Media personality Sola Kuti has contended that Nigeria’s problems are not simply a matter of who is in charge, but rather a reflection of deep-seated flaws within the country’s political structure.
Speaking during a conversation about Nigerian politics, Kuti drew a parallel between former presidential candidate Peter Obi and the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, warning that Nigerians may be setting themselves up for disappointment by placing the same kind of lofty expectations on Obi that they once placed on Buhari.
He recalled that Buhari entered office riding a wave of public enthusiasm, with many citizens convinced he would root out corruption and steer the nation in the right direction expectations that his administration ultimately fell short of.
In his view, Obi risks becoming a similar story, not necessarily because of personal failings, but because the system itself is the obstacle.
Kuti argued that even a leader with the best of intentions would find themselves hemmed in by powerful vested interests and entrenched structures that resist meaningful change.
He used Buhari as a case in point, noting that despite being widely regarded as a man of principle, he left office without achieving any significant reforms a fact Kuti found telling about the nature of the system rather than the man.
His central message was that Nigeria’s governance crisis is structural in nature. Until the system itself is overhauled, he suggested, swapping one leader for another will do little to produce the transformation that ordinary Nigerians are hoping for.