The Nigerian politician and tomorrow

BY EMMANUEL ADO

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” — Warren Bennis

The average Nigerian politician is, to put it mildly, pathetic. He/she is in politics for today, and not for tomorrow. For most of them, politics begins and ends with “winning” elections, holding office, and enjoying the privileges that come with it. If “tomorrow” exists in their vocabulary, it is only about the next election date and not as a future to be planned for or secured. Their concern begins and ends with how to win, and not what they would do with the victory. Most hardly prepare for governance.

They are more interested in the trappings of power, the long convoys, the sirens, and the endless praise singers. The people they govern are honestly not asking for much. Their demands remain heartbreakingly modest, potable water (not even piped into every home, just accessible), good roads, decent schools, functional hospitals that can actually treat patients, steady power supply, and jobs. These aspirations certainly not too difficult to meet. They haven’t asked to be sent to the moon, like India has triumphantly done — but why not? Yet even these basic expectations continue to be unmet, decade after decade.

And this is where the tragedy deepens. The average politician doesn’t seem to understand a very simple truth:that you can only govern a country if that country exists. Therefore, logic dictates that the first duty of every politician should be to preserve the integrity of the Nigerian state, to ensure that it continues to exist, because if the nation falls apart under the weight of insecurity, poverty, and hopelessness, then there will be no country left to govern. But that sense of urgency, that understanding that Nigeria’s survival is not guaranteed, seems completely lost on most of our political class.

Most tragically behave as if Nigeria’s survival is assured. They behave as if the country will somehow fix itself while they are busy sharing contracts and appointments. Meanwhile, the signs of decay are everywhere. The economy is in shambles, insecurity has become our daily reality, our schools are failing, and millions of young people have lost faith in the system- hence the Japa syndrome.

There’s an old saying that you don’t have to tell a deaf and dumb man that a war is raging; because he can see people running in panic, he can smell the smoke, he can feel the earth tremble beneath his feet even if he cannot hear the sound of the bombs. That’s where we are today. The evidence of crisis is all around us , visible to anyone who bothers to look.

Yet, instead of rallying the nation to address these existential challenges, our leaders continue to bicker over power – fighting over party tickets, and who gets what in the next round of spoils(elections). Most continue to govern as though Nigeria were indestructible as though our fragility were a myth. But nations do not die all at once; they erode slowly, eaten away by neglect, greed, and a failure of imagination.

The question is, when will the Nigerian politician wake up? When will they realize that leadership is not about occupying office but about vision and responsibility? Like Warren Bennis said, leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. But how can a man without vision translate anything? Or the fact that they must plant trees under whose shade they may never sit. That is the essence of vision, the capacity that distinguishes leadership from mere office-holding. It’s obvious that Nigeria desperately needs leaders who can translate vision into reality, those who understand that the tomorrow they fail to build today will be the ruin of tomorrow.

The sad truth is that if most of our politicians continue to live only for today, there may tragically be no tomorrow left for any of us.

What started as a joke, the classification of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Interest(CPC)” by Senator Ted Cruz of the United States Senate citing what he described as “existential threat facing Christians in the Nigeria” took a dangerous turn when President Donald Trump, who governs by tweet, dropped the bombshell announcement that he totally agreed with Cruz. Coming from a man known to shoot from the hip, it would be the height of stupidity to dismiss the implication. Considering the fragile state of a country still grappling with the aftermath of a failed coup, the decision by the United States was a diplomatic escalation that Nigeria could ill afford.

Yet, as always, our politicians have carried on as if nothing happened. It has been business as usual. They are not pretending, because they actually do not understand the seriousness of America’s decision — internally and externally — as the Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah tried to warn. Rather, they are more concerned about winning the 2027 elections. Their silence is telling.

Why did the Americans hit us this hard? The answer is not far-fetched. How can a country that is spending trillions of naira building the Lagos–Calabar Superhighway not have an accredited ambassador in Washington? A vacuum that has proven to be a disaster. An active ambassador awake to global perceptions would have immediately engaged Senator Cruz before his “joke” took root and became a policy. The other reason is the failure to crush the insurgency of over 16 years that has led to-the loss of lives. But in the usual Nigeria style, we left such a crucial diplomatic outpost empty, then acted surprised when the inevitable happened.

This is a country that has perfected the art of misplacing its priorities. We chase white elephant projects while allowing basic systems to collapse. The existing roads across the country are in a terrible state of disrepair – riddled with potholes due to years of neglect – but instead of fixing what’s broken, we choose to embark on grandiose dreams of new superhighways when we have woefully failed to maintain the old ones.

For Senator David Umahi, the Emperor of Ebonyi State and “professor of practice,” who tragically believes that he is the best thing that has ever happened to Nigeria, the Lagos–Calabar Superhighway is non-negotiable, even when we are borrowing to fund it. The tragedy is that people like Umahi would have their say, because facts hardly persuade them.

Our priorities reveal our dysfunction. We ignore diplomacy the lifeline of any serious nation while pretending that poorly constructed roads, at dubious cost, can buy us respect. We neglect maintenance, transparency, and strategic engagement, and then wonder why other nations take us less seriously.

For example, despite Aliko Dangote building a world-class refinery, the bald-headed profiteers who have made insane money from the subsidy regime prefer that Nigeria continues to import fuel rather than meet its demands from a local refinery that is supplying its products to other countries. This is the unfortunate reality of Nigeria. And when the world’s most powerful nation begins to label you a “Country of Particular Interest”, it is not a laughing matter. It is a red flag that comes with reputational damage, restricted cooperation, and deeper isolation.

But as usual, some of our leaders are utterly unbothered. They have mastered the dangerous art of denial. For them, governance is about today and not tomorrow. The rest of the world, unfortunately, is watching and it’s not amused.

