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2023 Elections And The Highway Much less Travelled By Chido Onumah

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I took the one much less traveled by,
And that has made all of the distinction.
– Robert Frost
On the finish of this month, different issues being equal, Nigeria’s main political events, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Celebration (PDP), will choose their presidential candidates for the February 2023 common election. By some means, one in all these two candidates will emerge president subsequent yr.
It will likely be asking for an excessive amount of to request Nigeria’s dominant political class to spare a thought for the nation. However we’re duty-bound to make this plea, not as a result of we predict this class has the disposition or capability to alter something however as a result of the metaphorical Nigerian egg, in accordance with Tim Akano, is about to crack. Enlightened self-interest calls for that we don’t drive this crack from the skin.
Two tragic occasions, amongst many, within the final one month—the decapitation of a navy couple and the immolation of Deborah Samuel—and the mute indifference of these whose constitutional obligation it’s to guard lives and property in addition to keep legislation and order and people who are lining as much as exchange them, is a merciless reminder that the most effective of 2023 can’t and gained’t scratch the floor of the existential disaster dealing with Nigeria.

It’s unlucky that Nigerians need to endure these tragedies which have change into widespread options of our nationwide existence. After all, nothing can justify the reprehensible follow of a nation preying on its residents. When that occurs, it calls to query the muse and way forward for that nation; it reveals us how flawed that nation is. So, you marvel why the political class is fixated on 2023 and why those that are aspiring to guide the nation should not taking a stand on this important query. It’s a pointer to not solely how unprepared they’re, but additionally their lack of candour and the superficiality of their concepts—no imaginative and prescient of the type of nation they wish to lead and no religion in that nation. Religion in Nigeria—although our motto is unity and religion, peace and progress—is a scarce commodity amongst our political class.
Every time I talk about our pitfalls as a nation with youthful compatriots, I prefer to reference a 2004 essay titled, “The Path to Nigeria’s Greatness: Between Exceptionalism and Typicality” by Prof Ali Mazrui, one in all Africa’s foremost political scientists. In that essay, to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the amalgamation of Nigeria, Mazrui memorably noticed, “There are certainly sure attributes which make Nigeria strikingly distinctive in Africa—setting it aside in configuration from all different African international locations.” In abstract, these attributes embody its dimension, the human and pure sources, and naturally, what seems to be a steadiness of forces within the geo-political and spiritual configuration of the nation. Nigeria is like no different nation; no different nation is like Nigeria.
So why has this propitious exceptionalism not labored for Nigeria? Maybe, the reply lies in Nigeria’s typicality. “Some explicit ups and downs of the nation could also be typical of the complete continent,” Mazrui wrote about Nigeria. “To know Nigeria is to understand this dialectic between the exceptionalism of Nigeria within the African configuration and the typicality of Nigeria as a mirror of the continent…Nigeria is typical of Africans additionally due to the swings between tyranny (an excessive amount of authorities) and anarchy (too little authorities). When below navy rule, Nigeria leans in direction of tyranny (an excessive amount of authorities), when below civilian administration, Nigeria leans in direction of anarchy (too little authorities).”

I’ll increase Mazrui’s thesis to say there’s something sinister about Nigeria’s typicality, which undergirds the mutual worry and loathing and explains the present anarchy. The thought of Nigeria is premised on conquest—conquest of individuals and sources—and has been sustained by new types of domination and oppression. For much too lengthy, we’ve got refused to confront this menacing typicality. I have no idea how for much longer we will ignore it. We appear to have arrived on the crossroads of what political scientists consult with as anocracy—a state that’s neither autocratic nor democratic. It’s a harmful place for a rustic to be. Every tragedy reinforces the necessity for us to step again and correctly reply the elemental query of nationhood that started greater than six many years in the past.
From terrorism to banditry to numerous sub-national, ethnic, political, spiritual, cultural, and environmental skirmishes, we’ve got arrived on the “Door of No Return,” that notorious level by which hundreds of thousands of Africans had been pressured onto slave ships headed for the “New World.” What do these social and political phenomena inform us about our nation? They inform us that Nigeria is a cauldron of repressed rage fuelled by overt injustice, and to maintain it collectively, we should heed the bellowing orchestra of minorities (whether or not ethnic, political, financial, spiritual, or social), to borrow the title of Chigozie Obioma’s extensively acclaimed novel.
Maybe, 2023 affords us a uncommon likelihood to revisit the vexed questions of belongingness, inclusivity, fairness, and justice, which to a big extent are driving the discontent and disquiet throughout the nation. One of the crucial profound statements by a Nigerian politician on this regard is credited to the late Chief Bola Ige, Second Republic governor of Oyo State and Fourth Republic minister for energy and later justice, who was assassinated (as a serving minister) on December 23, 2001. In line with Ige, “There are two primary questions that should be answered by all Nigerians. One, will we wish to stay as one nation? Two, if the reply is sure, below what circumstances?”
Merely put, we should renegotiate Nigeria—by a brand new structure—that may recreate the nation within the picture of Nigerians of the twenty first century. That course of isn’t a silver bullet. In reality, it may result in the dismantling of Nigeria as we presently realize it. However, importantly, that unravelling won’t come at the price of the blood of hundreds of thousands of residents. And if we get it proper, it will possibly result in the fantastic daybreak of our exceptionalism. Nation constructing experiment is a troublesome however rewarding one; that’s, for people who find themselves genuinely dedicated to the method.
Whether or not it’s energy sharing, affirming secularity or spiritual plurality, safety of minorities, and every little thing in between, we should continuously defer to the default place that Nigeria is a rustic of numerous nationalities with spiritual and socio-cultural peculiarities negotiated as a federation at independence in 1960. Each determination we make should largely replicate this heterogeneity. To do in any other case is to court docket catastrophe. The central query of the 1999 transition was to return to civilian rule. The central query in 2015, when the present monstrosity got here to energy, was the prospects of a party-to-party transition after 16 years of PDP’s misgovernance. We appear to have come full circle. The central query in 2023 can be (re)negotiating Nigeria’s unity. Let’s neglect all of the discuss fixing the financial system, about GDP, and tackling insecurity. With no nation we will’t do something. Let’s not repeat the errors of our tragic previous.
We shouldn’t wait to get to the precipice earlier than we go to the negotiation desk. So, once you hear our ruling class use such weasel phrases as “the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable,” you will need to ask them the character and function of this “unity.” The unity of Nigeria isn’t an issue. The problem is the character and function of that unity. Is it a unity primarily based on belief, fairness, and respect or one conditioned by age-long cavalier beliefs of conquest and domination?
As 2023 approaches, the political class is working round like a headless rooster, claiming to have the magic wand to “repair Nigeria.” Their managerial philosophy and strategy to the Nigerian disaster, which is foundational, tells you they’re in it for what they will get.
My admonition is that as a nation we shouldn’t be afraid to stroll the highway much less travelled. To paraphrase the well-known quote on worry from the primary inauguration speech of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty second president of america, the one factor we’ve got to worry is…worry itself—irrational and unjustified worry which paralyses sorely wanted efforts to strengthen the unity of Nigeria.

Onumah is the creator of We Are All Biafrans, amongst different books. He might be reached by way of Twitter @conumah