HON DANIEL ASEKHAME
Why We Cannot Wait
Nigeria stands at a critical crossroads. For millions of citizens, patience has worn thin, hope has been stretched to its limits, and silence is no longer an option. The growing urge to change the current government is not driven by impatience or propaganda, but by lived realities: large-scale corruption, crushing taxation, entrenched nepotism and favoritism, a failed legislature, and pervasive rot across federal ministries. Nigerians cannot wait because survival itself is at stake.
At the heart of the public anger is systemic corruption. Corruption in Nigeria is no longer hidden; it is brazen and institutionalized. Public funds meant for hospitals, schools, roads, security, and social welfare routinely disappear into private pockets. While citizens struggle to afford food, transportation, and basic healthcare, public officials live in obscene luxury, insulated from the hardship their decisions create. This betrayal of trust has destroyed confidence in governance and weakened the moral authority of the state.
Alongside corruption is the burden of high and poorly structured taxation. Nigerians are taxed aggressively without corresponding public services. Small businesses are suffocated by multiple levies, workers are overburdened by deductions, and yet electricity remains unreliable, roads are death traps, and security is absent. Taxation without value is nothing short of exploitation. A government that collects so much but gives so little cannot reasonably expect loyalty or patience from its people.
Equally damaging is the culture of nepotism and favoritism that has come to define public appointments and opportunities. Merit has been sacrificed on the altar of ethnicity, personal loyalty, and political convenience. Qualified Nigerians are sidelined while key positions are handed to cronies who lack competence and accountability. This has not only weakened institutions but has also deepened national divisions, breeding resentment and eroding unity.
The Senate and House of Representatives, which should serve as the people’s watchdog, have largely failed in their constitutional responsibility. Instead of robust oversight, many lawmakers appear more interested in personal allowances, political bargaining, and silence in the face of executive excesses. Critical national issues—rising insecurity, economic collapse, unemployment, and corruption—are met with empty debates and resolutions that change nothing. A legislature that fails to check abuse becomes complicit in it.
Across federal ministries, inefficiency and corruption have become normalized. Policies are announced without implementation, budgets are passed without results, and reforms are promised without sincerity. Ministries that should drive development now symbolize waste and stagnation. For ordinary Nigerians, this translates into lost opportunities, worsening poverty, and a future that feels increasingly uncertain.
Why can we not wait? Because waiting has cost too much already. It has cost lives lost to insecurity, dreams buried under unemployment, businesses destroyed by harsh policies, and a generation growing up without faith in leadership. Waiting has normalized suffering and rewarded failure.
Nigerians are not asking for miracles. They are demanding accountability, fairness, competence, and integrity. They want a government that serves the people, not itself; a system where public office is a responsibility, not a reward; and leadership that understands the urgency of now.
Change is no longer a luxury or a political slogan—it is a necessity. Nigeria cannot afford more years of misrule, excuses, and recycled failures. The hunger for change is real, widespread, and justified. That is why we cannot wait.