Early this year, precisely on 17 June 2025, Justice Phuong Ngo of the Canadian Federal High Court delivered what was a thunderbolt judgment on Nigeria’s political class in a case filed by Douglas Egharevba, a former member of both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The legal basis of Justice Phuong Ngo’s decision was Sections 34(1)(b.1) (subversion of democracy) and 34(1)(f) (membership in an organization engaged in terrorism/subversion) of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). The stunning verdict simply declared all Nigerian political parties without any exception as terrorist organizations.

Egharevba, after years of enjoying the impunity that is the order of the day in Nigeria suddenly grew tired of the mess he had helped create to seek refuge in Canada. The court said a big no and denied his asylum request on the grounds that he had been a member of a terrorist organization — that is, a Nigerian political party. His fate awaits many more other politicians. If Wole Soyinka could have his American visa revoked, who is immune?

What is worse is that this judgment is still standing. It’s sad that the parties have not seen the need to challenge and vacate the judgment. How can they, when they didn’t even issue a simple rebuttal? What we have is complete silence because they don’t see the danger and the wider implication — not just for themselves as politicians but for the country’s reputation.

In any organized and serious country, the political parties would have come together, at least for once, to defend their collective integrity. They would have challenged the ruling and demanded a review, because the Canadian court was emphatic that Nigerian parties officially sponsor the snatching of ballot boxes, rig elections, and conduct unfair primaries — acts that subvert the democratic process. And sadly, the court wasn’t wrong.

What the Canadian judge didn’t add, perhaps out of courtesy, is that our Supreme Court has become a temple of technicalities. We saw this vividly in the case of Governor Hope Uzodinma, where a man who came fourth in the Imo State governorship election suddenly became first, courtesy of legal gymnastics. We also saw it again in the case of Godswill Akpabio, who, after failing in his presidential bid and violated his own party’s constitution, and somehow ended up with the senatorial ticket.

And just as our politicians have played deaf and dumb to the Canadian court’s decision, they have shown the same disturbing indifference to the recent failed coup attempt. You would think that such a development would force a moment of reflection and maybe even a rare show of unity — but no. It is the same old games that we have continued to see.

If our leaders cannot defend Nigeria abroad or govern it with decency at home, the world is teaching us some lessons in the hard way and drawing its own conclusions about who we are.

Nyesom Wike and his gang are busy tearing apart what’s left of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Others are busy hopping from one party to another like political nomads, chasing power and privilege wherever they smell it. The new bride, of course, is the All Progressives Congress (APC), which welcomes defectors with their tainted pasts with open arms. Shouldn’t the APC reject a Wike, who has shown a disturbing and destructive tendency if he doesn’t get his way?

It’s doubtful if any of them have bothered to read the judgment of Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in the case against Abubakar Gummi, who represented Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency, Zamfara State) filed by the PDP. The judgment was categorical that votes belong to political parties, and not individuals. He said: “A politician has no right to transfer votes of a political party to another political party … The law must punish such moves.” The court held that because Gummi had defected from the PDP to the APC without a valid party division, he automatically lost his seat under Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Meaning, you can’t win under one platform and then run away with the mandate as if it were your personal property.

The tragedy of our politics is that our leaders refuse to see that the world is watching and judging. They live in denial, convinced that their actions have no consequences. But the truth is, they do. The Canadian judgment is just a glimpse of how low our political class has sunk in the eyes of the international community. The United States last year denied the justices of the Supreme Court visas. And unless our politicians wake up, it won’t be the last time they insult us, because they know that Nigerians will do anything for visas — just as the average Nigerian police officer will go to any length for his N50 “Roger.”

For now, they are too busy playing musical chairs — changing parties, cutting deals, and plotting their next move — while the country they claim to love continues to sink deeper into ridicule. Nigeria’s political decay is no longer our internal affair- it never was. The world, which has been watching, is passing its judgment — and it’s harsh.

Our leaders, blind to consequence, have continued to act as if tomorrow will never come. But tomorrow will always come. And when it does, it exposes what was ignored, what was denied, and what was destroyed by arrogance and greed.

To the Nigerian politician at large, it’s important to stress that weakening the opposition, which has become their twisted strategy, is poor politics. I can’t imagine Real Madrid players deliberately injuring Barcelona players in order to defeat them. That’s not competition; that’s sabotage. Yet that is exactly what passes for political strategy for the average Nigerian politician, who believes in crushing the opposition instead of convincing the people for their vote.

This article is not a blanket condemnation of the entire Nigerian political class, because there are some credible ones who understand that leadership is about tomorrow. Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, for instance, has continued to invest heavily in education, (he established the North-West University) knowing that education is critical for development. Governor Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto State has followed in that same path; in the last three years, he has consistently allocated over 25% of the state budget to education, invested in healthcare and roads. That is vision in action. Senator Uba Sani, Governor of Kaduna State also understands that peace and peaceful coexistence are absolutely necessary for development. Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, is also quietly redefining what governance should be, building roads, schools and infrastructure that his predecessor, Ikpeazu, one of the Wike’s boys now busy destabilizing the PDP, claimed he couldn’t construct because of mami water. These few stand out, and they hold out hope that all is not lost.

For now, it’s a tragedy that the Nigerian politician remains content to dance on the deck of a sinking ship, because he sadly has no concept of nation-building, no sense of legacy, and no commitment to the future. The people themselves must decide whether to keep watching this tragic comedy or to finally write a new script — one where tomorrow actually matters.

If the Nigerian politician would only lift his gaze from the immediacy of his own survival and consider the fate of the country that he has raped without mercy, perhaps he would realize that power, in the end, is meaningless without a nation to wield it in.