For so many years now, Nigerians have been clamoring for a certain type of leader. A leader that will submit himself to the yearnings of the Nigerian people and devote himself to taking us from our current precarious situation, where an entire country is on the brink, to a land flowing with milk and honey; a land where its many resources will be used to grow the economy and benefit its people.
A quick look at our past however indicates that Nigeria has had these types of leaders before!! Although I was too young to fully appreciate it, but my history lessons point to certain leaders of yesteryears such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and a few others. The legacies of these men as leaders of the Western and Eastern regions still exist for all to see. Most of the roads, schools, universities and some industries that we are proud of in the West came about during the tenure of the late sage. The same goes for the Eastern region during the time of Zik. And all of these giant strides in development came about at a time when Nigeria had no crude oil, making the feats achieved all the more impressive.
These are the types of leaders that Nigerian’s want, but the question should be also be asked as to whether we deserve these kinds of leaders? I ask this question because I read somewhere once that “a country gets the kind of leaders its people deserve”. This statement got me thinking!
Arguably, the greatest problem of the country today is corruption. This cankerworm has cost our nation an estimated $600bln over the last 40 years, if newspaper reports are anything to go by. I wonder if this figure is simply hard cash or has been calculated to also include the amount of economic value that the money could have generated. As some of us may know, N1 can generate as much as N5 of economic value, depending on the national bank reserve rate. Therefore, if the $600bln is simply in hard cash, then Nigeria may have lost as much as $3trillion in economic value over the last 40 years.
However, while Nigerians cry out daily for an all out war on corruption, deep down, are we really ready and willing to kick the habit? The soul of the Nigerian has been consumed by corruption so much so that it is no longer a “big man” thing. It has eaten into our very fabric and has now become a part of us.
We all say that we want an end to corrupt practices, yet how many of us, working in a position with access to the necessary documents evidencing corruption in our civil service, banks, school, universities etc have ever made these known to the EFCC? How can we hate corruption as a people and yet process the documents that make so much of it possible on a daily basis?
An interesting scene played out during the trial and conviction of the Bode George. I watched a couple of the proceedings on television and I observed that at every court appearance, there were always a band of men and women, gaily dressed in Aso-ebi, a new one for every court appearance, singing his praise! A time was in this country, that just the charging of someone to court would have made one’s supporters to fade away, lest they themselves be seen as supporting corruption. I agree that a man is innocent until proven guilty, but now that he has been proven guilty, we still hear reports of daily visits to his prison by PDP stalwarts and his ever loyal supporters. The same PDP that claims to be fighting corruption!! And what of his supporters? Can they be said to be interested in a corrupt free Nigeria?
Away from Bode George, I see and hear on a daily basis; things that make me believe that Nigerians are only paying lip service to the issues that confront us as a nation. It seems we openly criticize, but in our respective closets, we pray and wait for the time it will be our turn to occupy the exalted position.
Even down to mundane issues, we curse as to why there is so much traffic, when so many of us are guilty of driving against traffic, refusing to obey traffic lights cum wardens and clogging up street junctions; how won’t there be traffic? We blame the government for the filth on the streets, but yet everyone eats gala and pure water and throws the wrappers out of their cars as they drive; for whom to come and pick up? Some even come out of their houses to place their rubbish on street medians in the middle of the night; for whom to get rid off? I have equally seen shop owners sweeping the frontage of their shops, readying themselves for another day’s business, only to drop the waste into the gutter lining the front of their shop, but we wonder how come flooding seems to occur so frequently?
It seems Nigeria is one huge paradox. We want certain things as a people, but funny enough, we live our lives in the exact opposite way. And if this is the case as a people, can we expect the government to do any better? Especially if one considers that the government is meant to be a representation of the people?
Nigerians it would seem want a certain type of leader, but it would seem that we also deserve the kind of leaders that we have!!
