Atiku or Tinubu, the masses are the losers

Since the advent of the current fourth Republic in 1999, like in all other western liberal democracies, Nigeria and Nigerians are saddled with one of the rituals of the western liberal democracy, that of hiring a new ruler at the interval of every four years. This ritual is not easy particularly in a society that copied and pasted the democracy itself or those countries tagged as practicing ill-liberal democracy.

Though this is highly contentious now with the emergence of “emperor Trump” in the creed of western liberal democracy itself is not immune from all kinds of abuses which were preserved exclusively for the less developed countries! Elections are proper, legitimate, and legal means through which the electorate can hire and fire their rulers, in the proper context of democracy, alas, in Africa and Nigeria in particular it is a different case.

Since 1999, Nigerians have been going out for one of the election rituals every four years with all the attendant consequences, particularly those that come after the election, that is in harsh political, social, and economic policies, which always put the masses at the receiving ends. The year 2023 will not be any different, rather, it will be the continuation of the abject poverty, knowledge deprivation, spreading of diseases, etc., that the All Progressives Congress (APC) dumped the Nigerian masses into.

Both the APC and its main challenger, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are two different parties of the same coin. As both parties are constituted, they do not have any policy or ideology differences. When it comes to personality, that is the biggest headache of Nigerian politics, the word integrity, respect, ethics, and or morality does not exist to the real Nigerian politician, this is irrespective of his or her religion (thus, the noise made by Christian Association of Nigeria-CAN, has no sense.

Though we can understand their noise, at least CAN needs an office they should be using to lick the national economy and treasury, thus, arrogating the vice president’s office to it presume members.

One issue that will make the Nigerian masses the losers under either of the two titan contenders is their prescription of the ailing national economy. Both men are ardent believers of the Brettonwoods institutions medication of one medicine cures all sickness! In a Vision FM Abuja programme (just a week before the APC convention and presidential primaries election) that featured one of the APC’s presidential candidate team member, the member was nakedly telling the host and listeners that, his principal will introduce an American style of university funding (today, student loan debt is 1.6 trillion dollars in the United States) in Nigeria if elected president.

That is, funding university education grants and other corporate financing, as well as declaring that university education is not for everybody. What is for everybody is “vocational schools”! Thus, Nigerian electorate, get ready for complete withdrawal of government from university education.

One question I expected the radio host to ask the Tinubu team member was that, which of the two educational systems his principal is proposing to Nigerian masses would he opt for his children, going to university or vocational school? Because he will not choose university for his children while telling us the masses that university education is not ours.

One major problem with the thinking of this Tinubu team member is that he jumped ahead before the race started. It is a crystal fact that Nigeria is a country in deficit of everything industrial (the industrialisation knowledge is absent, the raw materials underutilised, the electricity non-existence, etc. but Tinubu team wants to us to go and get knowledge which is supposed to use in industries, while the industries are not in existence. America runs vocational schools because they have the industries waiting for the graduates of these vocational schools.

The PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar on the other hand is similar to Tinubu on his economic ideas. Just on Friday the newspapers published Atiku’s three agenda, which literally translate to naked economy! He is advocating an economy that will be run on private sector’s infrastructure! No country ever practices this system of running major national infrastructure like railways by the private sector, but Atiku is gambling with Nigeria. Even in the United States that is considered to be the creed of capitalism, railways are not run by the national government, but all railway assets are considered to be federal properties.

One pertinent issue that caused Atiku much in the 2019 presidential election is the liquidating of federal government’s refineries. Still Atiku stands by that despite the fact there is Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), thus, how Atiku would go about the sales of the refineries wonder many Nigerians as the refineries are currently owned by NNPC which is no more state-owned firm.

By looking at the economic stands of the two major gladiators of the 2023 presidential elections, it is clear that the Nigerian masses are set for serious and dire consequences more than what we are witnessing presently. Though age is not on the side of both candidates, one would predict another miserable eight years coming ahead!

It is pertinent for our politicians and their foot soldiers to really comprehend that not all policies that worked in Western World are meant for us South of the Sahara. Infrastructure is not only an economic asset to a nation but national security assets as well. That is the primary reason, during war with any country, infrastructure is the first and primary target to be destroyed. The more we accept the notion of one medication for all illnesses in our governance, the more we swim deep into the woods we are trying to come out of.

Abdullahi writes from

Texas, United States via

[email protected]