Nigeria in the year 2030: A new narrative



OUR obsession with the drama and intrigue of politics has relegated discourse on policy and national development to the background. We all know what Saraki is accused of but how many of us can detail his agenda as Senate president? What were his plans to reform a body which in the eyes of the average Nigerian, is merely a retirement home for former governors or for privileged, would-be influential Nigerians, all barely present (or awake when they are physically present)?
Yet commentators on social media can list all of the countries where Saraki is rumoured to have a home. They have, in fact, already begun lists of other senators who they suspect of falsifying their asset declaration forms: if their suspicions are true, we really don’t have a Senate or a House of Assembly for that matter, merely a pack of wolves and co-conspirators. No wonder, according to some, Buhari believes he is the only non-corrupt member of the political class.
You might say corruption kills Nigerians so discussing corruption cases is a way for citizens to join in tackling the problem. But the sort of discourse we indulge in, in Nigeria, means that we muddle everything up so that, rather than a real discussion to solve a national problem, what we have is voyeurism, making ourselves into mere observers of the scandals of the rich and famous.
Politically connected persons
I have often mentioned the attack on education and critical thinking which is at hand in this country: many of us remain incapable of logical thinking and basing our opinions on fact rather than on what pastors, emirs or politically connected persons say.
Allegations of fraud and sleaze make them unreliable narrators, not the sort of characters to be admired. Furthermore, nothing prepares the average Nigerian to be a responsible citizen, so, should he be elected to public office one day, his behaviour is guided by those before him and he ends up with the same opinions as them, which he never learnt to question or examine.
Instead of this bleak, infuriating picture, I want to imagine Nigeria in the year 2030, just fifteen years on, after the sheriff’s passage has enabled a new generation of young principled and astute leaders or disciples (they are out there) to emerge.
We live in a country whose founding principles and identity we have remade. We decided to work with our legacy of greed, inequality and ethno-religious hatred to change the Nigerian narrative of oppression, to finally see, like a post-apartheid South-Africa, that ignoring our history cannot make it work for us. We refuse to assert some facts and ignore others: wrong is wrong no matter who does it, we no longer believe there is a statute of limitation on corruption or that getting away with a bad deed in the past, means that it will forever be ignored.


For the full story, check the Vanguard newspaper.












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