The Nigerian Dilemma!

The Nigerian Dilemma: Why We Keep Choosing Our Own Suffering And Smiling

There is an old saying that experience is the best teacher. If that is true, then Nigeria should be one of the wisest nations on earth. Yet, repeatedly, we seem determined to repeat the same mistakes and expect different results. Recently, I read a Facebook post suggesting that one of Nigeria's greatest strengths has become one of its greatest weaknesses. The writer argued that Nigerians possess this extraordinary ability to adapt to hardship. While admirable, this same resilience often prevents us from demanding lasting solutions to our problems. Because we can adjust, we see little reason to change the system. That, concisely, is the Nigerian dilemma.

The Curse of Adaptability

Nigerians are everywhere. It does not matter how harsh, remote, or inhospitable a place may be; chances are there is a Nigerian thriving there. Comedian Godfrey once joked that if you visited a Ku Klux Klan university, you would find a Nigerian student enrolled there.

Nigerians wear our adaptability as a badge of honor. However, the problem is that we have become so good at surviving dysfunction that we no longer have a need to eliminate it.

Instead of demanding reliable electricity, we buy generators and solar systems. Instead of demanding good roads, we purchase larger SUVs to navigate potholes. Instead of insisting on accountable governance, we learn how to survive corruption. Our leaders steal public resources, and rather than challenge the system that enables them, many citizens simply wait for their own opportunity to benefit from it. The result is a society that continuously adjusts to failure rather than correcting it. The average Nigerian believes he can survive in hell. All he needs is access to hell.

Cognitive Dissonance and the Refusal to Admit Mistakes

One of the most dangerous forces in Nigerian politics is cognitive dissonance. Many voters know they made poor electoral choices. They know the politicians they supported have failed. They know the economy has worsened. They know insecurity has increased. They know corruption remains rampant. Yet admitting that they were wrong would require confronting their own biases and ignorance. So instead, they double-down! Rather than acknowledge a mistake, they defend it. Rather than reassess their choices, they rationalize them. Rather than demand better leadership, they attack anyone who reminds them of their error. For many Nigerians, preserving pride has become more important than improving their circumstances.

Selling Tomorrow for the Price of a Meal

Nothing illustrates our national tragedy more than vote buying. According to Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 22 percent of Nigerians reported being personally offered money in exchange for their vote during the 2023 general elections, an increase from 17 percent in 2019. The report also found that vote-buying and inducements have become increasingly widespread in Nigerian elections. Think about that for a moment. One out of every four voters were offered money for a vote. What is even more disturbing is that many voters openly boast about accepting these payments. During the most recent Ekiti elections, social media was flooded with stories of citizens accepting as little as ₦10,000 to ₦15,000 for their votes. A single payment. A single day. A temporary benefit. Then four years of suffering. Four years of bad roads. Four years of unemployment. Four years of insecurity. Four years of inflation. Four years of hopelessness. We curse politicians every day for destroying our country, yet many of us willingly empower them for the equivalent of a few bags of rice. Why rice, I just do not know. At some point, we must honestly ask ourselves: Who is truly responsible? The politician who offers the bribe? Or the voter who sells the future of his or her children for peanuts?

Election Manipulation and the Crisis of Trust

Vote buying is only one side of the problem. The other is the growing perception that elections can be manipulated through abuse of state resources, voter suppression, irregular collation processes, and failures in electoral technology. The 2023 presidential election generated widespread controversy following reported failures in the electronic transmission of results and concerns raised by domestic and international observers regarding transparency and adherence to established procedures. Several observer groups noted that technological failures and inconsistencies in result management damaged public confidence in the process. When citizens believe elections are predetermined, voter participation declines. When politicians believe they can win through manipulation, accountability disappears. And when both happen simultaneously, democracy becomes little more than a ritual.

