News How to Become a Nigeria Politician

How to Become a Nigeria Politician

November 19, 2020

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In the words of Lynda Ngwudike , “If Nigerian leaders were teachers, they will eat our children’s lunch.” Seems like one of the prerequisite of being one is to shut out your emotions. Empathy and sympathy is not required. In Nigeria, we’re so religious yet so cruel. Nigerians will fight for God and leave their fight to God.

A certain ‘ onye nkuzi’ was saying the other day;
‘ A nation that can’t provide you with quality education, portable water, healthcare or even security, has no value for your life’. How do you expect such a nation to rescue you if you are taken hostage by terrorists?

On Education

As a Nigerian politician it’s your duty to ensure that students and institutions spends considerable amount of time at home in the name of strike every year, turning a 4 years program to 6 years is your duty.

Since 1999, Nigerian Universities have been on strike for a cumulative period of three years¹. According to pulse ng, If there’s anything that has been very constant in the academic calendar of the Nigerian Universities since 1999, it’s the Academic Staff of Universities Union (ASUU) and the Federal Government of Nigeria are always in conflict over funding of the Nigerian Universities, better working conditions amongst other ASUU demands. As a Nigeria politician, you’re expected not to concern yourself with the implementation of an effective education strategy.

In Nigeria, about 10.5 million children (aged 5- 14) are not in school even though primary education is officially free and compulsory².

The Nigerian politician says the right things when they aren’t in office.They know what the people are yearning, their pressing needs… But once in office, they go abruptly deaf. On this, I would leave you with what a Kelvin Odanz³ with @mrodanz on Twitter said and I’d be quoting ;

” You think Nigerian Politicians don’t know the benefit of electoral reform? Or how to have an electoral system that is credible enough?, _or you think they can’t fix electricity?, or fix the issue of insecurity in Nigeria?, You think Boko Haram can’t be defeated?”.
The mess that Nigeria is currently in has little to do with competence. Of course we have a few incompetent leaders. But a huge chunk of them know exactly what they’re doing .

The reason we won’t have credible census, electoral system etc is because it benefits them “

Let’s not consider the part of a ‘ politician being accountable to the people or using the position to ‘serve’ the people for a second. Is the humanity in them dead too?

On Accessibility

As a Nigeria politician, you must ignore your people’s outcry for good road development. After all, you did them a favor by campaigning and winning. You’re not there to serve them after all, you’re from their tribe, is that not enough?

When you look at the bad state of the roads, it makes you wonder if the so called ‘law makers ‘ ‘executives’ pass through these roads or their families never does. I mean, don’t they all ply these routes?

What concerns the Nigerian politicians with the bad state of your roads? You people have bad roads ? Well, they (Nigerian politicians) fly

We all know the effect of bad roads to the society. It leads to loss of lives, lives in thousands has been reported to be lost to terrible state of roads in Nigeria and so much in properties. The ‘wear and tear’ in turn facilitates increase in ‘cost of maintenance’ of vehicles. Every four hours, no fewer than two lives are lost on Nigerian roads. And every year, about 20,000 of the 11.654 million vehicles in the country are involved in accidents ⁴

Transport system is designed in such a way that makes you spend your productive time of several hours in traffic.

What does the Nigerian politician do ?

They ignore the people’s cries. And when they choose to fix some…they do using the cheapest form readily available, to be back to ‘square 1’ few years later. As a Nigerian politician, your abandon projects must be more than your completed projects. The Nigeria Politicians get away with everything. from murder, bribery, corruption, lack of regard for human lives. Everything ! while the masses (who elected them ) languish in abject poverty.

On Welfare

Nothing concerns the Nigerian politician to people dying from hunger! After all, it’s just a number ! Weaponize poverty ! Thousands of Nigerians dies from hunger annually. Some displaced, with children at high risk of suffering from acute malnutrition⁵

This doesn’t affect the Nigerian politicians salaries, so none of their business.

On healthcare

Healthcare is another. Nigeria healthcare is so ill- equipped, under staffed, ineffective and poorly run that you’d pray for your enemy not to find their way there. I happened to be at a general hospital in Lagos where a woman was terribly ill, according to the narratives of an eyewitness and one of the entourage, they got to the hospital premises around 9 am.. yet to attended to by 3pm. Thankfully, A nearby private hospital had apply first Aid to the patient else.

According to NDCHA ‘s Faisal Shuaib
, ‘Nigeria’s poor healthcare system is responsible for 3,000 deaths of women and children daily’ ⁶

Like I said in my previous post, Whichever way you look at it, an average Nigerian is just few illness away from bankruptcy⁷. Oops, we commiserate with you on the poor state of your healthcare.we should do better. We’d definitely do….says a Nigerian politician.

