All too soon, politics, not governance, is served hot and steamy to Nigerians. All too predictable, the next election cycle has suffused the mind of the people. The lords of the manor, politicians, always ahead of the people, have ingeniously engaged the subconscious of their constituents with issues of 2027 general elections. Not issues of good governance, not accountability. Just primeval politics.

It’s their usual strategy. Get the people busy with discourses and diatribes on politics so they don’t pry into how they are governed. Strangely, Nigerians keep falling for their bait. Politics of 2027 is soggy everywhere you turn. How can Tinubu be unseated? Who returns as governor, senator, House member? These are the familiar rhymes. They provoke rhythms of sore pain. They create vicious vibes among the various tribes; among professionals, students, market women and even among motor park urchins. This is exactly what the politicians want and how they want it. It’s their snare to easily ensnare their constituents.

And while the people who don’t even realise they have been scammed once again beef and bellyache over 2027 and allied matters, they take their mind away from the real business of governance and development. They are blind-sighted to the looting of their collective till by the same tribe of politicians the people gripe and growl to defend. Just imagine that a good two years plus to 2027, all you hear is alliances and coalition.

Nasir el-Rufai, the stormy petrel of northern politics, has ditched the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party he invested huge capital in emotion and cash just to shoo the old accursed lady, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), out of the Presidency in 2015. He has now found a snug spot in the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Many others are on the queue to join him, reportedly. A gang of bitter politicians. A club of strange bed fellows united in grief; a tribe of whingers outfoxed in their former political nests called parties. That’s what the SDP will become if the touted gladiators eventually join the party. But don’t write them off just yet. The APC was once mocked by the PDP as a party of bitter people but in their assumed bitterness, they sacked Goodluck Jonathan and his PDP from Aso Rock. This is why President Tinubu ought to be worried and should be worried by the puff of fumes coming out of the emerging coalition.

In Rivers, politics of a noxious dimension is unfolding, emitting even more toxic fumes every passing day. The Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, is embattled. The state House of Assembly is beleaguered. It’s all politics while governance has taken a holiday. The matter of security and welfare of the people which is the primary duty of every government in Nigeria (as spelt out lucidly in the Constitution) is left unattended to. Rivers politicians and their recruits are either fighting for the survival of the governor or the triumph of the Assemblymen in what is now an open war of attrition. The welfare of the people has been put on hold.

Delta state, once a PDP-dominant hub, is assuming a different halo. Senator Ned Nwoko, Great Ogboru, two political heavyweights in the state and others in the lightweight and bantamweight categories have emptied into the APC. As it now stands, all three senators in Delta are of the APC stock. Many more alignments and re-alignments are afoot, all dancing to the gong beats of 2027. Again, nobody interrogates the business and dialectics of governance. Politicians have brewed a broth of politics for the people and some are already drunk and in soggy ruins.

Lagos state, our darling Lagos, is still cooking its peculiar pottage of politics that has seen the state Assembly’s speakership position take a spin like the Russian roulette. Here today, there tomorrow. The long knives are still drawn with accusation and counter-accusation of fraud. Speaker Mudasiru Obasa and ex-Speaker Mojisola Meranda should just embrace each other and spare Nigerians the theatrics, notwithstanding their Wednesday night meeting with President Tinubu.

These days, two years away from 2027, everywhere you look, the talk is about politics, not governance. We are still relishing the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tale (real or imagined) from the Senate. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a lady who charms us with her beauty and intelligence, is on a volatile voyage with the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, another brilliant politician from Akwa Ibom. Such has been the domino effect of politics in the National Assembly. One event triggers another; and governance suffers because those elected to make laws for the good governance of the nation are busy brawling over bedroom matters and issues of rule.

But it is not peculiar to this government. Previous administrations walked the same path of politics pro-max and zero governance. Obasanjo spent his eight years fighting the legislature and feuding with his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, in an open show of Executive rascality. Gentleman Umaru Yar’Adua played the politics of hide and seek with the nation pretending to be fit for the job even when it was too obvious that he was unwell. His unwillingness to resign on account of ill-health prepared the stage for one of the grandest political brinkmanship ever played on the nation’s political stage. Goodluck Jonathan was a victim of his own innate foibles. He was a weak leader as well as a poor politician. So, his recruits helped him to play the politics and mischievously played him out of power. At the end he got stewed.

It’s obvious that Nigeria has never had good governance, the type they desire and deserve. All we have had in nearly 26 years of democracy is politics. The people must halt this perennial acquiescence to politics at the expense of governance.

Politicians may be feeding their fat ego and stuffing their deep pockets from the macabre dance but they should know that judgment awaits them here and in the hereafter. It’s just a matter of time.