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I am increasingly tempted to ask a question that many Nigerians whisper in private but rarely confront openly, “what real value has Nigerian politics delivered to the ordinary Nigerian since the return to civilian rule in 1999?” After more than two decades of party politics, countless elections, manifestos, and slogans, I struggle to see tangible improvements in the lived realities of the people.
I make this observation not from the comfort of theory or foreign comparisons alone, but from lived experience. I live in Nigeria. I travel across Nigeria. I see the roads, I visit the hospitals, I speak with unemployed graduates, artisans, traders, and civil servants struggling to survive. What I see daily contradicts the self congratulatory narratives often pushed by those in power.
The roads across Nigeria remain largely dilapidated, dangerous, and in many cases, outright death traps. Major highways linking economic hubs are still scenes of frequent accidents, kidnappings, and armed robbery. If governance were measured by infrastructure alone, the evidence would already be damning. But the failures go far deeper.
Graduate unemployment has reached an alarming and embarrassing level. Young people leave universities with degrees, hope, and ambition, only to be met by a labour market that has little use for their skills. Many are forced into menial jobs unrelated to their training, while others remain idle, frustrated, and vulnerable. I ask myself often, what kind of democracy produces educated youths who feel abandoned by their own country?
The ordinary Nigerian today lives largely from hand to mouth. Inflation continues to erode incomes, while wages remain stagnant. Food prices rise relentlessly, transport costs soar, and basic necessities become luxuries. There is little in the current political order that meaningfully improves life expectancy or quality of life for the average citizen. Poverty is no longer an exception, it has become the norm.
What is most disturbing to me is the widening gap between the political class and the people. Nigerian politicians, across party lines, often appear more concerned with their personal comfort, their families, and their inner circles than with the public they swore to serve. Wealth acquired through bad governance is openly displayed in obscene contrast to the suffering around them. This display is not accidental, it is a message. A message that power in Nigeria is not about service, but about access.
In functional democracies, opposition parties play a critical role. They interrogate policies, expose excesses, and offer credible alternatives. But in Nigeria, the opposition has often been weakened not by ideology but by complicity. Too frequently, those who should challenge power are either co-opted, intimidated, or absorbed into the same corrupt system they once condemned. Political struggle becomes less about policies and programmes, and more about capturing power for its own sake.
What makes this hypocrisy particularly painful is that many individuals currently in government were once vocal critics while in opposition. They spoke passionately about insecurity, corruption, bad roads, and failing hospitals. Today, with power firmly in their hands, those same problems persist, in some cases even worse. This raises a fundamental question, was the problem ever ignorance, or was it always insincerity?
Healthcare offers a tragic example. Nigeria still lacks a functional, accessible, and reliable public healthcare system. People die daily from preventable causes due to the absence of basic medical facilities. Yet our leaders routinely seek medical treatment abroad. I find it difficult to accept a government that presides over medical tourism while ordinary Nigerians die quietly at home. A leadership that truly cares would invest in world-class hospitals here, not airport departure lounges.
The security situation is equally alarming. Banditry, terrorism, kidnappings, and violent crime have become normalized. Citizens now plan their lives around fear. There is little sense of safety, even in areas once considered secure. A government’s primary responsibility is the protection of lives and property, and on this front, the current political leadership has failed to inspire confidence.
There is no functional government driven transport system to cushion the poor. There is no comprehensive social safety net. Instead, Nigerians are left to navigate hardship individually, while the state retreats from its responsibilities. In all of this, the people remain the victims of a political class more invested in power than governance.
I am deeply troubled by the culture that celebrates thieves simply because they belong to one ethnic group, religion, or political party. We have normalized corruption to the extent that integrity is mocked and accountability is seen as persecution. Any society that sells employment slots, rewards unexplained wealth, and protects looters under the banner of loyalty should worry any decent mind.
I believe Nigerians want something different. Nigerians want leaders who govern with conscience, who build institutions instead of personalities, and who see public office as a trust, not an entitlement. Nigerians are not interested in leaders whose primary motivation is the primitive accumulation of wealth for themselves and their families. They want peace, dignity, opportunity, and a future worth believing in.
Unless opposition politicians are prepared to genuinely break from the failed patterns of the past, unless they are ready to place people over power and policy over patronage, the cycle will continue. Nigeria does not lack resources, intelligence, or resilience. What we lack, painfully, is ethical leadership.
I write this not out of hatred for my country, but out of concern for its survival. If politics continues to offer nothing but disappointment to the ordinary Nigerian, then the legitimacy of the entire system will increasingly come into question. History teaches us that no society can indefinitely endure a politics that gives nothing and takes everything.
Hon Abubakar MG
Political Thinker | Reform Advocate
abubakarmuddaha45@gmail.com.
SB E-news.
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