That the Nigerian economy is in a shambles is an understatement. The rising cost of living, high unemployment rate, astronomic poverty index, low life expectancy, high child mortality are all testimonies to this fact. Every development index is pointing south for Nigeria.
We are not on the way to achieving any of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Even none of the eight Millennium Development Goals that preceded the SDGs was achieved. Ahead of every election, thousands of contestants across all the political offices being vied for, promise El-Dorado for the electorate.
They come up with one agenda or the other. One even promised ‘Change’, the incumbent president promised ‘Renewed Hope’ with an eight-point agenda. For over 100 years of our electoral democracy which started in 1923, every election follows the same pattern of ‘promise and fail.
’ According to former Governor of New York State in America, Mario Cuomo, politicians “campaign in poetry, govern in prose.” Any wonder people decide to vote with their feet rather than their thumbs at elections? They simply don’t turn out to vote because they are disenchanted and dissatisfied with the performances of our elected political leaders. That’s why voter turnout at the polls is about 30 per cent on average.
Look at the state of infrastructure in Nigeria. Thousands of capital projects are abandoned after spending trillions of naira on them. Indeed, we are very wasteful in this coun.