We Will Reclaim Nigeria—By Ballot or By Consciousness Awakening: The Position of the Nigeria Diaspora Coalition for Change.

The Diaspora Is Done Waiting!

By LaBode Obanor

From every continent where Nigerians in the diaspora have made their reluctant homes, we watch in searing anger as our homeland spirals deeper into catastrophe. The Nigeria of 2025 is not simply a nation in crisis—it is a nation on life support. The time for passive observation is over.

A once-bright star now smothered by insecurity, economic strangulation,  shameless nepotism, and the toxic grip of religious and ethnic bias— governed by a political class so drenched in political arrogance and so allergic to accountability that it no longer even pretends to serve, but merely survives, insulated by impunity.

Today, bodies still lie mangled along interstate roadways, from frontage roads to hinterland corridors — so-called lifelines turned into corridors of death. I witnessed one such crash with my own eyes: a bloodied testament to a government that builds highways without pedestrian bridges, modernization without human dignity, and infrastructure without the faintest respect for life.

And the rot does not stop at the roads. It snakes into every artery of the nation:

   •          Terrorists massacre villages in Borno, leaving mass graves.

   •          Banditry and kidnapping have become cottage industries in Zamfara, Katsina, Niger States, and beyond.

   •          Several communities in Plateau, Benue, and Kaduna States are destroyed — answered only by the government’s tired and insulting refrains: “We are investigating.” “We are committed.” “We condemn.”

Inflation now hovers around 34.8%, devouring wages before they even touch bank accounts. Food prices skyrocket, strangling families.

The Naira, once a symbol of our sovereignty, now lies in the dust, humiliated at ₦1,585.45 to a single U.S. dollar — a death sentence for millions.

Protests erupt, fueled by hunger and despair, only to be met with bullets, batons, and repression disguised as “law and order.”

Social collapse is visible in the broken faces of parents who cannot feed their children, and in the endless exodus of young Nigerians desperate to flee.

Political decay is unmistakable in a ruling elite that treats governance like a ceremonial inconvenience.

President Tinubu’s unexplained absences abroad, while bodies pile up at home, symbolize a leadership class detached from the everyday agony of its people.

Democracy itself has decayed into a tragic theater of fraudulent elections, rubber-stamp legislatures, and a presidency that treats absence as a right instead of a scandal.

Meanwhile, a new wave of youth despair grips the nation: universities churn out graduates only for them to be greeted by a wasteland of unemployment, underemployment, and digital fraud. Even the “lucky” ones abroad live in emotional exile, hearts torn between homesickness and security nightmares.

Government by Excuse, Nation by Neglect

The Tinubu administration — like those before it — has mastered the art of performative governance: delivering glossy slogans, jetting across European capitals, attending summits, and issuing hollow “assurances”—while back home, Nigeria bleeds from every vein.

We are ruled by men who mistake silence for peace, poverty for resilience, and compliance for loyalty. But the truth is: a government absent from its people’s pain is not a government at all. It is a predator — living fat on the suffering it manufactures.

While Nigerians cry out under the weight of insecurity and hunger, officials congratulate themselves at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and post self-congratulatory messages on social media.

They rule, but they do not govern.

They exist, but they do not serve.

The Diaspora Betrayed: Empty Promises, Broken Trust

Even as Nigerians abroad send over $20 billion annually—funds that buoy an otherwise collapsing economy—we are treated by the Nigerian state as little more than cash dispensers without voices.

Year after year, we have demanded the right to participate meaningfully in the governance of our homeland. We have called for diaspora voting—a basic democratic right enjoyed by citizens of Ghana, Kenya, and even a war-torn nation like Somalia. And year after year, the Nigerian government offers the same tired, insulting, and litany of excuses:

   •          “We are committed to diaspora inclusion.”

   •          “Diaspora voting is under consideration.” 

   •          “Reforms are underway.”

Yet, where are we today?

   •          The Electoral Act remains silent on diaspora voting.

   •          All bills proposing diaspora enfranchisement have been stalled, suffocated, or sabotaged in the National Assembly.

   •          There is no constitutional amendment, political will, or pathway to participation.

Meanwhile, at every election season, officials flock abroad with grand speeches about the importance of the diaspora. They attend galas, they pose for photos, and they collect awards. But when it comes to allowing us a ballot, a voice, a stake in the nation we help sustain, they slam the door in our faces.

This is not an oversight. This is betrayal. Calculated, Deliberate, and Inexcusable.

The political class fears us, not just because we cannot be bought cheaply, bullied easily, or fooled eternally, but because we possess what they lack: independent minds, unshakable organizational power, and the rare ability to unite across religious and ethnic lines without prejudice. We are the antithesis of the division they weaponize. We demand a nation built on merit, not mediocrity—on justice, not patronage—and that terrifies them

A National Quagmire, A Diaspora Awakening

Nigeria is sinking under the weight of systemic failure, driven by an illegitimate constitution that protects the powerful while disenfranchising the people.

   •          A security collapse fueled by weak governance, unchecked impunity, and a state more interested in protecting its image than its citizens.

   •          An economic implosion driven by corruption and incompetence.

   •          Political atrophy maintained by voter disenfranchisement and cynical manipulation

   •          And a diaspora exclusion that ensures the best and brightest Nigerians are systematically locked out of reforming the system.

Yet amidst this darkness, a flame rises.

We, the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change, refuse to accept this rot as normal. We refuse to fund a homeland that treats its children as strangers.

Our Demands Are Simple. Our Resolve is unbreakable.

The demands of the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change—and of other major organizations committed to national redemption—are clear, urgent, and just. We do not ask for favors; we demand what is owed.

We demand:

   •Immediate passage of diaspora voting legislation, with concrete timelines before the next electoral cycle.

   •          Emergency security reforms grounded in local accountability, civilian protection, and the dismantling of the state’s culture of impunity.

   •          Economic policies that prioritize food security, currency stability, and job creation, not the perpetual enrichment of political cartels.

   •          Full respect for democratic rights: freedom of protest, freedom of the press, and an end to police brutality.

   •          Direct diaspora inclusion—beyond symbolic galas— through voting, appointments, and policymaking influence.

·        And critically, a comprehensive review of the Nigerian Constitution to eliminate the clauses and framework that enshrine religious and ethnic bias, suppress equity, and protect dysfunction under the guise of federalism.

These are not mere reforms; they are prerequisites for survival.

Until these demands are met, we will escalate:

   •          International advocacy campaigns targeting Nigerian embassies, multilateral institutions, and global human rights forums.

   •          Economic leverage strategies — including calls for conditionality on development aid and remittance activism.

   •          Unified mass mobilizations, online and on the ground, to expose the machinery of lies that sustains the rot.

The Next Step Starts Now

To every Nigerian abroad:

Now is not the time for polite despair.

Now is the time to organize, mobilize, and to confront this betrayal with every tool available —legal, diplomatic, media, and financial.

   •          Join our coalition - the Nigeria Diaspora Coalition for Change.

   •          Amplify our demands.

   •          Withdraw your financial support strategically.

   •          Refuse the propaganda that asks for loyalty without accountability.

We must not weep silently while our homeland burns.

We must become the storm that washes away this rot.

Because Nigeria belongs to all her children—those at home and abroad.

We will reclaim her by ballot if they allow it, or by revolution of conscience if they do not.

Until justice prevails, until leadership means service, not exploitation, we will not relent, we will not forget, and we will not forgive.

The time of polite begging is over.

The era of radical change has begun.

LaBode Obanor,

Board Member—Strategy and Implementation Lead,                                       Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change

May 1, 2025