They Don’t Really Care About Us by Folahan Johnson

Author Folahan Johnson

All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us,cos all they really want to do is to get in touch with the big box- 2BabaAll I want to say is that they don’t really care about us. They never have. Because all they really want is to get in touch with the big box; the treasury, the contracts, the allocations, the sheer unrestrained access to public funds that political power guarantees in Nigeria.

Everything else, the tears on camera, the rolled-up sleeves at campaign grounds, the “man of the people” theatrics — is packaging. And we’ve been buying it for far too long.The Privileged Class Pretending to Be CommonLet’s be very clear about something: the political class in Nigeria contains a critical mass of some of the best-educated and most privileged minds this country has ever produced. These are not people who stumbled into power from the margins of society. Most of them come from, at a minimum, upper-middle-class families.

They attended the finest public schools when it was still a mark of prestige to attend our public institutions — from Federal Government Colleges to the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, the University of Lagos, and their peers. Some of them received government-funded scholarships to study at international universities, Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics, Harvard and were fully funded through their programmes with taxpayer money.They came back, entered politics, and made it their lifelong assignment to ensure that most Nigerians never access the same privilege.

The ladder they climbed? They pulled it up behind them. The public schools that educated them? Defunded. The scholarship programmes that sent them abroad? Quietly dismantled or redirected to their own children and cronies. And now, with straight faces, they stand before cameras and tell us they understand our suffering.They do not.The Art of Edging and AlignmentIn their wicked genius, as it is often called, the Nigerian political class has mastered the game of edging and alignment. They know exactly when to pivot, when to cry on national television, when to suddenly “discover” that fuel prices are too high, and when to post sentimental messages on social media about the plight of the common man.

It is all choreographed.Consider: a man who first served as Speaker of his State House of Assembly, then went on to become governor for two full terms — eight years in the Government House — and then pivoted to become a federal minister for another seven years. That is a man who has been feeding from the public purse for nearly two decades.

That is a man whose pension alone is more than what entire local government areas spend on primary healthcare. And this same man wants a Nigerian — someone from a family where being out of school has been generational, where three meals a day is an ambition rather than a given — to believe they are suffering the same fate?He is going on and on, trying to gaslight us into thinking he is not part of the problem. But he is. He is the very architecture of the problem.Or take the latest episode playing out before our very eyes as I write this.

A former governor of a prominent northern state — a man who governed for eight years, served as a minister, and was so deep in the corridors of power that his voice alone could move policy — suddenly wants us to see him as a “concerned citizen.” He is writing open letters to the National Security Adviser about the alleged importation of a dangerous, odourless poison, demanding transparency and accountability. On the surface, it sounds noble. A man of conscience. A patriot standing up for the people.But let us not be foolish.

This is a man who, not too long ago, sat at the very table where these kinds of decisions are made. A man who had direct access to every security briefing, every intelligence report, every classified conversation that ordinary Nigerians can only speculate about.

When he was in power, did we see open letters? Did we see this same zeal for transparency? Where was this “concerned citizen” energy when he had the actual power to demand answers from within the system rather than performing accountability on social media for public applause?

And as one sharp observer rightly pointed out: if this were a genuine pursuit of truth rather than political theatre, there are proper legal channels — Freedom of Information requests, formal petitions, judicial processes — that would compel a response. But those routes don’t generate headlines and retweets, do they? They don’t position you as a man of the people ahead of the next election cycle.

So instead, we get a carefully photographed letter, posted at midnight for maximum engagement, dripping with the performative outrage of a man who wants you to forget that he was part of the machinery that created the very opacity he now pretends to challenge.This is the playbook. This is how they do it. Every Single Time And this can be said of nearly every politician in Nigeria who has been active since the return to democracy in 1999.

From the Senate to the State Houses of Assembly, from gubernatorial mansions to local government chairmanships, the same faces rotate through the system, recycling themselves like a political merry-go-round. They lose one election, get appointed to a board. They lose a board seat, they become “party leaders.” They are never truly out of power. They are never truly one of us.The Occupy Nigeria Playbook: We’ve Seen This Film BeforeEvery electoral cycle, politicians who were once insiders reinvent themselves as outsiders. They master the language of the streets, adopt the anger of the masses, and position themselves as champions of the common cause.

