IS THE PROBLEM OF NIGERIA THE ATTITUDE OF NIGERIANS?
OUR LEADERS COME FROM US, SO IF LEADERS ARE BAD, IS THAT NOT A POINTER THAT THE PROBLEM IS WITH THE LED?
In a school with unruly students, it must take a higher authority to restore order. So the prefects must stepup to restore order failing which it has to take the teachers failing which it has to take the Headteacher failing which it has to take the proprietor failing which it has to take the Govt that licenced the school. But if we expect the students on their own to have an attitudinal change and somehow stop and begin to behave well, then it’s almost impracticable that this is going to happen. Applying this to Nigeria is to say it must take leadership to restore order in our country. So those who think the citizens on their own should just start behaving well without any authority restoring order are hallucinating.
Now to the question of leadership, it is true that leadership doesn’t fall from the skies and leaders come from us but God in His wisdom did not create every one of us as leaders. I think at the risk of grave error will say that God does not create more than 5-10% of humanity with true leadership qualities. The problem with Nigeria is that we have so far not gotten true leaders into the highest office in the land and downwards. This is why it is important that we all get involved in shopping for and installing true leaders to lead us. The appointment of an MD to a company is not left to cleaners and drivers in the company, it is the highest body – the Board – that makes the appointment. But in Nigeria we have relegated the recruitment of leaders to the jobless, hungry, unenlightened folks who can’t see beyond N500 or a loaf of bread. So until the enlightened community in Nigeria begin to take leadership recruitment as a critical activity demanding all of our involvement, we will continue to see pretenders in leadership positions recruited for us by those ready to sell their votes for a morsel of bread.
To buttress my point, before Prof Dora Akunyili there were men who held the job of DG NAFDAC but we did not even know an agency of Govt with that name existed. When Dora a true leader (within the band of 5-10% created) took the saddle, we all witnessed the change she brought to that organisation. Yes she was a Nigerian and came from us but she was also a leader which is not what we all are including those who held the job before her. It’s same for other leadership positions in Nigeria, once we recruit the right people, Nigeria will take off!
When we talk of attitude of the citizens, I will post here a video (30 seconds in length) of a street corner in London. You will count a dozen cameras within that little space. So when we see people in London behaving well, obeying traffic lights, not speeding, not parking anyhow etc we may be mistaken to think it is their attitude. No it is not! what’s compelling them to behave well is the leaders who are monitoring every move of the citizens and will not hesitate to pick offenders off the streets into prisons. The UK alone has 80,000 people locked away in prison. The US has over 2m! it is for this that the society has attained a level of sanity we think it’s an attitudinal change! take away the law enforcement and you will see anarchy immediately! we saw a bit of that in the US during the elections last year!
So all said and done, a society is as good as the leadership. It is not the other way round. So if anybody wants to solve Nigeria, there is no better way than to go to a voter registration centre, get on the voter’s register, and then step forward to vote for the right candidates in 2023. Yes people say votes don’t count but they do count and have most recently counted in Anambra as they have done elsewhere in other states too. People also say the parties throw up bad candidates but that’s the major parties. We have fringe parties that field good candidates in each electoral circle and if we are armed with our voter’s cards then we can cause a tsunami and upsurp and upbend both PDP and APC and march ahead with a new Nigeria.
Infact once the major parties see us armed with our voter’s cards, they’ll be forced to field good candidates because they handwriting will be on the wall that it’s game over for bad candidates!
The voter’s card presents the most legitimate, legal, constitutional and non violent means to change Govt. If you argue with this then present any credible alternatives you have. Rejecting the voter’s card as a solution but not preferring a better solution exposes you to be working for the cabal currently oppressing us and resisting a change in the status quo.
Nick Agule
Email: nick.agule@yahoo.co.uk
Facebook: Nick Agule, FCA
Twitter: @NickAgule
Leave a Reply