NIGERIA: STILL ON THE GROUND WHILE OTHERS TOUCH THE SKY
By Charles Ude, Esq.
Legal Practitioner and Author
Charlesude2014@gmail.com
I watched the NASA launch. The countdown, the thunder, the white rocket tearing through the blue. Hours later, I watched the capsule return , scorched but precise, dropping from space like a promise kept.
In that moment, two worlds stood visible at once. In one, nations measure progress in lunar dust and orbital data. In the other, my country measures progress by cups of garri, hours of electricity, and whether the road home is safe.
The giant of Africa is hungry in its own kitchen. Our food belts lie empty not because the soil failed, but because the farmer fled. When bandits collect tax before government does, no one plants. We lose over a third of what we harvest , no roads, no storage, no cold chain. We are a farming nation begging for food.
We are unsafe at noon. Insecurity follows us to the farm, the school, the church, the mosque. Kidnapping has become an industry; every highway is a gamble where life is the stake. Our hospitals have become waiting rooms for prayers. Our doctors have fled , japa is not a trend; it is a verdict. Our universities are ivory towers with cracked walls and sold ivory , strikes longer than semesters, laboratories without reagents, graduates without skills. We award certificates the world no longer respects and call it education.
The Way Back
Secure food, secure the nation. Deploy mobile security to our ten most productive agricultural corridors. Settle the farmer-herder crisis with a federal ranching law. Build rural roads and storage , boring infrastructure that ends hunger.
Stop subsidizing poverty. End petrol price interference. Redirect savings into direct digital cash transfers to the poorest twenty million Nigerians and into primary healthcare. A subsidy you cannot see is harder to steal.
Resuscitate human capital. Make university salaries a first-line charge so strikes lose their trigger. Tie every degree to six months of industry apprenticeship. Pay doctors and teachers competitively. Patriotism does not pay school fees.
Shrink government, grow governance. Merge ministries to eighteen. Scrap overlapping agencies. Digitize land, procurement, passports and taxes. Corruption hates two things , sunlight and timestamps.
The Misdirected Applause
I watched that video where a former Governor sits in a gold chair, speaking with pride about scholarships, free schools, thirteen thousand teachers employed.
My first question is simple: Was it his personal money?
The answer is a resounding NO.
Every kobo went through appropriation. It was budgeted. Approved by the House of Assembly. It was the State and Taxpayers’ money. It is not any politician’s money.
So why do we act like we owe them our lives for doing what they were elected to do?
Here is where we are vulnerable as a people. Achievement has been reduced to praise-singing. Sycophants now surround politicians like court jesters, clapping for the bare minimum. A governor builds a road with public funds and we roll out drums. A minister does his job and we print wrappers.
The new craze is dancing politicians, dancing at campaign rallies, dancing through budgets, dancing past accountability, while the nation sinks.
We have become so starved of good governance that a single candle blinds us with gratitude. This is a slap on the intelligence of our people.
In serious democracies, a governor who builds schools is not praised, he is assessed. Did he build to standard? Was procurement transparent? Could he have done more? That is the conversation. Here, we turn the bare minimum into a deity.
Let us be clear: scholarships for poor children is good. Free education is good. But it is the job. You campaigned for it. You asked for our votes. Doing it does not make you a hero; it makes you a public servant who kept his promise. The real heroes are the children who studied despite a broken system and the teachers who taught without salary or hope.
Let Us Acknowledge Excellence
But let me be fair and, I say this without equivocation. While we must stop praising mediocrity, we must equally acknowledge those who have genuinely performed. Excellence deserves recognition, not because it is rare, but because it sets the standard we should demand from all.
Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has demonstrated what competent governance looks like. In a state that had become a byword for decay, he has brought sanity to governance, infrastructure to abandoned communities, and dignity to public service. His achievements speak for themselves, and the people of Abia State have rewarded him with a guaranteed four more years to continue the good work. That mandate must extend to Umuahia ,the capital city deserves the same transformation that has touched other parts of the state. Abia is no longer in the news for the wrong reasons; that is governance.
Minister Nyesom Wike, love him or loathe him, has changed Abuja. The Federal Capital Territory has witnessed a transformation in infrastructure, sanitation, and service delivery that previous administrations only promised. Roads are being built, streetlights are working, and the city is beginning to breathe again. His energy is undeniable, his results are visible, and his approach to governance , whether one agrees with his style or not , has delivered tangible outcomes.
I have said it before and I will say it again: given all the Federal roads to fix, Wike will fix it. He has done it in Rivers. He is doing it in Abuja. Competence, when you see it, should be named and encouraged.
These two men represent what is possible when public servants take their jobs seriously. They are not doing us favours , they are doing their jobs , but they are doing them exceptionally well. And in a nation where the bar has been buried so low, exceptional performance deserves acknowledgment.
But here is the point: their excellence should not be an exception. It should be the norm. The fact that we are impressed by Otti and Wike tells us how far we have fallen. In serious nations, every governor performs. Here, we celebrate the few who do because the many have failed us.
So yes, acknowledge Otti. Acknowledge Wike. But do not stop there. Demand that every governor, every minister, every council chairman matches their standard. Excellence should be contagious, not lonely.
The Recent and Rising Attacks on Party Supporters
While we demand excellence from leaders, we must also confront a dangerous trend threatening our democracy itself: the rising attacks on party supporters by organised thugs.
Across the country, supporters of various political parties are being intimidated, assaulted, and in some cases killed simply for expressing their democratic right to associate and support candidates of their choice. This is unacceptable. It is a direct assault on the very fabric of our democracy. Political violence has no place in a civilized society, and those who sponsor or perpetrate it must be held accountable.
I call on the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services (DSS), and all security agencies to immediately issue a clear, public warning that any individual or group found attacking party supporters will face the full weight of the law. This warning must be backed by swift and visible action. The era of impunity must end.
Furthermore, I call on the National Assembly and all State Houses of Assembly to urgently enact legislation specifically criminalizing these acts. We need laws that impose severe penalties on the sponsors and perpetrators of political violence. The law must be clear: attacking a fellow citizen because of their political affiliation is a crime against the state, not just against the individual. Our democracy cannot survive if citizens are afraid to participate in the political process.
No to Self-Help, Yes to the Rule of Law
Let me be unequivocal on this point: political parties must not resort to self-help. The temptation to retaliate, to organize counter-thugs, or to meet violence with violence is understandable but dangerous. It is a path that leads only to anarchy and the collapse of the very democracy we seek to protect.
Let every political party publicly commit to non-violence. Let every leader sign a pact: no thugs, no violence, no self-help. Let the 2027 elections be a contest of ideas, not a war of attrition. The Nigerian people deserve better than the politics of the jungle.
THE DUTY OF OUR PEOPLE IN 2027
It is time to elect competent people , not messiahs, not benefactors, not landlords of our commonwealth. Competent people who understand that public money is public trust, and that accountability is not an insult; it is the requirement.
We must stop praising people for doing the right thing with our money. We must start demanding they do the right thing, the right way, every time. A public servant who does his job is not doing us a favour , he is fulfilling a contract. And contracts are binding.
The world has gone to the moon and back. It will not wait for us to wake up. Nigeria has the people ,resilient, brilliant, indefatigable. What we need is the discipline to stop describing the darkness and start digging our way out.
The moon was not reached by complaints, nor by long speeches, nor by dancing. It was reached by mathematics, metallurgy, and ten years of keeping a promise.
It is time we kept ours.
CU November 2026
