By Hope Eghagha

In our beloved but beleaguered Nigeria, the year 2027 has caught the fancy, imagination, and frenzied attention of the political class, the politicians, that is. It is food for the gang of men who have seized the country’s reins of power. 2027 is the year that the politicians have made. It is the year of years. Do or die. Do and die. Don’t do and die. It is a continuation of the struggle for the remnants of the Nigerian state. To be sure, they are not joking about it! 

Yet, it is a frenzied fancy which has not reckoned with, does not plan to reckon with the opinions of the people. The people! Who are they? Shakespeare portrayed the people as ‘fickle and easily swayed’, calling them in Julius Caesar ‘blocks, stones, worse than senseless things!

The determination to win 2027 elections with or without the consent of the people is palpable. It underscores the appointment of the chair of the electoral body and the conversation which has followed. He has been accused of being partisan, unfit to occupy the seat of an unbiased umpire. Not a good one. Not a pleasant one. It doesn’t inspire confidence. Ab initio, the ground has been prepared for whatever the outcome of the election will be to be disputed!

For the president, governors and aspirants to the legislative houses, it is the sole occupant of their days and nights. I am sure it appears in their dreams. Strategies to win the elections without the people. Marabout. Prophets. Priests. General Overseers. Native doctors. All have been recruited into grabbing power in 2027.

There are mad actors on the scene. There is an actor who straddles two parties, having wrestled the governor of his home state to the ground. There are persons who play the role of rabble rousers. Some have been rewarded with ambassadorial positions. There are huge sums being mentioned in the public space. Loans being secured to finance road projects without going through due process. Accountability, like the people, does not matter. Which is sad. Impunity is the order of the day!

Some state governors have stood out in their determination to leave a legacy. Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori has pleasantly surprised naysayers and distinguished himself as a governor. Governors Alex Otti and Douye Diri have also taken administration seriously. In these states, the main man at the centre hopes to latch on the goodwill which they enjoy to win their states. As point men for the president, it is believed that they can swing the tide. May be, yes may be!

There is a drift towards a one-party state. Not by accident. But by political engineering and immoral horse trading. There is a mastermind behind all of this. And we remember Bola Ige’s reference to ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ when they all adopted General Abacha as their presidential candidate! The goal is clear. Victory at all costs. The opposition is compromised. Floundering.

If the people were important in the calculations, people-oriented measures would be in place by now. Prices of foodstuff. The people are hungry. Very hungry. As a man who by Providence has enough to eat yet you are surrounded by thousands who cannot afford meals or pay their bills, you are immediately sucked into the whirlwind of insane poverty. MKO it was who is quoted as saying that if you are the rich man in your family, then you are poor.

Inflation. The cause of the current rate of inflation is global. But because every politics is local, nobody in Mereje or Akure or Kaura Namoda or Awka will blame Donald Trump for the high cost of living. What has our ruler been able to do for us? It is the bitter truth.

So, we witness distortions, twists, ridiculous verdicts, inter-party and intra-party wrangling. We witness an official in government instructing a party member to scatter their party. The judiciary has been dragged into the fray. The judiciary resisted guntotting executive branch during military rule. Why has it caved in under politicians? All is fair, foul is fair, and fair is foul in the game. 

The casualties of all of this are the people. The people of Nigeria, especially those outside the political class, are the main casualty. Whereas democracy is defined as ‘government by the people and for the people, our democracy has become politics without the for the people. 

The people are not a factor in the 2027 equation. Their hunger does not matter. Their pains, their anxieties are mocked at by the people who have the ballot box under their control. Broken promises from 2023 do not matter. Promise about power supply. About state police. About insecurity. About local government creation. About kidnappings in the country. Nobody talks to the people about plans to combat hunger in the land. Insecurity is not tackled the way it ought to. the killer herdsmen act with insulting impudence daily. 

One of the obligations of government is protection of life and property. This government, like the one before it, has failed to guarantee safety of life. So what is it bringing to the table of the people? What does it have to sell as its strongpoint to guarantee a return? 

Why is it that there appears to be no communication between the federal government and the people? No words of empathy. No compassions. No message of real hope. I don’t mean the hollow things and statements ascribed to some spokespersons. Or the notorious movements. City boys. And no village girls! The city boys symbolize the dislocation between the governed and the rulers. 

Sadly, even the hard military guys who purloined power in their days introduced palliative measures for the people. Not so the current pantheon of deities who rule over our firmament! Even the fiend Abacha tried to please the people whom he so despised. 

By the way, while outside office, while government, despite the pussyfooted President Buhari, BAT won the presidential elections. Somehow, the machinery of state was at his disposal and he won decisively. Now that he in charge of all the institutions of state, how can he possibly lose 2027? 

Even the Supreme Court said he won in 2023. Street talk says otherwise, though. And that is the belief of those who are the beneficiaries of the largesse of government. Naaah!

Let there be hope. Let there be some pretense. Let there be some attempt to make the Nigerian people happy. The feeling of hopelessness is palpable. If the president is handicapped personal communication wise, his deputy should rise to the occasion. The current press releases by media aides lack the human touch. We need somebody with a human face and heart to reach the people. A heart that can develop people-friendly programmes to alleviate the level of hardship in the land. Foodstuff. Energy costs. Fuel and transportation on a massive scale.

When the Nigerian people really matter to the power holders at the centre?     

Prof Eghagha is a Professor of English and Literary Studies, University of Lagos

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