Nigeria as it stands is in a chaotic state; a situation where there is total lack of organization and control, a situation where corruption is the order of the day, a situation where egoism rules rather than altruism, a situation where there’s no any visible formal system of government, and even if we pretend to have a government, this government is paralyzed, ineffective or better described, the Nigeria government is at the state of apathy; emotional emptiness, where human life has and given no value, where we danced away our sorrows, where we replaced grief with merriment, where our leaders party away while we die in hundreds, where casualty is lied about, and where terrorism is politicized at the expense of human lives. We should expect further less from a country that has been characterized despite its acclaimed democratization with inept leadership, nepotism, electoral malpractices, bigotry, religious crises, dishonesty, immorality, and favoritism among others. The problems facing the Nigerian nation-state are too many to mention but a few, the failure of leadership, unemployment, ethnicity and religious intolerance further disunite us, the lack of capacity to utilize natural resources, corruption which permeates not only every aspect of our political system but also, every aspect of our lives, and not long ago, militancy which leads to kidnapping, bunkering, and recently terrorism which has caused us more woes than any other.
Though, they weren’t borne out of nothing, and it was as a result of causality, the principle that every event must have a cause. We’ve always played blame-game, and while the government, who is supposed to take responsibilities, blames others for it woes, citizens chose to fault the process in which those in government came into view. Have we ever thought of checking the inadequacies of those that occupied our political class, their inabilities to match their counterparts in other developing countries, and their incompetence as leaders? The greatest woe of all is the huge human resources available which is virtually untapped in all aspect of our lives; and which has led us to brain-drain syndrome, and also paved way for mediocrity to occupy the country’s politics.
But instead for us to admit that fact, those among us who have the propensity to address our problems philosophically, thus, argued that the woes started not today. Many hold claim to and fault the Amalgamation at the inception of colonialism, while some chose to blame the pre-independence nationalists for their ethnic and sectional chauvinism –that arose in their quest to inherit power from the departing colonialists, others blame the military intervention and hold them responsible for the failure of this dying nation. Such arguments are deductive, tentative, not tenable, and lack locus-standi. Even if colonialism was representing an exploitative interest of the British government, have we not read that the pace in which we developed during colonialism was faster? Faster than the uneven development of the societies that made up Nigeria today before our contact with the Europeans. Colonialism was not without its benefits, and these include the opening up to new civilization and the benefits of technology, the introduction of money economy, western education, and urbanization that fell out from colonialization. Further, If they are to be blamed, Zik wouldn’t be recognized as “the founder of modern Nigerian nationalism”, Awo wouldn’t have been said to be “an unyielding advocate of federalism”, a figure of free education and in the words of Late Major Gen. Odumegwu Ojukwu, “the best president Nigeria never had”, and Ahmadu Bello wouldn’t have been posited to be an altruistic leader. I am not going to make case for military intervention, because military governments proved no better and they always support themselves with corruption but there were exceptional cases as that of Muritala Muhammad and Buhari/Idiagbon regimes. Some tend to be moderate, and choose not to blame the formers, but pick on errors made in their pursuit for governance and fault them accordingly; had it been our pre-independence nationalists had not employ chauvinism and had built upon the template left behind by the colonial masters, restructured the polity and paved way for a united Nigeria, or maybe the military had not interrupted the First Republic and even when military intervention got to be utilitarian, had it been allowed to prevail, as that of the assassination of Muritala Muhammad and the overthrowing of Buhari/Idiagbon regime, we might see no need to blame or fault any struggle, administration or regime because Nigeria might have been a better place by now. But these are assumptions, a case of “had it been”.
Has anyone who chose to blame the collapse of this country on the formers deemed it fit to ask how patriotic these leaders were, in the cause of pursuing what they believed in? They were extra ordinarily brilliant and brave, they were articulate in their approaches, they showed an admirable quality such as great courage and strength of character while they led selflessly, though, their human nature wouldn’t be overrated as they were bound not to be perfect as every other human, but their legacies should have been set as templates to be built upon and not just ones we only talk about. It takes an imaginative mind to create, and it requires a genius to accurately position the imaginations of the mind. Thus, we should have called for better political status or enhanced technocrats to take charge of the country’s government institutions instead of leaving it in the hands of mediocre as we have it now. Why have we not craved for better managerial minds to mount the podium of leadership of this country, those who can exert strong influence, apply pressure, and manage authority in an attempt to have a powerful effect on our situation, those with unquestionable character, commonly or privately recognized and acknowledged not to have been subjected to doubt, distrust, egoism, and parochialism, those with radical view, without prejudice, ethnic bigotry, religious subjectivity and nepotism, those who not only belief in the act of uniting but also in the result of uniting, those with value, who will regard individual live and property as trust upon them and willing to protect them as important and useful, those with better understanding of constitutionalism, who will uphold the principles and practices of government and entrenchment of its institutions. I am saddened by the fact that, there has been a process, a political process in which it’s only through it the government can be accessed, and that process has been occupied by mediocrity of all forms. I want us to know as once posited by Eric Anderson, a British teacher that, “the most insidious influence on the young is not violence, drugs, tobacco or sexual perversion, but our pursuit of the trivial and our tolerance of the third rate.” Since we’ve choose mediocre, and most times mugger in power, thus, deficiency is what we get and such be the consequence of our hush.
The problems facing the Nigerian nation-state are too many to mention as earlier stated, but I am quite sure and want to believe; these problems are not too many for any government to address. What we need in government is not middling but exceptionality, qualities required in government is not mediocrity but meritocracy, attitudes that should borne out of governance shouldn’t be immorality but morality, persons in government shouldn’t appear caricature or egocentric, rather they must appear to be noble and be of true representation. I strongly agreed to the notion that it is until mediocrities are purged out from our political system that the three factors that are central to good governance will be achieved, namely, responsiveness, responsibility and a heart that constantly seeks public good.
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