The Presidential/National Assembly elections will hold on the 16th of February, 2019 while the Governorship and State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council elections have been scheduled for 2nd of March, 2019. President Buhari has pledged to deliver credible polls. This promise has been reiterated both within and outside the shores of Nigeria. On the 29th of May, 2015, this administration was inaugurated to steer the ship of state for four years. It is however sad that governments coming into power do not consider that they have only four years to execute something meaningful in the economy. They fail to recognize the reality that within four years, infrastructure must be built. A tenure of four years is sufficient for any person, driven by the spirit of leadership to emancipate his people from the abyss of dark politics. Unfortunately, Nigerian politicians ignore this obvious constraint. They rather visualize eight years. In essence, they fathom that the Nigerian people ought not to expect any tangible additions to the nation’s infrastructural life within four years. The first tenure is normally spent trading blames, chasing phantoms and imaginary political enemies. Towards the end of the first tenure, governments struggle to pay salaries. They borrow and leave behind huge debt and if by twist of fortune, the incumbent is not returned, the new government groans with the huge debt inheritance. Public money is hoarded in private purses to finance the next election. At the end, a new government lavishes four years in meaninglessness, leaving in its wake failed expectations and rescinded campaign promises; promises which are sometimes denied. Nigerians knew that four years will expire like four days. This was why they demanded this administration to set up its cabinet timeously and get to the business of governance. There was genuine cause for agitation when the President spent months in London on medical vacation while statecraft was unattended to. We all knew this administration had limited time to actualize its outlandish promises.  Now everyone has been seized by the infectious 2019 elections frenzy and every issue of governance has been stayed, postponed or permanently annulled. Politicians are at the door again, mouthing promises. They have queued up, scheming to receive the anointing of their respective parties. It is the same old people. The same recycled lot, jumping from one political party to the other. They are adept at theatrics. Tears are conjured spontaneously to score hollow and puerile campaign points.  They pitch their tents with any platform of convenience. Those who lauded the “not too young to run bill” have been roused from the scam. The sponsors of the bill are mocking Nigerians from their closets. If the incumbent President joked that he could not afford 55 Million Naira to purchase the nomination form, it means any lay citizen who can afford that sum would receive his party ticket from EFCC custody. The Executive and the Legislature are busy engulfed in their respective maneuvers. They are unrepentantly engaging in a hide and seek adventure that has halted governance. Political office holders persist in impunity and abject perfidy because Nigerians lack the will to demand accountability from them. Now, it is not solely about acquiring PVCs. We must fashion out a means to compel the elected to deliver. Politicians must be made to believe that they cannot renege on their promises whimsically. For instance every politician knows the term “restructuring” is a hot selling commodity in the campaign market. They come dangling it before the electorates. When elected, they deny understanding its import. They set up committees to analyze and unravel the purport of the term. These people know that a restructured Nigeria will rival many nations. They know that reorganizing the country and entrenching real fiscal federalism would shoot up the economy and the GDP. They know Nigeria’s economic problems would be substantially addressed under a restructured Nigeria but they will never support it. Oil money is sweet. A country whose mainstay is a resource coming solely from a particular region has preferred to be an amputee, when indeed, nature had blessed her with complete limbs. It defies logic how a nation can deliberately asphyxiate itself in preference to handouts from Oriental and Occidental enemies masquerading as friends. The Nigerian project must be executed by Nigerians. China does not care about us; it has a population of 1.4 billion citizens to cater for. We must make satisfaction for any grant received from them and the Nigerian economy will bear the brunt when it is payback time. Countries are gradually shunning oil and a country like Nigeria boasting with unrefined crude would soon be blotted from the global map. When a people understand that the war should not be fought within, but without, it means it has unclasped its first ideological shackle, and automatically, ethnic and religious distractions would give way to genuine growth. It remains a sad testament of our development that Nigerians are sitting on abundant resources while our leaders jet all over the world, plate in hands like the almajiris, frittering away taxpayers money and returning home with their empty plates, and sometimes jibes from their hosts. As we arm ourselves in preparation to vote in 2019, Nigerians must come to terms with the grim reality. Restructuring has become a must. We must not continue pampering a failed and unworkable entity. In 2018, Nigeria has a population of approximately 200 million. It has been projected that by 2040, it will be teetering between 300 and 350 million. The effect of this explosion is contingent on whether we would manage our resources equitably or whether we will persist in this sorry contraption. The disaster such explosion portends is better imagined. If no infrastructures are built, Nigeria will occupy a dark spot on the world map. If no industries are built, unemployment will be alarming. More illegal Nigerian migrants will swim to death in the Mediterranean sea as they battle to escape from Nigeria. Crime rate will soar, juvenile delinquency will become unmanageable and many mouths will struggle to feed. It is indeed gloomier than painted and God will abandon us to our folly. Not even protracted fasting and prayers will save us from the imminent demographic disaster. A system must be in place to call our leaders to order, after all, sovereignty belongs to the people constitutionally. Why should we wait till the next four years to vote out a failed administration? A government that has lost touch with its mandate and is no longer seized of the administrative acumen to address burning economic and political concerns ought to be shown the door. The power of the social media must be harnessed in full. Those who dedramatized the potency of social media as a tool in mounting pressure on governments were shocked during the Arab Spring when millions of social media users caused an unprecedented uproar which ballooned into ousters of tyrannical and unpopular regimes. Nigerians are the most active social media users in Africa with more than 90 million users across the various social media platforms. The social media must be enlisted as a handmaid to keep Nigerians informed and to place some degree of checks on the government. The fourth Estate must remain non-partisan in pushing for collective goals. It should not waver in its calling to mold public opinion. This power holds enormous implications for every country and even more in developing nations like Nigeria, where a tiny minority has elected to superintend over the collective destinies of millions of people to their detriment. If we do not fix Nigeria, no one will. Napoleon Umoh Esq writes from Lagos cycluxx@gmail.com]]>

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