The Problems with Nigerian Politics

Since the advent of the present political dispensation in 1999, words such as nascent and fledging have been overly used by political gladiators and followers to describe our democracy without recourse to the real issues why our democratic system has refused to develop or even gotten worse from the previous dispensation that recorded a largely free and fair election which the late M.K.O Abiola arguably won, but never saw his mandate materialized.

Rather than build-up from that unfortunate 2003 election that the late M.K.O Abiola won fair and square with votes cutting across religious, geographical and ethnic affinities, the current political dispensation arguably dominated by the Peoples Democratic Party appears to be nose-diving.

Close political watchers will waste no time to agree that the two major problems, Nigeria’s democracy is experiencing as at today are ethnicity and religion. These two problems are further compounded by the federal character and the place of origin policies that have become deep-rooted in the hearts and minds of Nigerians.

It must be stated also that attempts by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to address the sectional divides of Nigerians by enshrining power sharing/rotation in its manifesto cum constitution has further worsen the problem rather than solving it.

The party’s well-thought intention has polarized the political landscape such that even councillorship positions as well as community leadership have become based on power rotation/sharing, thus promoting mediocrity instead of merit and excellence.

The activities of religious leaders who are strongly becoming allies to politicians are another great source of concern. Rather than canvass for credible leaders devoid of ethnic or geographical sentiments, our religious leaders now brainwash their faithful/followers to key into the antics of corrupt politicians by lending them their support in the guise of being in the same religion or coming from the same ethnic nationality or geopolitical zone.

The crux of this discourse is that until we bury all forms of ethno-religious sentiment in all facets of our life, particularly in our political circle, Nigeria’s democracy will continue to produce mediocre, corrupt politicians and electoral system fraught with massive malpractice and nothing near genuine political transition.

Editor-In-Chief

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