and not those who will regale us with propaganda and lies upon lies.
Truth-telling is an aspect of nation-building that is presently lacking in our polity. During the campaigns, the politicians will tell us what we would like to hear, the sweet things that will amount to nothing at the end of the day. We must resist such temptation to vote the candidates with sweet mouth and history of deceit. We should remember those who deceived us in 2015. We have endured them from 2015 till now with their endless excuses on why they did not perform as expected. We are tired of excuses upon excuses. No nation can be built on falsehood and deceit. If a party cannot fulfill what it promised prior to 2015 general election, it is not likely that it will perform a miracle come 2023. The old order as represented by the PDP and APC is fast crumbling in favour of a new order as represented by the LP, the third force. The outcome of the 2023 election will be largely decided by the youth factor, the marginalized, the impoverished and unemployed Nigerians. This class of people will definitely speak with their votes Our mounting existential problems, such as perennial strike by university teachers, epileptic power supply, joblessness, poverty, education and medical tourism, misery and hopelessness and nepotism and misgovernance, can be traced to lack of people who will die for the country. We need self-sacrificing leaders, leaders who will sacrifice their comfort for the citizens, leaders who will sacrifice their time, their wealth, their energy to the country. These are the type of leaders we need in 2023. Their ethnicity of religion will not matter. What we should be concerned with is their competence and character.
The candidates are aware that the country needs to be restructured, they are aware that the country needs decentralized policing and devolution of more powers to the federating units. The 2023 election is not about ethnicity or about religion or even political party. It is about the integrity and acceptability of the candidate. Nigerians have suffered for a long period. They need redemption, they need a saviour, and they need a message of hope.
Our people have for so long been in the political wilderness, they should be called home to the Promised Land. Just as I have said in one of my recent articles, the 2023 election is a three-horse race. It is between Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The other presidential candidates will trail behind. Whether the older order likes it or not the Obidients will spring a great surprise in the 2023 elections. The third force revolution represented by Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed is a national movement to take back the country and rebuild it and take it away from overt consumerism to production.