Nigeria @ 59: Celebrating 59 Years Of Shortsighted Leadership & Absent-Minded Citizenry -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

I wish there was a better title for this piece because what I want to write about has something to do with proposing a way forward more than it had to do with chronicling the account of how leadership had failed the country since independence. It is imperative to realize that this country is in dire need for counselors with ideas that can help move the society forward.

As the Holy Bible said “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” No doubt, there are counselors among us but they need to begin to make themselves known. For wherever there was abundance of any resources; there must be a correspondent multitude of counselors for anything worthwhile to come from there otherwise abundance may translate into futility.

Hence for a start, I will try to answer a question that has been so thoroughly misunderstood. The question of the nature of Nigeria’s problems has remained a misunderstood subject essentially because no Nigerian was willing to accept that the deadliest enemy of any country was the average countryman! The greatest enemy of any individual is the man/woman on the inside.

Acknowledging this truth will go a long way in assisting the individual to recognize the part he/she must play as far as fulfillment of destiny was concerned. What is Nigeria’s problem like? Is it natural disasters? No. is it economic depression or a dilapidated economy? No. is it spiritual? No. is it because of an internal or external aggression? No. What is it then and why has it defied solutions?

This is the problem; it is about short-sighted leadership and about short-memory/absent-minded citizenry. In the 59 years of independent experience, these 2 has come to become what can be called a recurrent decimal. Nigerians have come to power in the past and had allowed themselves to be driven by parochial interests; making no meaningful impact in the process.

For a country such as ours; anything less than effective leadership was a hoax. During the same period, the citizens have become popular as a people who prefer to be a lackey by keeping silent in the face of mediocrity. On one occasion did the citizen rise against ‘leadership incompetence’ only to foist on themselves another leadership that is more mediocre than the one they rejected. This happened in 2015.

But how would they have known that they were going from the frying pan into fire? How would they have known this; when they left the task of unity and national cohesion in the hands of their politicians – politicians who lacked ideologies that engendered the cosmopolitan spirit which was an indispensible factor for shared prosperity because they became popular essentially from an ethnic background.

Therefore a divided people are what any mediocre, irresponsible and, backward-minded politician was looking for all the time or needed when they wanted to ascend unto power or when they wanted to remain there. But that so happens in countries where the citizens are more concerned about race loyalty than they are with national unity.

From the word go; Nigeria has never been united and any unity we claimed or held unto; existed only as long as the leader in power chose to not delve into nepotism and parochial sentiments. But should the leader be an ethnic jingoist one can expect to find the citizens willingly tolerating such nonsense.

In the First Republic, so many policies failed particularly because any deliberation for its implementation MUST pass the ethnic, religious and politicization tests. For instance, recall the famous Census of 1963 whose failure sparked a hot anti-government protest in then Western region.

The failure to do a proper head count in line with existing global best practices was simply because doing such could put the northern region in the minority. The British colonial powers had put the north in power on the foundation that they were the majority population-wise. Therefore, the easiest way to not lose out of power – in their thinking – was to maintain the usual lead by any means possible.

A visionary leadership would’ve cared more about directing the polity in the route to great wealth and power. The Late Singaporean statesman Dr. Lee Kuan Yew came from the majority Chinese stock but when in power; he distributed power, opportunities and state resources in a manner that bespoke of fairness, equity and justice.

He was less concerned about a trivial matter of who was who because he saw ahead of time that more wealth and opportunities lay before every Singaporean should he endeavor to make Singapore a global economic market. So while the likes of Sir Ahmadu Bello busied self with suppressing the middle belt people; Lee Kuan Yew busied himself with encouraging the minorities of Singapore to find expression.

In another instance, after the fall of the First Republic, the eventual Civil war and the Biafran surrender, the reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction (RRR) policy of the General Yakubu Gowon junta of the 70’s failed to meet general expectations because again, the factors of short-sighted leadership and absent-minded citizenry was present to thwart vision.

If the country had been faithful with that policy perhaps what is going on in the northeast Nigeria and the north-central states wouldn’t be. But an industrious people who had survived federal assault for almost 3 years were maliciously given almost nothing – a mere 20 pounds – to start life again. Yet, with bare hands and the sheer will to survive; the Igbos are where they are today.

