Nigeria Will Never Be Great -By Bayo Oluwasanmi

Nigeria is in decay. And it is getting worse. Nigerians wake up every day to be greeted by new open sores with broken bones and blood underneath.

Nigeria will never be great. Twenty-one years ago, 1999 to be precise, Nigeria returned to democracy after military intrusions of coups and counter coups. Nothing has changed for the better. Instead, Nigeria is in a downward spiral in all aspects of human civilization. Inequalities, ethnic and religious brutalities, injustices, poverty, suffering, killings, violence, and corruption reign supreme.

If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, General Muhammadu Buhari acts as a spectator president while Nigeria descends into anarchy. Each day of his presidency brings authoritarian dystopia. He presides over a dynasty of corrupt cabal. Greed, bribery, and fraud have drained Nigeria from the inside and left it weak and vulnerable. Corruption is not only a moral evil, but a practical menace that has destroyed Nigeria and its people.

Why has Nigeria remained the way it is for almost 60 years? Why is government the problem and not the solution? Why do Nigerians prefer “suffering and smiling” and “still in love with their oppressors?” Why are Nigerians so numb and dumb to challenge and confront Buhari for his reign of terror? Who cast spells on Nigerians? Why are Nigerians not better off today than they were 60 years ago? Why is the president so inadequate and ill equipped to discharge the duties of his office? Why is everything so wrong with Nigeria? Why? Why? Why?

Democracy is the best form of government. But our democracy under Buhari has been the worst form of government because of injustice, nepotism, corruption, lack of transparency and accountability.

With Buhari as president, it has been violent collisions between hope and hopelessness, between exhaustion and fatigue. Buhari has inflicted immeasurable trauma on our people.

Nigerians and their leaders have something in common: Selfishness, greediness, wickedness, ignorance, and corruption. The best form of government embraces a balance of power. The foundation of a good government is founded on a system of checks and balances. In Nigeria, the executive, judiciary, and legislature have been compromised and collapsed into one with no arm of government to exercise oversight on the other two.

Leadership remains the greatest pandemic afflicting Nigeria. The president has set aside constitutional rules, claiming the need for expediency or security. He has become a tyrant because his regime is unchecked. Our democracy has been degraded into mob rule because there are no constraints on popular power.

We elect presidents who are not of exceptional character, ability, and integrity. Those who will govern a country must possess great courage, ability, and resolve. Those who will govern a country should be the best and the brightest of the land. But, the dullest, the intelligently disabled, the dumbest, and the vacant minded are in charge of Nigeria. As long as we continue to elect the type of Buhari as president, there is no hope for Nigeria.

As Cicero rightly observes, “Governing a country is like steering a ship. When the storm winds begin to blow, if the captain is not able to hold a steady course, the voyage will end in disaster for all.” Nigeria as a ship is rudderless. No one is steering the ship right now. The storm winds are tossing the ship. The captain is asleep. Nigeria is drifting aimlessly. No one can give it a steady course. Disaster looms ahead for all.