The repressed must rise up and overthrow a dysfunctional system that excludes and exploits them, 'freedom is development'

"In ethnic diversity such as in Nigeria, autocracy has failed to generate conditions conducive to growth and its return would hold no promise of improvement"-Professor Sir Paul Collier, Oxford University.

Another election is here. As we are aware, its only during elections that the politicians engage with ordinary people. However, today's social media has really demonstrated that ordinary people in Nigeria are completely in the dark about the problem facing Africa's most populous country. Nigeria is a case study where the curse of oil has created great divisions, autocracy, chaos, poverty and wholesome manipulation of ignorant electorates by the political elites to continue business as usual; endless plundering of wealth of the nation for personal gains and political patronage, resisting the restructuring of the monstrous political structure that promotes abuse of power. The February 16, 2019 presidential election is another opportunity to choose between 'freedom and tyranny' given the lessons of the past four years. President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling APC government has consistently argued that corruption is Nigeria's main challenges, not the restructuring of the political system that creates abuse of power, however his approaches to fighting corruption is flawed targeting only political opponents giving blanket amnesty to party supporters and those willing to support his re-election. This demonstrates lack of proper understanding of the complex challenges the country faces. Agreed that corruption is the problem, we have argued that any geniune fight against corruption in Nigeria must start from the root cause of corruption; the licence to do as one pleases, anything else is distraction. Can corruption fight corruption? If oil revenue does not eradicate poverty, selected/biased fight against corruption, political bias and favouritism will never eradicate corruption and poverty, that's the whole point. In ethnically diverse society like Nigeria, the political system which enables abuse of power is the main corruption which must be overhauled to address the interconnectedness of trust, governance and growth. This election offers another opportunity to vote for the right candidates that promised the restructuring of the monstrous political structure that excludes the majority or the next level of tyranny given what we now know. Everyone wins if the  candidates with the right skills, expertise and experience wins. The price of tyranny would be very painful to ignore, history can predict and it can warn. The future is in our own hands.

Click on this link to read more:  The Hard Truth About Restructuring Nigeria, A Political Economy Approach: http://www.theleadprojectfoundation.com/2018/09/the-hard-truth-about-restructuring.html

Sixtus Uche Okeke is the Founder of The LEAD Project Foundation; Leadership, Advocacy, Empowerment, Development. He lives in London