Ideally, political power is an avenue for improving the lot of your people, unfortunately in Nigeria it has largely become a business where you can invest and make a supernormal profit.
Unless and until we largely change the situation to that of service delivery, we will hardly get out of the woods.
- Residents allege extortion as Mambilla power project execution drags
- Troops kill 50 bandits in Kaduna
The delegate system or indirect primaries has since become cash and carry. Our delegates for primary elections know that most of the candidates contesting for one office or the other are political investors who upon their victory will recoup their investments first and thereafter quintuple their returns on investment.
There is the popular stomach infrastructure politics which is on the rise in the country.
It is important to state that most of the electorate at the general elections are also ready for the business of cash and carry. Vote buying is on the rise in our modern-day politics.
Our desperate modern-day politicians who see political power as an investment with huge returns will hardly allow direct primaries to go on smoothly.
In recent times we have seen how politicians at all levels often hired thugs to disrupt direct primaries in order to gain more advantage than their opponents.
Public offices in Nigeria leave a lot of room for embezzlement due to financial leakages in the system. Politicians often seek power to enrich themselves and their families.
In my view, our legislators must come out with laws that will enhance transparency and accountability in government where a lot of financial leakages will be blocked. This will likely make political power less attractive and not worth spending billions to acquire by political investors.
God bless Nigeria!
Nurudeen Dauda, [email protected]
