By Al-Amin Isa

Here’s a hard truth Nigerians must face:

Politics is NOT a moral exercise. 

It is not a church sermon. 

It is not a mosque lecture.

Politics is power, interests, calculation, and survival.

The Western idea of democracy we imported was sold as a unifier. In reality, democracy is messy by design. It doesn’t dissolve divisions. It weaponizes them. Democracy doesn’t erase identity. It resurrects ethnicity, religion, region, gender, and old grievances, then drags them into elections and turns them into political tools. This isn’t a Nigerian problem. It’s structural. From the US to India to Brazil, democracy thrives on conflict because elections are competitions, not prayer meetings. Every vote must be mobilized. And the fastest way to mobilize people is fear, resentment, and identity. That’s why racism resurges during elections. That’s why religious rhetoric gets louder. That’s why politicians promise heaven, and deliver dust. Democracy doesn’t civilize politics. It commercializes it.

Let’s stop pretending: Politics is NOT about truth. It’s about interests. Politicians are not philosophers. They are strategists. In politics, deceit isn’t an accident, it’s a skill. Betrayal isn’t a scandal, it’s currency. Leadership everywhere—Nigeria, Europe, America, is tied to interests.

The difference isn’t morality. It’s institutions.Where institutions are strong, interests are restrained. Where institutions are weak, interests roam wild. Nigeria is firmly in the second category. That’s why campaign language and governance language are never the same. That’s why enemies become allies overnight. That’s why today’s loud critic becomes tomorrow’s silent beneficiary. Politics rewards flexibility, not consistency. Anyone who enters it expecting fairness will leave traumatized, or corrupted.

Now look at Nigeria heading toward 2027.

On paper, we have opposition parties. In reality, we have political echoes. The so-called leading opposition is in survival mode, torn by internal wars, elite defections, and strategic confusion. An opposition that can’t oppose itself cannot challenge power.

Another party once electrified public imagination, then vanished after one election cycle. Movements built on emotion without structure don’t survive reality. Nigerian politics is not won on vibes. It is won on ground game, elite bargaining, and institutional endurance. Then there are fringe opposition platforms: loud, restless, hollow. Recycled politicians selling recycled hope. New logos. Old failures. Nigerians know these faces. They know the antecedents. A change of branding doesn’t erase a history of incompetence.

And when the bill finally arrives, economic collapse, insecurity, social fracture, it arrives for everyone.

No tribe is exempt.

No religion is protected.

No region is immune.

The lesson is NOT to abandon democracy. The lesson is to understand it without illusions. Politics isn’t good vs evil. It’s organization vs disorganization. Strategy vs sentiment. Power vs wishful thinking.

Nigerians must stop outsourcing responsibility to messiahs. Stop mistaking noise for opposition. Stop confusing moral outrage with political effectiveness. If we don’t wake up to how politics is really played, we’ll keep being shocked by outcomes that were always predictable.

Democracy will not save Nigeria by itself. Only Nigerians, clear-eyed, organized, and honest about power, can do that.

Anything else is self-deception dressed up as hope.