Nigerian Presidents: Vilified in office, valued on exit

Dola is my 35-year-old cerebral and ebullient biomedical engineer nephew who lives in Europe. Dola loves Nigeria, but he hates those he believes are bad Nigerian politicians. Relentlessly, he criticises goons running the government game. In his criticism of government policies, some things he suggests as mediations make a lot of sense. Other solutions he proffers as mitigation to Nigeria’s intricate and complex ills are just out of sheer emotion, not reality. Anytime the young man passionately criticises the government, I ask him to run for office. But Dola balks. He doesn’t want to run. He only chooses to criticise. What a paradox! And millions of Nigerians like Dola are scattered around the world.

I’ve lived in the greatest democracy in the world for about four decades. When Americans get frustrated with elected officials, they run for political office and get involved in the political process. But when Nigerians get angry, they run away from running for office and run away from voting. In Nigeria, anger roars like a lion on social media and in WhatsApp groups on iPhone and Android phones when people are unhappy with the government. But mean and unqualified men backed by their godfathers grab power as the godfathers sit at home expecting daily returns from stolen public funds. Running away from running for office leaves the terrain for the mean and unqualified. But why sit when you can run? What a fool knows is all he knows. A fool does not have more knowledge than what is in his heart and head. Any cerebrally challenged person in power cannot do more than what he can do, even if he tried. An orange ball of the citrus species cannot give out more than the juice in it when squeezed. My friends, there is no magic to societal reformation and systemic revolution if able people don’t step in and up.

Eighteen people (16 men and two women) will be running in next year’s presidential election. Many will also be running in the Senate and gubernatorial races. Are these Nigeria’s best? Far from it! But they are “the available”. Men with ability don’t automatically run governments; men with availability do. And whatever errors and incompetence an elected president, senator, or governor commits, the man of ability on the sidelines must be ready to live with it because he refuses to do the civil needful by running for office. Nigerians want change. They deserve it. But getting angry and not agreeing to wrest power from available but incompetent candidates only creates lacunas for mean men and vain viragos to sit tight on the couch of power. If you possess the innate ability to change what is wrong with a system, why fold your arms? Why do you turn to social media, terrorising tigers and masters in opprobrium? Why must you profusely point out the ills in society without stepping in to correct them?

For many years, Nigerians have always pilloried every government in power and every president in Aso Rock, and probably justifiably so. Since the advent of this Republic in 1999, all presidents have faced all forms of pounding for alleged ineptitude. While they are seated as presidents, they are castigated and condemned from many fiery quarters. But when they leave office after their tenure, they become sought after. Many opine that Olusegun Obasanjo was the worst that ever happened to Nigeria. Umoru Musa Yar’Adua was called different kinds of negative names. Goodluck Jonathan was not so lucky; he was dubbed clueless and fruitless. Muhammadu Buhari was branded an unlettered figurehead president who opened the Nigerian door to his kith and kin from Chad and swung ajar our cash vaults and precious treasuries to his friends who stole us black-and-blue, almost collapsing and heave-hoeing Nigeria into an economic Armageddon.

Bola Tinubu then came three years ago, and he’s cleaning up the venomous spillage from Buhari’s men. He removed the fuel subsidy and launched the NELFUND social intervention move (among many others) for children of the poor who cannot afford college education. In June 2026, Nigeria’s exports to the US were N1.19tn, and imports from the US were N395.60bn. Despite flipping the trade deficit of N48.7bn in May into a N797.5bn surplus in June, Tinubu’s detractors continue to demand his head. They have called him names and accused him of criminal malfeasance dating back decades without evidence. At this hour in Nigeria, Asiwaju is probably the most hated politician. From Baba Obasanjo till today, every Nigerian president I know has been adjudged a bad dude until he leaves office. They are vilified in office and valued after they exit. They are despised in power and applauded in retirement. Praises rarely come for their achievements until power changes hands. A presidential paradox!

Without a doubt, many Nigerians live in untold hardship. Pain and suffering should be an abnormality in an economy that can boast of is stupendously rich 12,000 Nigerians who own private jets registered in the United States of America. Instead of putting our wealth to work pro bono publico, treasuries are looted loosely as hunger and poverty spike. We are trapped in the noose of a few powerful big men with small minds occupying big seats. Love of country for many of them is a farce, fiction, a burlesque, and a parody. Self-interest and romance with the aroma of the treasury are their sing-song. The future of a nation cannot be left in the hands of these grievous wolves. I believe that constituting the institution of government is the work of God, who has set it in place to impact lives. Nigeria’s problems are not just rooted in the infractions of mean men who occupy public office; they are woven in angry good people who refuse to run for office. While men who want change speak grammar and perform drama, delinquents in leadership are coasting home manna in a manner that’s maniac in nature.

While good guys are busy criticising; goons in leadership are busy aggrandising. And Nigeria thus becomes a land where the tout is preferred above the talented, and the wussy holds power because wimps who will not run for office let him.

The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. The retreat of good people is a nod of approval of the insalubrious acts perpetrated by men at the top. Great Edmond Burke once said: “Those who will say nothing in the face of tyranny must endure the rule of idiots.” How long can a nation endure when good people have become bystanders and spectators in a game where no one is cheering purulent players? Not everybody must run for office. Not everybody will. But remember this if you forget anything I’ve penned here: A king cannot abandon his palace for miscreants to make a home. Nothing will change if good people stand arms akimbo on the sideline, hooping and howling.

•Written By Fola Ojo

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