Usman Bugaje: We are saddled with politics of big men, not big ideas

Renowned political activist, scholar and civil society leader, Dr. Usman Bugaje, has expressed serious concern over Nigeria’s political trajectory, decrying the absence of transformative ideas in national leadership.

Expressing deep disappointment at the state of affairs in the country during an interview on ARISE News on Thursday, Dr. Bugaje criticised the current state of the country’s political parties and the dominance of personality-driven politics.

“Our parties are completely empty. They have no content. They have no questions. They have no courage. They don’t represent anything,” he stated, adding, “What comes to mind when you look at the face of APC is the face of a person who has been caught on secret cameras, you know, taking dollars and putting in his pocket… Therefore, we need to also look at the fact that the implication of all this is that we have left the politics of big ideas. We are basically stuck with the politics of big man.”

He expressed dismay at the performance of both the ruling and opposition parties, questioning the ideological depth of groups like the PDP and APC.

“Take the PDP. What does it represent? What idea, you know, is there any idea that you can actually relate to? The same with the APC—there is no particular policy, no particular developmental issue,” he said.

Dr. Bugaje pilloried the frequent framing of political discourse around regional lines, describing it as “nonsense.”

“This conversation about North and South is coming from the emptiness of our politics. The politicians have nothing to offer. If they have, then they put their ideas on the table.”

“The fact that 25 years of democracy has not delivered development… We are going down the drain. The country is getting poorer. Hunger, pain, disease, poverty is what is increasing. We must ask ourselves, what is wrong with the kind of democracy we’re running?”

On the economic and security situation under the Tinubu administration, he said , “Whatever the criteria used, it is the feelings and the situation in which the ordinary people live that should be the final test. People are finding it difficult to eat. University teachers, civil servants, even people working in the bank—nobody’s salary can last him 10 days of the month.”

Dr. Bugaje concluded with a stark warning: “These two years of this administration have been very much like Buhari’s eight years. They have been a disaster for the citizens of this country… If they cannot fix this country, somebody might come to fix it. I hope we don’t go down like Somalia, like southern Sudan. But this is a very serious business.”

He urged the political elite and the media to pay attention to visionary ideas rather than ethnic divides or personalities, stressing the urgent need for a leadership that can rescue the nation from its current trajectory.