Former Minister of Education and public analyst Oby Ezekwesili delivered a scathing critique of Nigeria’s political elite, describing them as a “migratory breed” devoid of ideology and driven solely by the pursuit of power.
In an exclusive interview with Newscentral on Thursday, Ezekwesili said the country is in a state-capture situation orchestrated by politicians who have mastered manipulating governance structures to serve their interests.
“The first thing they did was to assault all the systems of governance to capture the state. So we’re in a state capture situation,” Ezekwesili said, emphasising that Nigeria’s political problems are not tied to any particular party but to a deeply entrenched political class.
”Take each of the prominent Nigerian politicians and map their user journey in terms of which political affiliations they have had since the dawn of our democracy, and you would find that you can’t place them, you can’t put them in some ideological platform because they don’t have any.”
Ezekwesili further described Nigeria’s politicians as “migratory fellows who have tested all kinds of political platforms” based on convenience rather than ideology. According to her, this political culture manifests in the repeated cycles of governance that prioritise power acquisition over national progress.
“We go from one election cycle to another with nothing in between. They actually do not feel any sense of remorse, there is no consequence for it,” she lamented.
Using a phrase she coined years ago, Ezekwesili reiterated that Nigeria’s two dominant political parties are indistinguishable.
“I said that they are the twin Siamese twins of bad governance. Some of them were so upset. They were trying to prove that they are so different. But there’s no difference.”
She decried the lack of accountability and the politicians’ blatant disregard for governance beyond election cycles and also highlighted the systematic erosion of institutions, particularly the judiciary,
“Nothing is sacred. And therefore, our judiciary has suffered assault from all ends of the political spectrum because the only thing that drives them is to access power just for the sake of power.”
This, she argues, has led to a governance structure where politicians view the public with disdain.
