When the Personal Demands of Nigerians Outweigh their Communal Requests to Political Office Holders
As another election cycle ticks and political campaigns begin soon in accordance with INEC’s 2026 timetable, this publication becomes necessary and timely. I was at a gas station some weeks back, and as my car's tank was being filled, the petrol attendant spoke loudly to her colleague, expressing her strong desire that a current State Commissioner (whose portfolio was not mentioned in the open conversation) should not be returned by his second-term-seeking Governor come year 2027. Her curious listener asked why, and she yelled in pidgin English, “The man na stingy man; I send am invitation card for my mama burial, but e come there, and he no drop any envelope. Na only spray he spray me small money when we dey dance”. Her biased perception of that political officeholder immediately stirred my thoughts that most Nigerians forget that we all have unlimited individual needs and wants that no one man or woman occupying a political office can ever satisfy, and, in any case, they were n...