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How a Nation Expecting Rational Stewards Ended Up Ruled by the Very Creatures Swift Warned Us About Introduction When Jonathan Swift introduced the world to the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos in Gulliver’s Travels , he wasn’t merely crafting fantasy, he was holding up a mirror to human society. The Houyhnhnms, noble and rational, embodied the ideal of enlightened leadership. The Yahoos, brutish and insatiably greedy, represented the worst impulses of humankind. Today, Nigeria finds itself trapped in a Swiftian paradox: a nation that yearned for Houyhnhnm‑like leaders but instead watches its political class re‑incarnate the very vices of the Yahoos. The result is a country spinning in dysfunction, where corruption, incompetence, and moral decay have turned governance into a grotesque satire of what it should be. The Houyhnhnm Ideal: What Leadership Should Look Like In Swift’s world, the Houyhnhnms governed through: reason restraint communal responsibility moral clarity a ...

Introduction Ivan Karamazov’s haunting provocation: “If God does not exist, everything is permitted” was never meant as a simple denial of faith. It was a moral warning: without divine accountability, human beings may act without restraint. In Nigeria, this paradox has taken on a peculiar parody. Politicians loudly profess faith, whether Christian or Muslim, invoking God at rallies, quoting scripture in speeches, and embarking on pilgrimages. Yet their governance betrays a worldview where God’s existence has no binding consequence. Power itself becomes god, and accountability evaporates. The irony is stark. A few days ago, the president ordered that police escorts protecting elites be withdrawn so officers could be redeployed to fight insecurity. Suddenly, politicians scrambled, fearful for their lives, lamenting exposure to danger. Yet ordinary Nigerians have lived exposed for decades: kidnapped on highways, massacred in villages, displaced from homes, and abandoned in camps. Cit...

Introduction Nigeria has perfected a ritual that feels suspiciously like a parody of the sacred. A politician long burdened by allegations suddenly “sees the light,” crosses over to the ruling party, and emerges reborn. Their sins are forgiven. Cameras flash! Party elders beam! President’s MANDATE booms in National Assembly! A press statement declares the defector a “man of integrity,” as though integrity were a garment one acquires at the point of entry. This is not politics. It is a misconception of the term absolution. It is theatre disguised as sacrament. A confessional without confession. A redemption without remorse. Within Catholicism and most Christian denominations, absolution depends on genuine contrition. However, in Nigeria's political context, absolution is often interpreted as simply switching allegiance to the party in power. The Theology of Power The president is often hailed as “master strategist,” a phrase that has evolved into something more mystical th...

Nigeria is a nation of ceaseless prayer. From dawn vigils to midnight supplications, Nigerians call upon God with unmatched fervour. Yet, despite this spiritual intensity, corruption, misgovernance, and civic irresponsibility persist. The paradox is stark: Nigerians pray to God like no country, but the gods are not to blame for our stupidity. Ola Rotimi’s classic play The Gods Are Not to Blame offers a haunting mirror. His play, a Yoruba retelling of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex , centres on King Odewale, who unknowingly fulfils a prophecy to kill his father and marry his mother. Despite attempts to escape fate, his downfall comes not from divine cruelty but from human failings, such as anger, ignorance, and denial. This literary lesson deepens the critique of Nigeria’s political and civic culture. In the tragedy of King Odewale, fate sets the stage, but human failings, such as ignorance, pride, rashness bring ruin. Nigeria’s political and civic failures echo this lesson: our decline is...

Introduction Every society has moments when its political class dazzles with wealth, ceremony, and power, even as the institutions beneath them begin to creak under the weight of corruption. Historians call America’s late‑19th‑century period the Gilded Age: a time when the surface glittered, but the foundations were compromised. Nigeria’s recent allegations of $50,000 and $30,000 bribes within the National Assembly evoke a similar metaphor, a nation entering its own gilded moment, where the shine of democracy masks the corrosion of accountability. This article draws from the American experience not to romanticize it, but to illuminate the patterns that emerge when corruption becomes systemic rather than episodic. America’s Gilded Age The American Gilded Age (1870s–1900s) was marked by: Explosive economic growth Extreme inequality Corporate capture of government Rampant political patronage and bribery It was an era where the wealthy industrialists, the so‑called “ro...