By David Onwuchekwa
As another political season gradually unfolds and 2027 draws closer, the Nigerian political space is once again heating up.
Predictably, a familiar cast of characters is re-emerging, political fraudsters who are already oiling their machinery, rehearsing their lines, and perfecting strategies to inundate the public with deception, exaggeration, and outright falsehoods.
Their objective remains the same: to confuse, manipulate, and ultimately hoodwink a largely unsuspecting electorate.
It’s unfortunate that some of those people who call themselves politicians errornously think that to be a politician means to be a liar, dishonest and shameless.
These political fraudsters are not anomalies; they are widespread. They exist in every state including Anambra, every region, and across political parties.
Sadly, many citizens do not fully understand or recognize them for what they are. Even more troubling is the role played by sections of the media in sustaining this menace. Some media professionals, many operating far below ethical and professional standards as a result of inadequate training as a media person, willingly lend themselves to image laundering.
For paltry sums, they amplify false narratives, manufacture achievements, and project hollow personalities as competent leaders, thereby misleading the public and poisoning the democratic process.
Closely aligned with these fraudsters are self-serving advisers and aides, individuals whose primary motivation is personal aggrandizement. These advisers lack the courage and integrity to tell the truth. They suppress honest counsel, encourage delusions of grandeur, and promote decisions rooted in selfish interest rather than public good.
This culture of deception, sycophancy, and opportunism has sadly become entrenched in Nigerian political life.
When such individuals eventually gain access to public office, the consequences are always devastating.
Accountability becomes nonexistent. Transparency is treated as an enemy. Governance grinds to a halt. Promised projects vanish into thin air, while public funds are brazenly diverted into private businesses and personal empires.
These acts are carried out with impunity, driven by the belief that influence, intimidation, or compromise will neutralize anyone bold enough to demand answers.
It is therefore imperative for the electorate to wake up and take responsibility. Nigerians must begin to decisively reject political fraudsters and their syrupy campaigns. Many of these individuals present themselves as philanthropists, problem-solvers, and benevolent figures, yet their records reveal little or nothing to support such claims.
Philanthropy, when genuine, leaves verifiable footprints; when false, it collapses under scrutiny.
How, then, do we identify political fraudsters? First, they lie, habitually and effortlessly. Their campaigns are filled with contradictions, inflated achievements, and promises that have no bearing on reality.
The solution is simple but demanding: verify their claims. Speak to people who truly know them, their communities, former associates, colleagues, and beneficiaries, if any. Truth has a way of surfacing when facts are honestly examined.
These fraudsters often cloak themselves in intelligence, sophistication, and calculated charm. They speak eloquently but act deceitfully. They promise reform while practicing exploitation. They preach transparency while perfecting secrecy. What they consistently fail to understand is that reckoning is inevitable.
NATURE neither forgets nor forgives. Actions, no matter how carefully hidden, always carry consequences.
Political fraudsters should therefore be avoided as much as possible. Any mandate handed to them is nothing but a renewal of suffering, hardship, injustice, and systemic abuse of power.
It is a direct gateway to the continued siphoning of public resources and the steady erosion of citizens’ rights and dignity.
The electorate must remain alert, critical, and uncompromising. Political fraudsters should be avoided like lepers, not out of hatred, but out of wisdom and self-preservation.
Their promises are false, their motives questionable, and their engagements suspicious. Only a vigilant and discerning electorate can break the cycle of recycled failure and reclaim governance for the common good.
