Nigeria’s politics has always been noisy, dramatic, and transactional, but what we are beginning to witness today is a masterclass in political irony. Former APC bigwigs Nasir El-Rufai, Kayode Fayemi, Rauf Aregbesola, Atiku Abubakar, Rotimi Amaechi, Dino Melaye, Babachir Lawal, Abubakar Malami and others, men who once sang APC into power, defended its excesses, and fed fat on its patronage, are suddenly reborn apostles of a “Third Force” under the ADC banner.
The irony is biting, the same men who from 2014 to 2023 built their careers, secured power, and basked in the glory of the APC machinery are now turning around to call that same party the embodiment of all that is wrong with Nigeria. They brand APC a sinking ship, a cancer, an endangered specie. But the question is, where were their consciences when they held offices as governors, ministers, lawmakers, and political kingmakers? Did they just discover insecurity, corruption, mismanagement, and inflation after they were dropped from the corridors of power?
This is where my worry lies, are Nigerians so politically gullible, so easily manipulated, that we forget who these men are and what they stood for? Or is it that we are suffering from what I would call collective political dementia, the inability to remember who led us here in the first place?
Advertisement
To order your copy, send a WhatsApp message to +1 317 665 2180
Across the world, politicians defect, parties split, and coalitions collapse. But in more mature democracies, credibility and accountability still matter. In Nigeria, credibility is optional, memory is short, and desperation to stay relevant is permanent. That is why men who have been active in governance for 8, 12, even 24 years can suddenly emerge as the “beautiful bride” of a recycled opposition platform and still expect applause.
I find it difficult to process how figures like Rauf Aregbesola, Kayode Fayemi, and Nasir El-Rufai men who dined, wined, and strategized with President Bola Tinubu for decades can now paint him as the villain of Nigeria’s woes in just two years. Is this genuine awakening, or just another season of political musical chairs?
Politics is always a dirty game. But in Nigeria, it is dirtier, funnier, and far more insulting to the intelligence of the average citizen. What we are seeing today is not ideology, not vision, not reform just old players in new jerseys, hoping we won’t notice the stench of yesterday still clinging to them.
The so-called Third Force once blessed by Obasanjo but which failed to force anything is now being overhyped again as the great redeemer. Yet, as the bye-election results trickle in, we see the reality, the ADC is “winning from behind.” One seat in Anambra House of Assembly is hardly a revolution.
The truth remains, unless Nigerians develop political memory, unless we begin to question not just what politicians say but what they have done with power in the past, we will remain prisoners of recycled promises and recycled failures.
Because, at the end of the day, these men are not new. They are yesterday’s men, dressed in tomorrow’s clothes, asking us to forget the mess they left behind.
