POLITICAL IGNORANCE IN NIGERIA - A Look Beyond Political Parties

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The political system in Nigeria has become an us against them thing. So it is not unusual to hear someone say a single man can change the entire system. They talk about a political messiah coming to ransom all the problems of the nation in 4 years. It’s probably due to the fact that we have studied about the Jewish messiah (Jesus Christ) very much.

A lot of Nigerians look forward to a single man who will come into power, rectify the poverty, unemployment, power failure, bad roads, security problems and all the other problems currently plaguing the country. What is worse is that whereas they are hoping a messiah will come, they are also in their subconscious believing that this change can only come from a political party. The conundrum is this; Nigerians are waiting for a man but at the same time they are so party conscious that they would not acknowledge that man if he does not come from the political party they support. So Nigeria ironically has produced its own sect of Pharisees who believe in a messiah that is to come but have so restricted their mind as to how he will come, where he will come from, what he will do and how he will do it. As good as a messiah would be for the Nigerian cause at the moment, the utmost dread is that our salvation might appear and we would not know it. And the reason is quite simple. The people are so busy playing party politics that they forget to observe the candidates. I mean it is totally normal for someone not to know the candidate for a politically contested position and yet just get there and vote a political party.

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This ignorance has been the bane of Nigerians since we became politically aware of elections.
The truth is this; Nigerians know what they do not want but they do not or probably cannot identify what they want because of their political ignorance. It is only rational and wise to vote the best man for the job. But as we observed in the last national elections in 2015, Nigerians were so eager for a change that they did not even pause to consider if the change was going to be positive or negative.

This piece is called political ignorance because it aims to reveal how that Nigerians are missing the whole point of voting leaders. Somewhere in the hearts of honest Nigerians, they are actually voting political parties instead of political leaders. In order words, the average Nigerian during the 2015 general elections voted for APC (All Progressive Congress) and not PMB (President Muhammadu Buhari) because they were tired of the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party). Ignorance is simply defined as a lack of knowledge and this lack of knowledge about the candidates and their actual plans, agendas and manifesto is the reason Nigerians make wrong choices when it comes to selecting our leaders. We don’t listen to debates, we don’t check their previous works in the political sector, there is almost no background check from individuals. The media houses try their best with all the corruption in the system but the average Nigerian has his heart set on the political party that he is voting for irrespective of whether he is qualified, fit or capable for such a position or not.

2019 is another year of general elections and Nigerians therefore should take active measures to cure their political ignorance by accumulating knowledge of the candidates. We have to look beyond the political parties now and take critical looks at the candidates they are bringing forth.