Tribalism: Nigeria's Most Reliable Political Weapon

Every election cycle follows the same script. Instead of debating competence, policy, integrity, or vision, many Nigerians focus on tribe. Rather than asking who can fix Nigeria, they ask whose turn it is to rule (Emi lo Kan). Political parties understand this weakness and exploit it relentlessly. Candidates who struggle to manage a local government council are presented as national leaders simply because they belong to the "right" ethnic group. Meanwhile, qualified candidates are dismissed because they belong to the "wrong" tribe. No nation can prosper when tribal identity consistently outweighs competence. Nigeria is not suffering from a shortage of talented people. Nigeria is suffering from a shortage of citizens willing to put competence above ethnicity.

The Silent Majority That Never Votes

The most frightening statistic of all is voter turnout. Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, with an estimated population exceeding 220 million people. Yet during the 2023 presidential election, only about 93.5 million citizens were registered to vote, and of those registered voters, only about twenty-five million cast their ballots. Pause and consider what that means. Out of more than 220 million Nigerians, only about twenty-five million people participated in choosing the nation's president. In other words, 11 percent of the entire population helped determine the future of a country of over 220 million people.

The remaining 89 percent either were too young to vote, failed to register, were unable to obtain their voter cards, chose not to vote, or were discouraged by a system they no longer trusted. This is the true tragedy of Nigerian democracy. Millions of Nigerians complain daily about corruption, inflation, unemployment, insecurity, poor roads, failing schools, and an unreliable power supply. Social media is flooded every day with criticism of government failures and frustration about the direction of the country. Yet when election day arrives, the overwhelming majority do not participate in the one process specifically designed to hold leaders accountable. Even more troubling is that elections are often decided by small margins. This means that a tiny fraction of the population can determine the destiny of hundreds of millions of people. In many cases, the number of citizens who stay home far exceeds the total votes received by the winning candidate. Imagine a nation of 220 million people where only twenty-five million votes, and where some voters are willing to sell that vote for ₦10,000 or ₦15,000. The future of one of Africa's largest economies is effectively being decided by a small segment of the population, while the vast majority watches from the sidelines. No democracy can thrive under such conditions. Politicians deserve criticism for manipulating the system, but citizens must also accept responsibility. Every uncollected voter card, every unregistered voter, every citizen who stays home on election day, and every voter who exchanges a ballot for cash contributes to the very problems we complain about. Nigeria's greatest democratic crisis may not be who wins elections. It may be the millions of Nigerians who have convinced themselves that their vote does not matter. History suggests otherwise. If even a fraction of the two hundred million Nigerians who do not participate in elections became actively engaged in the democratic process, the political landscape of our country would change overnight.

We Are Becoming the Boiling Frog

There is a famous analogy about a frog placed in slowly heating water. The frog continually adjusts its body temperature until it is eventually cooked alive. That frog is Nigeria. Every year we adjust. Fuel prices increase; we adjust. Electricity tariffs increase; we adjust. Food prices double, we adjust. The naira collapses, we adjust. Unemployment rises; we adjust.

Insecurity spreads, we adjust. Instead of asking why we must constantly adjust, we congratulate ourselves for our ability to survive. But survival is not progressing. Endurance is not development. Adaptation is not leadership. A nation cannot build prosperity on indefinite suffering.

The Choice Before Us

Nigeria's greatest challenge is not corruption. It is not tribalism. It is not vote buying. It is not election malpractice. It is not voter apathy. Those are merely symptoms. The challenge is that too many Nigerians have accepted dysfunction as a norm. Until we reject the "Naija Way" of adapting to every hardship and begin demanding accountability, competence, transparency, and integrity from both leaders and us, nothing will change. Politicians are only part of the problem. Voter who sells his or her vote is part of the problem. The citizen who refuses to vote is part of the problem. The supporter who defends failure because of tribe is part of the problem. The person who knows better but remains silent is part of the problem. Nigeria will change only when Nigerians decide that surviving dysfunction is no longer enough. The future of our nation will not be determined by the politicians we elect.

It will be determined by the standards we set for ourselves and are we are willing to demand and fight for those standards.