Renowned Professor Sam Amadi has sounded the alarm on Nigeria’s political state, describing it as “terminally sick”.
Speaking at a capacity-building workshop organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress, Amadi emphasized the urgent need for comprehensive reforms to address the country’s governance and resource management challenges.
Amadi criticized President Bola Tinubu’s governance style, labeling it “exclusionary politics”.
He stressed the importance of electoral reform and radical restructuring of political parties, highlighting the Labour Party’s potential to drive change, according to NaijaNews.
Echoing Amadi’s concerns, Prof. Theo Ndubuaku, Acting Chairman of the NLC Political Commission, attributed Nigeria’s developmental issues to “fractured politics”.
He advocated for a political overhaul and dedicated leadership grounded in ideological and pragmatic principles.
The experts’ warnings come as Nigeria grapples with ongoing challenges, including poverty, inequality, and political instability.
The NLC workshop aimed to engage political thought leaders in addressing these issues and promoting sustainable economic and social advancement.
Amadi criticized President Bola Tinubu for engaging in what he termed “exclusionary politics,” suggesting that he governs with a notably small minority compared to previous presidents.
He said, “There is an extreme urgency to get Nigeria out of intensive care unit and into a general hospital ward where recovery, revival and regeneration can commence.
“The country is terminally sick. The only difference between Nigeria and a person in intensive care is that Nigeria is presently not receiving any care.”
He added: “We don’t have the luxury of well-managed parties anymore,”.
The Don described the existing parties as Special Purpose Vehicles only used for getting to political offices.
Amadi said, “Politicians proudly talk about parties as mere SPVs, vehicles to get to power and either discard or mismanage.”
He characterized political parties as the essential core of the political landscape, crucial for promoting public welfare.
He cautioned that without political parties serving as “arbiters and moderators of incommensurability and incompatibility of plural societies,” politics risks devolving into a blatant and unmediated struggle for individual interest.
In his remark, the Acting Chairman of the NLC Political Commission, Prof. Theo Ndubuaku, attributed Nigeria’s developmental issues to what he referred to as fractured politics.
Ndubuaku advocated for a political overhaul and the establishment of dedicated political leadership grounded in ideological and pragmatic principles to address the detrimental effects of years of poor governance.
He said, “As a Political Commission, we are committed to changing the narrative not by mere polemics or sloganeering but by active engagement with the political process.
“In this regard, we are conscious of the paramount role of knowledge as an enabler of effective political thought and action.
“This is the reason the NLC Political Commission developed and disseminated a Workers’ Charter of Demands in the run-up to the 2023 general election.”
“The NLC Charter of Demands became a rallying pillar for the advancement of issue-based politics and popular participation in the 2023 general election.
“The impact of our engagement with the political class delivered some measurable markers which Nigerians are using today to assess the performance of publicly elected officers, especially on the issue of the petrol subsidy and the payment of decent wages to workers,” he added.
