’What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun’’

• Ecclesiastes 1verse 9

You never know what you can achieve until staying alive is your only option, is a maxim that will easily resonate with the average Nigerian today. The nation is sliding into economic asphyxiation; impelled by the inept leadership of the Buhari government. A government that came into power riding on the crests of a change mantra and a tumultuous amount of goodwill as never seen before in Sub-Saharan Africa, has shockingly frittered it all away ; leaving in its wake misery, despondency and abject poverty.

With people currently trading their children for morsels of food, double digits inflation rates, spiralling unemployment, countless deaths occasioned by a high level of internal insecurity and the nation officially set to go into recession, Nigeria could not have painted a gloomier picture.

So gloomy that Nigerians, including diehard adherents of Buhari, have begun to set their sights already on the 2019 general elections when they hope to kick him out of office through the same means he was voted into power; the ballot box. However, a number of concerns have been raised as to the plausibility of voting Buhari out of office after his four year tenure, and these concerns are very valid because they are entrenched in irrefutable facts.

Buhari has made appointments that are insensitively skewed in favour of the North West and North East regions in total violation of the federal character principles of the constitution on the one hand, and that of an inclusive governance structure that is necessary for a diverse nation like Nigeria, on the other. On the surface of it, these appointments are based on the implicit trust he has in the appointees. But on closer scrutiny, it is apparent that they are strategic.

Take for instance the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headed by Professor Mahmood Yakubu. If you needed anyone to conduct a shambolic election whose outcome will be in your favour, it will be a herculean task getting a better choice than the current INEC chairman. From Kogi, to Bayelsa and Rivers States respectively, the evidence stares one in the face in an inconclusive manner. Added to this is the fact that Nigeria’s internal security apparatus is firmly under the control of Buhari’s Northern loyalists. These aforementioned government agencies play pivotal roles during elections.

It is therefore against this backdrop that a particular narrative is gradually gaining traction with each passing day on social media platforms: one that suggests that Buhari cannot be voted out of office. It is a narrative that needs to be frontally addressed based on our political realities before it assumes a mythical life of its own.

Buhari may have strategically structured his government in a fashion that will ensure he is not voted out of office, but whether his strategy provides a veritable leverage for a second term irrespective of his poor performance is a different proposition. The truth is Buhari can be voted out of office.

The growing disenchantment amongst Nigerians is palpable. These are people who before the 2015 general elections, were made to accept the possibility of an Eldorado, when impossibility was an unembellished reality. A reality that now bites harder than the Russian winter. With the gloves finally off in the confrontation between the Legislature and the Executive, it will be a miracle if the APC remains as one party in the run up to the 2019 general elections. In addition, the fact that the North Central that voted massively in his favour has received the shorter end of the stick from the rampaging Fulani herdsmen while he maintains a stoic silence, as well as a South East region that will definitely not be as apathetic as they were during the last elections, it becomes difficult to see how Buhari will swing it if he continues on this appalling path of incompetence.

It must be noted that Buhari’s first coming was also shrouded in a cloud of invincibility and infallibility. His structure as Head of State follows the same trajectory with what we are witnessing today; ethnocentrism and nepotism. But he was eventually kicked out. If as a military HoS Buhari could not guarantee an interminable flow of megalomania, l find it difficult to believe he will pull it off in a democracy. If he could be kicked out under a military regime, he can be kicked out under a democratic dispensation. Fortunately, a demystification process is already taking place.

Subjected to analytical evaluation, Buhari’s strategy is intended to achieve one purpose: that of making Nigerians feel helpless and hopeless. The pertinent question then is, should it be grounds for us to raise our hands in hapless surrender? Definitely not! We will continue to leverage our civic responsibility as Nigerians by holding the government to account and identifying it as the failure it currently is. The assumption that it cannot be changed is vexatious, defeatist and reprehensibly escapist.

In politics, you have to pay attention to what is happening; not listen to the cacophonic discordant chatter of triumphalism which the sycophantic army of Buhari supporters continues to fabricate. And what is happening is simple: a growing cross section of Nigerians is agreed on the fact that Buhari has thus far been a regrettable disappointment and are therefore fed up with the government he leads.

At such a time as this, Nigerians desire a leader that should unite the nation and galvanize the citizenry towards the path of national rebirth. Not one that continues to exploit our ethnic vulnerabilities and differences. Not one that has foisted the worst economy in ages on us. As things stand, Nigerians are striving to barely survive and stay alive. If voting out Buhari for bringing them to this sorry pass is the difference between life and death, Nigerians will do it.

Without blinking!

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Charles Ohia, an Environmental Management Consultant whose tweetprints are visible on @9jaBloke, writes from Sheffield.