There exists a consensus of a sort on the state of the Nigerian State. A specter is haunting Nigeria — the specter of parasitic leadership. And perhaps that of connivance of the masses.
Nigerian populace, at will, takes delight in hurling swipes at their political elites while turning a blind eye to their contribution to the rot in the Augean stable.
Nonetheless, the complicity of the masses in the poverty of leadership rocking the Nigerian state is traceable to the crisis of unsustainable livelihood ravaging the rank and file. Talk about the stomach infrastructure.
To achieve political ends, politicians manipulate the socioeconomic dynamics of society to create conditions that engender poverty. This is what social scientists now dubbed the “weaponization of poverty.”
Still wonder why vote-buying and crowd-renting still remain integral parts of our electoral system despite the everyday cries of inept leadership? Claude Ake famously wrote — “Man must eat before he can do anything else.” He termed it the primacy of material conditions.
Presumably, the spring of political awakening among the Nigerian youths under the aegis of the Obidient Movement has provided a laboratory for social scientists to experiment upon. The first question to ask is: How did the country’s traditionally, politically, docile younger demographics, suddenly wake up, in the manner of Arab Spring, to demand good governance?
The fealty of Nigerian youths of diverse ethnic and religious hues to the Obidient movement comes from their latter-day understanding of their folly in Nigerian politics. “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity,” Frantz Fanon noted in ‘Wretched of the Earth,’ “discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it.”
Whether you see it as the residue of the EndSAR protest — as many have argued, or the birth of Neo-Nigerianism. Never in our chequered history have young people shown this great interest in the political process.
From PVC registration to the formation of Political Action Committees, Nigerian youths have sent a strong message to the establishment, it’s no longer business as usual. The roles of youths in elections have changed from ballot box snatchers and uninterested voters to informed voters and polling booth vanguards.
Make no mistake about it, the 2023 Elections will be a bout between the change campaigners and the proponents of the status quo. The emergence of Peter Obi as the President of Nigeria will inaugurate the much-needed transformation in the country. Apart from the economy which will be brought to its feet, the would-be administration will ensure National healing of the wounds of January 15th, give Southeast a sense of belonging, permanently extinguish the Biafran Nationalism, and finally, cement the faiths of the youths in the country’s electoral system.
However, whether Obi emerges victorious or not, 2023 will be marked in our annals of politics as the election that changed all elections. In due appreciation to the contributions of Nigerian youths, many will look back with nostalgia and forth the cry: This is their finest hour.
Jonathan Asikason, Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State