Now, imagine that the RRR worked as planned; imagine that the wealth of these people were not snatched from them through the obnoxious banking fraud of the ages; the country’s industrial revolution would’ve been 10 times what obtained now. The Innoson Vehicles would’ve been rampant as the Cutix electric cables would’ve also been.

About the same time in the 70’s, the Indigenization Policy came into being but as usual it suffered the same fate as those before it. Short-sighted leadership and a short-memory citizenry in a collaborative effort did ensure that the policy’s implementation was ill-timed and not evenly distributed to allow widespread participation. The result is an amazing “Na mu ne” distribution that has made Nigeria worse off till today.

The industries are neither working nor are they turned unto any investor willing to buy-out. They are under lock and key with the machines mostly obsolete and rusting away. Jobs, they could not create and money they could not make. And so the unemployed youths who somehow even applauded the foolishness of the political class now find employment in kidnapping, terrorism, banditry and cattle rustling business.

Meanwhile, Nigeria grew in age because it was a necessary aspect of nature. Through all the juntas that came to power and left at one time or the other; brilliant policies continued to die in the hands of tribalism, religious differences and greed. Institutions of state could not stand or become strong; and even the constitutions’ sanctity was not spared. Systems of government did not survive either.

Many country men and women are today still waiting on General Ibrahim B. Babangida to explain his reasons for annulling the June 12^th presidential elections – a good way to spend one’s time; if you ask me. This has been my opinion because whatever the General was going to say cannot be out the compound words: short-sighted leadership or short-memory citizenry or followership.

October 1, 2019 – though marked the independence anniversary – is exactly 20 years, 4 months and 2 days since the 4^th Republic came to being on May 29^th, 2019. Has the country known any meaningful progress than used to be the case? The answer – I am sure you’ll concur – is a NO. Has there been leaders with the mindset to lead above short-sightedness? Yes, there has been.

What made them unable to achieve their goals? Absent-minded followership. In the case of Late Umaru Musa YarÁdua; his failure was due to the presence of myopic-minded persons like Mal. Rilwan Lukman and Dr. Mike Aoodooakar together with the Governor’s forum chairman – Dr. Bukola Saraki. 

When Prof. Charles Soludo announced the idea of currency re-decimation for the naira; these powerful forces confused the president and had him remove Soludo as CBN governor. How has the naira fared since then? In the NIPP project, Prof. Barth Nnaji was thrown out of office by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Where is the NIPP today?

In all fairness, I will advise Nigeria to celebrate @59 by praising self for having given life to short-sighted leadership as well as absent-minded followership. It’s an achievement that cannot be denied her for any reason. Only an absent-minded followership would’ve applauded the silly judgment from the 2019 presidential elections tribunal.     

Short-sighted leadership would rather damage the overall importance of education because it wished to maintain that a sworn affidavit was enough to substantiate the claims of the existence of a certificate so long as it was a sworn affidavit. On the other, the anything-goes followership will applaud any foolishness as long as “Na mu ne” was protected. Yet, they still paid to the government to educate their children!

The take-a-bow-and-go style of ministerial screening – in a way was appropriate answer to a reckless presidency who had failed to appropriately assign portfolios before screening and not after screening. Yet, if the nominee who would be head of a ministry was allowed to take a bow and go; why should job seekers into the same ministry not be allowed to do the same?

And until we dealt with the root cause of short-sighted leadership and absent-minded followership; the country will remain where it is or may even slide 10 or 20 steps backward. Nigeria needs a visionary leader to do this. She needs a courageous individual to do this but most importantly; she needs that leader with a personality that could gather the tribes even without much words.

Though the journey to nationhood has made one or two milestone achievement like the return to democracy and the emphasis (not insistence) on the rule of law; but what are these in the hands of tribalism, bigotry and greed. More needed to be done in the areas of free speech, freedom of association and the right to self-determination if nationhood must be construed for what it is – creating the environment for self-expression.God bless Nigeria.

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh is an advocate for attitudinal change. 08062577718.