Prominent political activist and scholar, Dr. Usman Bugaje, has raised alarm over Nigeria’s deteriorating political culture, lamenting the dominance of personality politics over visionary leadership and substantive ideas.
Speaking in a no-holds-barred interview on ARISE News on Thursday, Dr. Bugaje criticised both the ruling and opposition parties for lacking ideology, depth, and direction.
“Our political parties are hollow. They have no content, no questions, no courage. They don’t stand for anything,” he declared. “When you think of the APC, what comes to mind is the image of a person caught on camera stuffing dollars into his pocket. That says a lot. We have abandoned the politics of big ideas. What we have now is the politics of big men.”
Bugaje, a former presidential adviser and respected civil society voice, expressed disappointment at the state of Nigeria’s democracy, accusing political actors of weaponising regional and ethnic sentiments due to a vacuum of meaningful policy engagement.
“This talk of North versus South is nonsense. It reflects the emptiness of our politics. If politicians had real ideas, they would put them on the table instead of hiding behind geography and ethnicity,” he said.
He was particularly scathing in his assessment of the two dominant political parties—the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)—saying neither offers a coherent vision for national development.
“Take the PDP. What does it represent? Can anyone point to a single guiding idea or policy? It’s the same with the APC. There is no clear developmental agenda, no serious policy thrust,” he said.
Bugaje warned that Nigeria’s democracy, despite being 25 years old, has failed to deliver real progress. “We’re not developing. We’re sinking. Poverty, hunger, disease—these are the things growing. We must ask: what’s wrong with the kind of democracy we’re practicing?”
Turning to the performance of the Bola Tinubu administration, he painted a grim picture, likening it to the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency.
“These two years of Tinubu’s government are shaping up to be just like Buhari’s eight years—a disaster for ordinary Nigerians,” Bugaje said. “People are hungry. Salaries can’t take anyone past 10 days in a month. Whether it’s university lecturers, civil servants, or even bankers—everyone is struggling.”
He issued a stark warning about the potential consequences of continued failure in leadership: “If this government can’t fix Nigeria, someone else will come to fix it. I hope we don’t end up like Somalia or South Sudan, but this is serious.”
Dr. Bugaje called on the political elite and media to shift focus from ethnic and personality politics to substance and solutions, insisting that only a bold, idea-driven leadership can rescue Nigeria from its current path of decline.
Leave a Reply