TOWARDS 2023 ELECTION IN NIGERIA: THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE CHOICE OF GOOD LEADERSHIP

In the ear 2020 I visited Edo State to attend the burial of my late father-in-law. At that time, preparations for the gubernatorial elections that brought in the incumbent Governor, who decamped from the All Peoples Congress (APC) to the People's Democratic Party (PDP), were on-going. It was just five days to the election when the burial of my father-in-law took place that I visited at a hotel in Auchi, Edo State. I came across some of the grassroots leaders of the PDP ranging from ward women leaders and their officials; and some members of the party. Obviously, they had just finished some campaign activities and were there to eat from the fruit of their labour. Since, they were in the restaurant with me, and just sitting next to me, I decided to engage them in a conversation. I casually asked them, “who do you project would win the Governorship election?” They all in one voice said: “Edo State is owned by PDP”; and invariably the incumbent Governor who had just decamped from APC to PDP was their choice. I asked them how sure were they? They were so certain that PDP would win. I further asked them if really they were voting for PDP or the incumbent Governor. At this point they were all speaking from different perspectives. I went further to ask: “Should the incumbent Governor not have decamped to PDP, would you have it in mind to vote for him considering the fact that he came into PDP because of the internal conflicts in APC?” No response… I went further to ask: “Why did you not vote him when he was in the APC, and all of a sudden you now see him as the 'messiah' of Edo State? The same man who was in APC you castigated as one who was not competent to serve you in Edo State; yet, still won the election. How come that now he is in PDP, you now see him as the best candidate? Should he not have come under the platform of the PDP, would you have considered him as the best candidate for the job”? At that point I took an introspective reflection and asked myself; what are really the criteria of our choice of leadership in this part of the globe? At the end, they all said in one voice as if planned “Bros all na Politics”. This is where we are in Nigeria; we play politics without principles; devoid of critical thinking. The crux of what informs bad leadership in Nigeria is the ability of its people to think critically. Every discipline has traces of critical thinking; but critical thinking is the very nature of Philosophy. That other disciplines do critical thinking, does not strip philosophy of its very nature.

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