By Olu Adekunle
Nigeria’s biggest political problem isn’t just the clowns in the ring. It’s the millions of citizens who will defend incompetence, corruption, and failure as long as it comes wrapped in the right tribe, religion, or party logo. We’ve turned democracy into a family feud, and we’re all too busy picking sides to notice the country is on fire.
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2027 GASLIGHTING SERIES,
VOL. 2: The Choir of the Blind: How Ethnic and Party Loyalty Became Nigeria’s Opium
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Somewhere along the line, Nigerians decided that ideology was optional but tribe was mandatory. Voting stopped being about who can fix things and started being about who “speaks our language” and “shares our faith.”
The gaslight is simple and effective: “He may be corrupt, but he’s our corrupt.” “She may not deliver, but at least she’s one of us.” And it works. Governors with hospitals that look like abandoned warehouses, schools without roofs, and security records that read like war memos get re-elected with 70% of the vote. Why? Because they remind you of your uncle at Christmas.
Nigeria is the only country where you can loot the treasury dry, and your community will reward you with a chieftaincy title for “bringing development home.” That’s not loyalty. That’s Stockholm syndrome with a masquerade.
If tribe is the old religion, party is the new one. APC, PDP, LP supporters etc, defend U-turns, scandals, and non-performance with the same religious fervor as people defending doctrine. Criticism isn’t seen as accountability. It’s seen as blasphemy against the party.
The mechanism is efficient. Social media echo chambers and WhatsApp groups turn every fact into an “attack on the party.” Paid influencers flood timelines with whataboutism and just like that, a governor who hasn’t paid salaries in 8 months becomes a hero because “the other party is worse.”
The consequence is obvious: why improve when your base will defend you no matter what? After 2023, we saw it play out in real time. Identical failures by your favorite politicians were either condemned as evil or excused as strategy by their supporters depending on the logo attached. To them the supporters, country comes last. Logo comes first. So as it is, politicians don’t need to perform anymore. They just need to trigger the right outrage against “the other side.” Drop a divisive statement about religion, region, or history then watch the base rally. Watch real issues disappear from the timeline for 3 weeks then they rinse and repeat.
The irony is brutal. The same people complaining that nothing works spend 24/7 fighting online for politicians who don’t know they exist. You’ll see a man whose salary can’t cover fuel defending a billionaire’s tax policy at 2 AM. That’s not politics. That’s unpaid PR work for your oppressor.
This is why competent, non-partisan Nigerians refuse to run. You can’t win when 60% of the electorate votes identity, not ideas. Technocrats who understand finance, health, and infrastructure get drowned out by candidates who know how to chant the right slogan in the right dialect.
Policy debates are replaced with “he’s from the North/South/East/West,” “he’s Christian/Muslim,” “he’s PDP/APC/LP.” According to Afrobarometer, Nigeria ranks among the lowest in Africa for voter policy awareness. We know our candidate’s tribe but we can’t tell you one thing in their manifesto.
Democracy dies when citizens outsource their brains to ethnicity and party logos. Until Nigerians start asking “what did he do for me?” instead of “is he one of us?”, 2027 will be another exercise in collective self-sabotage.
The politicians are clowns. But the choir singing along while the house burns? Na we be dat.