We saw this most clearly during the Occupy Nigeria protests of January 2012.When Nigerians took to the streets to protest the sudden removal of fuel subsidies under President Goodluck Jonathan, many of the politicians who marched alongside us fists raised, voices loud, were not there because they shared our pain. They were there because they saw an opportunity.

We were made to believe we were all comrades, serving the same purpose, fighting the same fight. But we were not. Many of those same “comrades” rode the wave of that protest straight into political office, and once they got there, they implemented policies far more punishing than the ones they marched against.

Some of those who screamed “subsidy must stay” in 2012 were the very architects of its complete removal in 2023.The same pattern played out during the #EndSARS movement in 2020. Politicians rushed to social media to express solidarity, changed their profile pictures, issued press statements condemning police brutality. And then? The movement was crushed. The protesters were labelled criminals. The same politicians who stood in “solidarity” went silent — or worse, actively supported the crackdown. The truth is, they were never with us. They were simply positioning for the next election cycle.We keep getting played. And the only reason it keeps working is because we keep allowing it.

The Audacity of Amnesia: We Remember EverythingAnd so it has begun again, ahead of the 2027 elections, with some already positioning for 2031. The old script is dusted off, and the rehearsals are underway with their usual fake-empathy costumes. But Nigerians must not lose focus this time.

We must not be swayed by this tired rhetoric from a political class that treats governance like a private enterprise and public office like a retirement plan.Let us be unequivocal: anyone who has been a politician in this country is a public servant and should be treated as such. You are not our ally. You are not our comrade. You are an employee of the Nigerian people, and your record is your CV. You either audition correctly, with verifiable evidence of what you have done with every opportunity you have been given, or you get out of our faces with your poor attempts to rebrand yourself as a people’s person.

You are not.Just yesterday, we couldn’t come near you because of the charade of heavily armed security details who brutalised Nigerians simply for having the courage to speak up on issues that affect their daily lives. We are not allies.It was just a few moons ago that one of you boldly declared on live television that people would be “sent home in body bags” if they dared demand free and fair elections.

We are not allies.It was not long ago that budgets meant to fund hospitals, schools, and roads were diverted into private pockets while you told us to “be patient.” We are not allies.You have been a major part of the problem. You have sustained the systems that keep the majority of Nigerians poor, uneducated, and voiceless. And we are not falling for your propaganda again.

To the actual comradesTo my fellow Nigerians, I want to urge us to keep our eyes firmly on the goal. Let us commit to educating more people about the core issues: governance accountability, fiscal transparency, service delivery, and the power of the ballot. Let us build networks of informed citizens who cannot be swayed by emotional manipulation or ethnic dog-whistling.It reminds me of Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon, when she declared: “I must now proceed as if I am on my own.” She said this when her husband seemed unwilling to support her rightful claim to the throne, when her allies were deserting her because of unfounded propaganda by the Greens.

In that moment, she stopped waiting for others to validate her cause and took ownership of her destiny.My people, we must adopt that same posture. We must proceed as if we are on our own because we truly are. No politician is coming to save us. No party is inherently better than the other until proven so by evidence. The only power we have is the power of our votes, our voices, and our refusal to be tools in the hands of tired and retired political actors who see us as nothing more than stepping stones.Vote on merit. Vote on track record. Vote on evidence.

Demand that any politician who wants your vote comes to the open arena and makes their case , not in living rooms with a few gatekeepers, not through WhatsApp propaganda, not through hired praise-singers but in the full glare of public scrutiny where their record can be examined and their promises interrogated.Have a great week ahead. Go and get your voter’s card if you haven’t already. Register. Mobilise. And when the time comes, starting from the local government elections, vote for the right candidates. Not the loudest. Not the richest. Not the most sentimental.

The right ones.Our future depends on it.

About the author

Folahan Johnson is a Governance Innovation Consultant dedicated to bridging the gap between public institutions and citizen realities across West Africa.

With over a decade of experience advising more than 20 subnational governments, he specializes in designing "people-first" systems that integrate fiscal transparency, behavioral insights, and inclusive service delivery. Currently a Technical Assistant for the World Bank-backed SABER program and Executive Director of the Centre for Inclusive Social Development (CISD), Folahan works primarily behind the scenes to transform complex policy into measurable social impact. A writer and systems-thinker at heart, he draws inspiration from literature and his travels, fueled by a commitment to building transparent governance structures that serve the wider community.

Subscribe to Folahan’s newsletter and Medium account. Follow Folahan on all socials: Instagram || X || LinkedIn