With Nigeria being in the season it currently is, the theatrics, hysterics and pyrotechnics being observed are to be expected as the country’s failure to repeatedly enshrine an assertive and purposeful leadership continues to bite the country.
In the build-up to the general elections billed for February and March 2023, Nigerians have already seen campaigns, fora, town hall meetings and so on. The gross effect has been to whip the country into a frenzy about what the elections will bring.
Nigeria is in a good place, politically. Many Nigerians have shed their naivety about politics and elections and are now in a better place to guarantee a process free of circus and chaos.
The charge at Chatham House
Already, a lot has been made of the appearance put up by frontline presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his team of All Progressives Congress stalwarts who were at the Royal Institute of International Affairs aka Chatham House, London for a lecture titled ‘Nigeria’s 2023 elections: In conversation with Tinubu.’
At the lecture, the frontline presidential candidate and his team took turns taking on questions about how they would work to move Nigeria forward if Mr. Tinubu is elected next year.
However, the nature of the interview and the fact that Mr. Tinubu delegated tasks to others he went with instead of taking on all the issues himself and headlong, has seen many of his critics and detractors sharpen their knives and come for him in the most brutal of fashions.
His case has not been helped by the fact that some of those he went to Chatham House with are shorn of any credibility in the eyes of many Nigerians.
Some of them as governors in their states have done embarrassingly little to to lift a finger to stem the surge of insecurity and poverty in their states.
Yet, they were all at Chatham House as champions of the Nigerian masses and experts in various aspects of national life.
The showing at Chatham House has also armed Mr.Tinubu’s army of critics into with new weapons.
They have particularly found fault in the way duties at Chatham House were delegated in what Mr. Tinubu has called a mark of teamwork.
His critics have found it utterly incongruous that a man who infamously said that it was his turn to rule Nigeria would allow others take turns when he should have clearly and confidently answered questions about his plans for Nigeria given that he is the one who is seeking the votes of Nigerians.
The showing further confirmed the suspicion of many of Mr. Tinubu’s detractors who have long believed that he lacks the mental and physical capacity to govern Nigeria given the challenges that age has brought his way.
This season of elections is already providing a stern test for the credibility and capacity of many Nigerians. In the run-up to what would surely prove to be keenly contested elections,Nigerians are eager to probe those who want to be their president.
However, so far,but for the showing at Chatam House, where the scrutiny was predictably less servere,Mr.Tinubu and his team,citing all manner of conspiracy theories,some of them utterly laughable, have done everything to avoid public debates and discourses about the future of the country.
One of the biggest contributors to Nigeria’s crisis of leadership is the failure of communication – communication between the governed and those who govern them.
There is always this arrogant recalcitrance by leaders in Nigeria to address Nigerians on key issues.
Ahead of the 2023 elections, the All Progressives Party and its candidate appear to be doing everything to avoid key issues.
Next up at Chatam House is Peter Obi,the trail-blazing presidential candidate of the Labour Party,who would be at hand on January 16,2023.
Would it be a charade or a parade of ideas?Time will tell.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter: @kenobiezu
