The tragedy of the evil broom; a difficult future ahead for Nigeria Part1

"Only societies with a few large and competing ethnic groups have a high risk of civil war"-David Miles, etal.

 A lot has been written about the mistake of destiny and its devastations in the past four years in Nigeria. The just concluded sham elections is a further proof of unending depreciation and deterioration of the polity under a tyrannical and populist regime with a legacy of distrust, divisions, violence, repression, capability deprivation, persistence of poverty and stagnation. As expected the monstrous political structure has helped midwife its return despite widespread opposition. Today most societies celebrate progress and modernity, but this doesn't seem to be the case in Nigeria given the gutter political ideologies of the key actors and the ruling party that is yet to embrace what it means to be in the 21st century especially in an ethnic diverse society. The ruling APC government has narrowed the leadership of the next  national assembly to areas of interest placing party before national interests. Basically this is not how to build an inclusive society fit for the 21st century. Societies build strong institutions to help support economic growth by ensuring that various ethnic groups ''feel engaged in society and policy and ensuring that power and voice are spread across a population", but this is not the case with the ruling APC government in Nigeria who believes in winner takes all. It's time for genuine, authentic change if we truly understand the challenges facing the country. The country must liberate itself from the pseudo political ideologies of gutter politicians who built their ambitions on divisions, discrimination, violence and capability deprivation. We all know the consequences of inaction; deepened divisions, and re-opening of old wounds which could further facilitate political instability. We need a government that is equipped to deal with the aspirations of the future instead of a return of the society to the dark past. Indeed, the time has come to overhaul the monstrous political system that created the mess we're in to guarantee active citizenship and the much needed high investment for productivity and better citizens well-being instead of exploitation and domination by the few for their luxury and adorenment. With what we now know, the future will not be different from the past four years given the primitive ideologies of conquest and domination that is laid bare for all to see. Growth is never built on the benevolence of the few. Injustice helps fuel secessionist politics. Federalism should be a liberating force linked to the goals of liberty, justice and democracy, not a force for social dislocation, exclusion, discrimination and division. Federalism should be liberating not oppressive, democratic not authoritarian. An ethnic diverse society like Nigeria with a wide range of ethnic, religious and regional groups must be built on equity, equality and social justice, not exploitation and domination, distrust, suspicion and rivalry. The truth is injustice simply makes disintegration inevitable. Today the ideology of the evil broom threatens shared values and shared responsibilities and the political actors or leadership is dominated by forces that seek to divide the society so people must stand up and stop them. Injustice and barbaric ideas that seek to destroy the society must be challenged. Those who tend to benefit from it should not take up arms when the tide turns against them. The problems facing the country are huge so this should be an opportunity to build trust,  reach out to the best talents and leverage diversity to effect important changes, no one group possess monopoly of ideas to drive growth as the events of the last four years have demonstrated. Growth requires a new mindset.

Uche Okeke is the Founder of The LEAD Project Foundation. He lives in London.