Politics & Power Quote by Ibrahim Babangida

Babangida’s line reads like a shrug dressed up as empowerment: Nigerians, he suggests, have learned to treat the state as background noise and to build their lives anyway. On its face, that sounds like a sturdy civic ethic - self-help, mutual aid, local initiative. In Nigeria’s lived reality, it also functions as a quiet admission that government has not been a reliable engine of mobility, and may not even be trying to be.

The phrasing does a lot of strategic work. “The average Nigerian person” flattens a country of wildly unequal access into a single, patient subject. “Has come to reconcile himself” implies resignation, not choice; reconciliation happens when expectations have been lowered by experience. Then comes the key rhetorical pivot: progress “remain essentially” in citizens’ hands “in collaboration” with one another. That nod to collective effort borrows the moral sheen of community while redirecting accountability away from institutions. It’s a soft way of saying: you’re on your own, but at least you have each other.

Coming from a statesman - and, crucially, a former military ruler - the subtext thickens. This is not just a sociological observation; it’s a political alibi. It reframes governance failure as popular maturity, turning coping mechanisms (hustle economies, informal networks, diaspora remittances, religious and ethnic associations) into a national philosophy. The intent is stabilizing: lower demands on the state, celebrate citizen improvisation, and dampen the moral pressure for redistribution, public services, and institutional reform.

It works because it sounds respectful. It flatters resilience while normalizing abandonment.