The Vulture is an interesting and some say, an ugly bird. Beauty they say is in the eye of the beholder, so there must be those who will disagree and say the Vulture is the prettiest bird they ever knew. On my path, I marvel at how Nature has perfected them for survival in a tough world. Their bald head is for a reason. Imagine if they were pretty feathered like a peacock or other birds and then had to dip their fine head of feathers in carcases all the time. The feathers would retain bacteria from the decaying animal remains which would in turn kill them. Furthermore, battle fields where they are often found become very hot from the gasses released by decaying corpses mixed with ashes and heat from the dying embers of arson. The Vultures are not bothered – their bald head and neck help them maintain their temperature. Ever noticed when it is cold and how they tuck their head in their feathers? This is a confirmation of their thermo regulation advantage by being bald. Vultures are scavengers on carrion. They very rarely attack healthy and actively mobile non-vulnerable animals or humans. However, they feast on decaying flesh of dead animals or humans, and they sometimes kill injured, sick or vulnerable ones for a meal.

As 2023 approaches on the Nigerian political landscape, we can see the Political Vultures assembling. They are circling patiently, as they have always done, strategically positioning themselves to feed. These group of Vultures, encircling our Nation have made her, their ‘kettle’ of tea. These Nigerian Vultures are ready to feed off our national table with reckless abandon. We the Nigerian people need to understand that Vultures only feed on dead meat or vulnerable animals and humans. So, we can then postulate that if we the Nigerian people are politically well, electorally healthy, and civically non-vulnerable, then the circling Vultures that darken our political skies and their ‘committees’ of friends on ground, waiting to devour, will starve to death or become extinct.

Here are my suggested tips on how we can starve these our Vultures of Nigerian origin. The first is simply for every Nigerian to be alert to our joint civic responsibilities. Top on the list is to vote for the people we want to lead us. That means we can no longer play ostrich. Our necks, long from hunger, must be extracted from the sand of disenfranchisement.  We must work to get as many of us engaged in the voter’s registration process as possible. Those of us who have insight either by reason of education, exposure, or both, now have the responsibility to preach the gospel of fulfilling our collective civic duty and why, to the rest of us. Also, we must explain the transient nature of pre-election inducement using the Nigerian Rice (which I wrote about last year) and irrelevant sums of money.

The second is to let our people see the light beyond the spread wings of these Political Vultures. Seeing this light will enable us to understand the way religion is being utilised as a dividing and manipulative tool to create the vulnerability of our electorate and then devour it. “Religion is the opium of the masses” as Karl Marx puts it. In Nigeria, it is the bane of our existence. It is the yoke around our necks. We can see the Political Vultures of our time, already reading the religious riot act. XYZ is a Christian, and Pastor in our church. So, we will vote for him or her. ABC is my Imam or Muslim faithful hence, I must vote for him or her. We are unable to be objective and look at the track record or the delivery indices of these persons. We are unable to be united and look for the individual that truly has value for human life… because we are wearing the sunshades of religion. Let’s put these sunshades away and reduce our vulnerability then we can beat the Vultures.

There is the third challenge of those who look like they can be progressive leaders of our Nation, but they just cannot come together as one bloc to fight off the Vultures. They each hold a glimmer of light but the majority of them are either too egocentric or just plain narcissist to understand that they all need to pull together. So, what you find is these fluent speakers of English language, these technocrats of our terrain are peeking out from behind the flimsy curtains of their infinitesimal political parties and hoping to get the leadership of two hundred million people. Each election year, they are what I have come to call the ‘Vulnerables’. Tell me, how will the big time Political Vultures not gobble them up?  I pray the English speakers, the men and women of diction, the technocrats and those whose crafts ‘make brain’ have the humility to coalesce and enhance our political health. Furthermore, going into oblivion in-between electoral years and surfacing six months to elections is an ailment which they suffer from. These group of people need to persevere through the years reinforcing their message, vision and mission to optimise our national political health for it is when we are healthy that we can keep these Vultures at bay.

In the fourth place are some of the Criminal youths, waiting to join the old league of Nigerian Political Vultures. These persons are ulcers on our political skin. These ulcers through which the vultures will peck at our shared nationhood, require healing. A look at ‘Nigerian Office Holders’ now reveals how those who manage to be young amongst them are presenting a worse approach to governance than can be imagined. Some appear to have no insight at all; hustling to get the top job at all costs, despite the fact that mediocrity has been their hallmark at State level. Others have taken to singing as an expressive form of governance while, yet another set display their tree climbing skills in solidarity with the committee of Vultures. Since these young ones in Politics have not delivered positively, Ageism continues to hold sway. Ageism is another challenge we must surmount to keep our scavengers off our Nationhood. When you look at a vulture, it looks old. Some of the Political Vultures gathering in Nigeria right now, in the run up to 2023 require carbon dating to elicit their true age. But how can the likes of Godbless Otubure continue to push the “not too young to run” mantra (first started in support of the Nwulu and Nyako bill) when these ulcers of youth persist. We must heal these ulcers to fend off the Political Vultures.

The fifth challenge that worsens our national Vulnerability is the division of Nigeria across ethnic lines which has left us out on a limb to await the Vultures. In our ethnic matrix, there are the two extremes that span from those “born to rule” to “those vanquished and banished from the Rock”. In between these two extremes are the chameleons of our Nation who will change their colours any time to enable them to remain relevant. It is along these major ethnic cracks that the fragility of Nigeria is most palpable. Our differences ideally should be our strength when properly harnessed. The Political Vultures will flee when we cement the cracks on our ethnic front.

Coming along at number six, is the about to be history ‘Direct’ party primaries option which would have made a way when there seemed to be no way for the Nigerian Electorate. However, the Nigerian Political Vultures are smart and keen to keep surviving. So, they have had to create a vulnerable entry point to enable them to scavenge on our political patrimony. To do this, they made sure that the ‘Indirect’ and even worse, the ‘Consensus’ option for throwing up party candidates at primaries was meandered into the Electoral Act, awaiting the number one Nigerian Citizen’s signature. The Vultures are ever vigilant creating loopholes. We the people, cannot afford to sleep – we must lend our voices to amplify the current resistance being mounted by our civil society organisations and refute these escalating atrocities. Celey Okogun, PhD in his “We the People Pathway to Freedom Series”, is lending voice to push our Political Health Barometer up. It is an example of how “a tree cannot make a forest, but a tree can start a Forest”. We need more of these voices to ‘shoo’ these Political Vultures away. What are we doing with our voices?

The human Political Vultures of Nigeria, like their avian counterparts may be ugly in their deeds and their devouring of our nation but there are those who think them very pretty and the best thing that ever befell our nation. These pretty ‘beholders’ are those benefitting off the crumbs from their sordid table. The Vultures can do no harm as far as these group of people are concerned. These crumb guzzlers increase the vulnerability of our political health wreaking havoc to the minds of our people by peddling the false gospels of the Vultures. Nonetheless, the Political Vultures and their beneficiaries are not the majority of Nigerians. We, the people of Nigeria, need to engage the tips suggested above, step by step, day by day and vote by vote as we patiently rebuild our political health eliminating all vulnerabilities moving towards 2023 and beyond. We the people are the ones who can keep the Nigerian Political Vultures at bay without leaving destruction in their ‘wake’.

Dr. Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor is Author of the Book, My Father’s Daughter.