In Nigeria, as in other countries of the world, it is a moral duty that citizens should reinforce and not undermine government’s effort, but act in concord with daily political developments, particularly under a democratic arrangement. But contrary to this expectation, the vast majority of Nigerians have, in recent weeks, demonstrated stiff difficulty accepting political occurrences by allowing skepticism and doubt trail every scorecard coming from government quarters; an act that have understandably affected our national live and existence.

From the senators jumbo pay saga to the abduction and subsequent release of Dapchi school girls. From the “technical defeat” of Boko Haram to the corruption fight. Not even the recent award to President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly by the Martin Luther King family was spared of the doubt.

Virulent as the situation appears, such should by no means be tagged an accident, as discerning minds view it as a fall-out of the disheartening past actions of government.

Explicitly, the most fundamental obstacle responsible for this complexity is that the masses have been led to a state of confusion, to the extent that distinguishing between delusion and reality has become difficult. To justify this position, democracy, at the global level, is aimed at providing good governance. But in contrast, our “homegrown democracy” has neither guaranteed social justice nor supported social mobility: it has promoted hopelessness.

The second difficulty, however, seems not to raise so much dust as the first, but can only be ignored at a heavy price as it stems from the masses new-found “knowledge” that: “Time and the world do not stand still; that change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past, or the present, are certain to miss the future.” This new frame of mind seems to provide Nigerians with direction out of the present political pew, safeguard common welfare while using a systematic scrutiny of government actions.

Calculated political awareness meetings and conferences organised daily on our political space by civil society organisations (CSOs), professional bodies as well as religious groups – with; fixing, reworking, repositioning the nation as the central themes – serve as the “people’s college”, where these political reorientations are created. And, consequently, they propel Nigerians to question hitherto settled political answers, as well as demand fresh responses to the unsettled national questions.

This development is made worse by the Nigerian’s realisation that they are still governed by people that do not feel the pinch the common man is made to endure, or that the leaders have simply chosen to be “compassionate by proxy.”

Looking at commentaries, one will again, discover that Nigerians are irked by the fact that instead of our leaders providing us with the much-needed democracy dividends, they fractured our nation’s geography into a polarised “ethno-syncrasies” and idiosyncrasies, all of which have led to agitations of different sorts and capacities. These have further disjointed the amalgams of the country and made the former “Giant of Africa” to be described as a “wobbling tripod” by friends and foes.

Apart from the above disgraceful development, another thing seems to stand out: for close to two decades that the nation has had uninterrupted democracy, our leaders have neither alleviated the real conditions of the poor, the deprived, the lonely, the oppressed, nor get into their lives and participate in their struggles. Hence, the masses have refused to see anything exemplary or impressive with the government.

Another accompanying reason fuelling this Aki na Pawpaw (Nigerian version of Tom and Jerry) form of relationship, is that after about four years of unfulfilled “Change” by this present administration, Nigerians are reacting stoically by positioning to enter 2019 with a new dream on their minds, and head to the polls with a different mindset from what they had in 2015.

This new orientation conversed would be further shaped by recent fiscal, sociological, political and communal happenings in the country, coupled with pockets of ethno-cultural upheavals and misgivings from one region against another, or powerful personalities against each other.

Going by the current happenings, one can safely situate that different strata, sectors, and sections of the country will be looking up to 2019 as a year to settle various scores: both idealistically and holistically.

These states of affair have made 2019 a year with history, and pregnant with high hopes which equally necessitated the need for electorates to develop an objectified “oneness”, as well as an action plan that will aid them in “taking whole”. It’s a year for the masses and youths in particular, to team up and fight the common enemy called bad leadership and its proponents.

This role, the masses have since learned, is imperative as “the strength of a nation is a direct result of the strength of her leaders; as everything rises and falls on leadership.”

Catalysing the above process, therefore, Nigerians should not labour under the illusion that things will fall into place by mere speeches. Conversely, it will first require mind-restructuring, as once the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. They should also develop strategies for asking solution-providing questions as well as perform the agenda-setting roles for our present/future crop of leaders.

Again, an observer has spotted that for a greater part of our existence as a nation, we have had more demagogues than authentic leaders. This has consequently corroded our expected socio-economic development. Hence, it is time for the masses to create a climate where “truth is heard and brutal force confronted.”

For one thing, it will be of considerable significance to this present issue that Nigerians continue on this stand-point of objectively questioning the activities of our leaders, as events that recently unfolded point to the fact that there may be no end in sight to the crisis of corruption and dearth of leadership; because, recently, we have seen some of our “leaders” become a reality we should worry about.

•Jerome Utomi, of Springnewsng, writes via Jeromeutomi@yahoo.com

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