Should we talk electricity too?

Being a politician is to ignore people’s pressing needs. 60 years gone, Nigeria is yet to fix this. I mean, when we look at the roles electricity plays in productions and all, no company would what to invest so much in generation of power via the mechanical means.

Guess what? Nigeria supplies neighboring countries: Togo, Niger , Chad ,Benin with electricity⁸. The Nigeria politician believed in 24/7 supply of its mechanical power ‘generator’ at home.So, No worries.

On Employment

As a Nigeria politician, you must learn how to downplay facts, figures on unemployment as with people’s suffering. You do that by simply issuing ‘audio ‘ yunno, empty promises. Few months ago, the NBS⁹ released their report for the second quarter, 2020.

Our unemployment rates stand at 27% (third in Africa behind only South Africa and Angola) when we combine both the underemployed and the unemployed, we
have around 55% which implies that when we look at 10 samples of people( of working population age ) at any location in nigeria , close to 5 or more are bound to be the aforementioned.

Stears ng further analyzed, If you are a graduate, your odds of being unemployed or underemployed are higher than what they would be if you just had a primary school certificate, Only 40% of graduates are on full employment.

Nigeria’s working population is increasing while its labour force is reducing at a GP rate instead of otherwise. In 2 years , over 10 millions people in the labour force disappeared. What happened ?

What now happens to the unemployed work force?
Ain’t they the street urchin aka area boys/thugs we see ?

I’d go with Efem Harris thought on this. ” Thugs don’t just happen, they are a physical representation of a failed system”

No one is born a thug. They are created by an unjust and oppressive system. A system that provides nothing for its people, yet steals everything from them. A system where without “connection”, you can’t as much as eat a decent breakfast.

We are all thugs. Our Werey just dey disguise. This calls for deep brooding of, and from the current state of governance.

The Nigeria Women (63%) are much more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than men (49%). Another incredible statistic: for every 2 women in full employment, there are 3 women that are unemployed or underemployed.

Nigeria unemployment rates is growing at a faster pace compare to the underemployed. When you look at say , Imo state for example, only 1 in 4 people in the Imo State labour force have a full-time job. Most of the state is basically unemployed. If you are a young woman living in Imo State, there is no job for you.

This says a lot about this country and its growth.
Quite saddening that Country is confused. No direction.

How does this affect the country as a whole ? High crime rate? Yes¹⁰

On Empowerment

As a politician, You have to ensure the people keep coming back by empowering them with petite scheme termed ‘poverty alleviation ” ..no no, they don’t deserve to be enlightened.

” I’ve been hearing “poverty alleviation” all my life. But it is clear that bringing people permanently out of poverty is not genuinely a priority for our leaders because it is that poverty they weaponize to keep us under oppression ” – Mo¹¹, a tech lawyer in the US.

On the Financial

How can you be a Nigeria politician without a corruption case? Being a Nigeria politician encapsulates mismanagement of funds. A Nigerian politician is expected not to believe accountability, fairness, justice, the law … they must not be transparent !

On Food Security

As if suffering from unavailability of good roads, unfavorable policies isn’t enough, ..now,Farmers In Northern Part Of Nigeria Now Pay Bandits N1.7m As Tax, Harvest Fees To Avoid Attacks¹²

In Zamfara, farmers pay “harvest fees”. Unguwar Laya Village of Birnin Gwari, Kaduna paid N1m to harvest their crops. The gang came back, kidnapped some of the farmers and demanded more ransom. Parts of Katsina also pay. Do we have a government? ¹³

Our Economy

Nigeria’s weak connection to the global economy creeps up in many areas; one of these is government revenues. South Africa collected $83 billion in taxes in 2018, and Nigeria collected under $20 billion even with three times the population¹⁴

What do we do ?

Follow the money. Make them accountable. Track the awarded projects.Don’t hesitate to recall nonperforming law makers. Make your demand. I’m so proud of what we, the youths are doing now. I’d go best with Onye Nkuzi ‘s saying of them.

” Nigerian politicians like people who “pray”. They will even attend your prayer meetings and your conventions. They want you to “pray” – and do nothing afterwards.

They just encountered a generation that not only prays, but acts – and they are jittery ”

I say #EndSARS.
I say #Endbadgovernance in Nigeria.

” The key to oppressing Nigerians is to do it incrementally. If you try to push it through at once like the social media bill last November, they’ll recognise it as oppression and rapidly organise to repel it, as they did last year.But do it slowly and you’ll get away with it….” – David Hundeyin

If you think there are more, let us know in the comment section below.

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