Over the last eight years, Nigerians have experienced firsthand the phenomenon known as kakistocracy, although they might have never heard of it. Simply put, kakistocracy is used to define a country that is run and controlled by people who are least suitable or competent. Oftentimes, the term is also used to describe a country where governance is undermined by chronic corruption. The brand of kakistocracy that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) led government unleashed on Nigerians is one that was so brazen, so crude, and sorely insensitive to the sensibilities of Nigerians.
What the APC has consistently done since it took over the reins of power is to drastically downgrade Nigeria. Their only intention from the beginning was to swim in ineptitude and failure, and the only way this could be achieved without inflicting collateral damages on them was to lower the bar.
From its year of formation till date, the APC has formed a habit of always making concerted efforts to present its worst to Nigerians. There is a painful pattern, and it is certainly not coincidental. The quality of human beings in the APC is certainly better than President Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu. However, these are the individuals that the APC insisted will be most capable of running Nigeria over a 16-year period.
During its Presidential primaries of 2015, the APC had aspirants such as Kano State Governor, Rabi’u Kwankwaso, Atiku Abubakar, Sam Nda-Isaiah, and Rochas Okorocha, yet they imposed a brain-dead Muhammadu Buhari on Nigerians. In the build-up to their last primaries, they had 22 aspirants to choose from, yet they could only settle for a certain Bola Tinubu who, from every indication, is not fit to lead a crisis-laden Nigeria, or even any nation with sane humans.
Through its actions and dealings, the APC has never failed to demonstrate its love for mediocrity and crookedness. This has always been reflected in the kind of appointments it makes and the nature of policies it seeks to implement. Nigeria is currently teetering on the precipice because of the gross ineptitude of the APC, and the citizens are suffering for its sins.
No one can name one sector in Nigeria that is working under the APC-led maladministration. It is all disgusting abracadabra in education, lack of value for Nigerian lives in healthcare, a sky full of anxieties in aviation, a horde of masses without shelter in housing, perennial failure of power in the energy sector, ruination in tourism, heaps of failure in infrastructure to mention but a few. With the kind of elections the party just conducted, a raped democracy has been added to the ugly long list.
APC’s love for kakistocracy is what has ensured that everything entrusted to them has gone from bad to worse. The security situation in the country is worse. The naira is worse. The unity of Nigerians is worse. The economy is worse. The cost of living is worse. The corruption index is worse. The power situation is worse. The ministers and appointees in the presidential cabinet are worse. The liberty of Nigerians is worse. The rule of law is worse. The political climate is toxic. To make matters worse, the APC is about to impose criminals on the legislative arm of government in the 10th assembly.
One would wonder, why will the APC settle for a baggage-ridden politician like Godswill Akpabio to lead the 10th Senate if not because the party has signed an unwritten pact to always ensure that only the worst of them will be empowered to take up leadership positions. APC had over 50 Senators to choose from, yet they could only settle for an Akpabio who has been a regular visitor at the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations that he looted over 100 Billion from Akwa Ibom State when he was Governor.
In just eight years, the APC did everything to instill the culture of corruption in Nigerians until they began to see it as normal. The APC is that party that boasts of integrity but does not have any integrity to give. All through their stay in office, they never stopped embarrassing themselves with one scandal after another. From Babachir Lawal’s ‘grasscutter’ scandal to Abdulrashid Maina’s pension and recall scam, the NHIS scandal, the EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu’s scandal, the accountant general’s astronomical looting, and many other corruption milestones. The party never made any tangible effort to act against corruption, but they never got tired of endlessly fooling themselves by masquerading as champions of anti-corruption.
Unlike the proverbial charity, APC’s anti-corruption does not begin at home in the party. This is a party that encourages and molly-cuddles the corrupt. Over the last eight years, it ran an open-door policy for the corrupt. Once you have corruption allegations to answer before the EFCC, all you need to do is defect to the APC, and all your sins will be forgiven. The party’s love for corruption and fraudulent people is the reason one of the most corrupt Nigerians is currently the country’s president-elect.
When APC was promising Nigerians change in 2015, they didn’t tell the gullible people they deceived that their penchant for kakistocracy was never going to allow them to deliver positive change. Rather than improve the lives of Nigerians, they unleashed negative change on them to pauperise them. The APC has managed to set Nigeria many years backward.
The truth remains that Nigeria deserves more than the APC has reduced her to. The country is too blessed and endowed to be swimming in mediocrity and abject poverty. Nigeria deserves more than the criminals scattered everywhere running her affairs. Nigeria deserves something better than a well-orchestrated kakistocracy. Nigeria deserves much more than what the APC has turned the country into. It has to change and it must change.
Most certainly, the last election, which APC rigged, should have given Nigerians an idea of what their real problems are. Nigeria’s problem is basically the unrealistic structure it operates and the fraudulent constitution it is built on. This was what the APC capitialised on to enshrine kakistocracy within the country.
Nigerians must now come to the realisation that the only solution to the quagmire they are faced with is an immediate and comprehensive restructuring that will allow each region to manage its security and develop at its own pace. This will bring the government closer to the people and help the governed to seek accountability. They must make this demand a focal point of their agitation going forward for all that it’s worth, and if the APC attempts to carry its criminal and corrupt mentality to the regional level, Nigerians should waste no second to wipe the party out of existence.
