As is the case at the beginning of every New Year, Nigerians are exchanging pleasantries at the start of 2026. While we wish each other a happy new year, it is also important to wish our country, Nigeria, well. No one needs to be told that all is not well with the government. For those who wish Nigeria well, it would be important to bear in mind that there is a need to identify and prioritise our country’s priorities in the New Year.
Year 2025 was filled with stories of heightened insecurity nationwide. Popular opinion finds it convenient to attribute the insecurity to one factor, and that is, religion. Any opinion that diverges from that popular opinion is considered to be blasphemous and or heretical.
The Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria wears the garb of a misrepresented religion of Islam. Radical jihadists who discountenance the Islamic teaching that religion is not a matter of compulsion inflict terror and death, not only on Christians, but also on Muslims who do not subscribe to their misguided agenda. Then there are bandits, now properly labelled terrorists, in the northwest, the herder-farmer conflict in the middle belt, separatist forces in the southeast, and kidnappers in the southwest. These tell the tragic story of a Nigeria turned into a battlefield by terrorists. Across the land and breadth of Nigeria, schoolchildren, farmers, travellers and worshippers are on the receiving end of terrorists.
Certainly, as long as there are terrorists who use the name of religion, and insofar as there is persecution of religious minorities in some parts of Nigeria, religion is a major factor. Yet, it is important to recognise and acknowledge that while religion is a factor, it is not the sole factor that explains Nigeria’s narrative of terror. Weaponisation of ethnic and religious diversity through bigoted rhetoric and conduct, a weak constitution incapable of establishing institutions necessary for managing our diversity, manipulation of ethnic, regional and religious diversity for electoral advantage, pursuit of electoral advantage to sit on and control Nigeria’s wealth: these count among non-religious factors that fuel insecurity in Nigeria. These are not issues to be ignored by anyone who truly wishes to find a lasting solution to insecurity in Nigeria.
The Year 2025 was a year of humiliation for Nigeria, a year in which the insult of denigration was added to the injury of insecurity. While it is one thing for leaders of a country to be disgraceful in their negligent misconduct, it takes pathetic failure to make an appropriate distinction for anyone to call such a country a disgraced country. But Nigeria is not only insulted by foreigners. She is also insulted by her political elite.
In the midst of insecurity, while our children were being abducted from schools, our sensibilities were insulted by Nigeria’s political elite, perpetually peregrinating from one political party to another, signalling the approach of the bandwagon of fluid party affiliation, announcing the sunrise of a one-party state. By their pursuit of power without moral principles, their prioritisation of 2027 over 2025, Nigeria has been turned into a byword. She is currently sandwiched between indigenous and foreign exploiters whose interests do not coincide with the interests of Nigerians.
The Year 2025 was a year of unbearable cost of living. Despite consoling pronouncements and edifying economic indices emanating from government circles, the purchasing power of the average Nigerian remains very low. Afraid that staying at home will not make them flourish, young Nigerians are increasingly seeking opportunities to migrate to countries where immigration policies are unmistakably and increasingly hostile to citizens of countries described in derogatory and unprintable terms.
Given our experiences in the year that has just ended, the task before Nigerians is to ensure that the year 2026 is different. It is the year before an election year. The temptation to slip further down the slope of incivility will be almost irresistible. Will Nigeria’s political elite demonstrate patriotism and exemplary leadership by focusing on the state of the state, not on how to get back into office in 2027?
Nigeria is in dire need of political leaders who love Nigeria and who, in their love for Nigeria, prioritise affairs of state over and above personal ambition. Nigeria is in urgent need of leaders who will show decency by refraining from divisive rhetoric and arrogant display of power, leaders who will call their supporters to order when those supporters speak or act in ways that are inimical to peace and harmony in our vast and diverse country.
The task before Nigerians is to use 2026 to prepare for a transparent, credible electoral process in 2027, a process in which the votes of Nigerians will count. The history of past elections shows us that there must be far-reaching amendments to the electoral law. It calls for zero tolerance of the charade often called party primaries, stiff punishment of the criminal behaviour of vote buying during primaries and elections, of parallel primaries within the same party, and of one party undermining another party from within. History makes it mandatory that we make a strong moral and political resolve to make the year witness a campaign season in which ideas, not insults, will be exchanged.
The outcome of an electoral process lacking in transparency cannot be said to reflect the will of the people. Lawlessness in the electoral process will lead to the emergence of leaders who lack the moral competence to govern, leaders who are marked with a self-inflicted handicap in the fight against insecurity. Our priority in 2026 must be the creation of a new Nigeria where the people and their leaders will practise politics as an ethical project.
