As we enter 2019

It is some hours into 2019; Nigerians would be going to the polls, to imagine that only 19 years ago, her democracy was only a year old. Between a Buhari and an Atiku presidency I have tried to confront the reality that we live in the age of the strongmen, the time of authoritarianism. The broad smiles of the neoliberals have faded. They had their moment to squeeze society and produce prosperity for the few. When the neoliberals squeezed society, wealth traveled upwards to the few and left the many bereft.

It was in this condition of unbearable inequality that the strongmen appeared. They promised jobs and an end to corruption, but what they actually delivered was social toxicity. It was easier to blame minorities for broad social problems than to actually try and solve them. The Strongmen continued the agenda of the neoliberals, but this time without a smile on their faces. They promised violence and they delivered violence. These are ugly times for Nigeria and indeed the larger society.

Amongst APC, PDP, and the others, it is the reality of our 2019, that is why you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that an Atiku promising 50 million jobs is like.

• 2019: Nigeria’s economy will worsen whether PDP or APC wins presidential election —Ayodele

So the strongman Buhari, whether Sudanese or Chadian, the message of APC is that if we allow PDP get power no future seems possible. The Buhari camp belittle the mainstream politicians for their failed projects, but then they do not offer a coherent solution to the escalating crises either. Instead, the Strongmen blame the vulnerable for the dampened aspirations of the vast majority. Sadly with the PDP not knowing the ball game, their fangs will be flashed at the weak, who earn the anger of those who have high aspirations but cannot meet these aspirations.  The PDP is drawing on the frustrations of people without offering any reasonable exit from a situation of high inequality and economic turbulence. There’s no collaboration, no competition, just a garb from same bunch of persons.

Either individuals and families or the state are moving into massive debt so as to increase aggregate consumption and save capitalism of politics and leadership from itself. People are asked to be patriotic, and governance is only asked to be profitable.

What really is 2019 about and why is it already failing even before starting. The first set of challenges is that we haven’t found a way to organize people who find their society shattered and their expectations confounded. The second set of challenges includes how to find a policy exit from this system and its limitations.

Time again will be spent pointing fingers at the ‘outsider’; the loosing politicians, the social minorities and anyone who is socially powerless. It is against these people that the need to build strength to a great future irrespective of the gets the nod in 2019.

Are we working to produce the sensibility that a future is possible and to engender confidence amongst people to fight to build that future? Currently we are growing a democracy without democracy. Democracy or at least an illusion of democracy is the main form of governance but the oligarchy and imperialism have used many methods to undermine democracy, to dominate society without suspending democracy.

Prince Charles Dickson PhD

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