Nigeria: A Question Of Poor Leadership

Click for Full Image Size

The litanies of inept leaders Nigeria has produced will leave Lee Kaun Yew, the Singaporean magical leader in utter wonderment. From the military to the civilian rulers the best Nigerian leaders could do was to oil the wheel of poverty and penury. Worst still, is the painful fact that civilian rulers since 1999 raise our hope of a better Nigeria only to cruelly smash it. For Nigerians it has been digging a new pit to fill an old one.

When it comes to credible, visionary and welfarist leadership, our mouth has not being filled with the proverbial dry meat. With the birth of fresh hope in 1999, most Nigerians thought it was Eldorado and such we could sing Eureka but fifteen years into the journey, we are beginning to realize that like the bird that flew from the ground and landed on an anthill, we are still on the ground. We have remained on the ground of corruption, poor leadership, abuse of law and due process and unimaginable poverty.

If my pen have refused to fall in love with the GEJ led 'chop chop' federal government, it for the regrettable fact that more than any other sham Nigeria have produced as a government his 'administration' has every platform to fix Nigeria but he chose to give Nigerians 'potopoto' when we are asking for 'kunu'. Who believed that the once shoeless boy will betray the hopes and expectation of over 140 million 'talakawas' like him? For Nigerians that stood under the sun shine to vote for him, he represented change, progress and prosperity. But like the proverbial grey haired elders we have realized too late that it is foolery to send a vulture to the market to buy meat. Pitiably, 2014 has woken up and yet the federal government has continued to parade, corruption, executive rascality and reclex disregard to primacy of the Nigerian constitution with a tolotolo's pride.

It is not funny that while other nations are enjoying the fruit of good leadership, all we get is conclave of impotent fellows and political liquidators making a mockery of governance. No doubt, it is an undebatable truism that the late Chinua Achebe was more than right when he penned down that the problem of Nigeria revolves around weak and poor leadership. Take for instance, Malaysia got her first palm kernel from Nigeria in the late seventy's, today, she is one of the leading exporter of palm oil. Nigeria was once a Mecca of sort for Ghanaians but now, Ghana is a Dubai for us with one of the best cities in Africa after Cape Town in South Africa and Kigali in Rwanda. Where is Nigeria?

Even our so called 'Grand Trios' could not pass the litmus test for value oriented and ideological leadership. Nnamdi Azikiwe ended up an Igbo champion, if not Onitsha messiah. Ahmadu Bello was more of an Islamic propagandist than a national political figure. Christians and other minority tribes were perpetually in sorrowful mystery under his Islamic regime in northern Nigeria. Obafemi Awolowo was more Yoruba than Nigerian. For all he cared, other Nigerians could jump into the Nile provided it will benefit the sons of Oduduwa. His unreserved hatred for other Nigerians was made manifest during the Biafran war. Regrettably, it goes without saying that a true nationalistic and patriotic leader for Nigerians has remained an elusive trophy since independence.

it is funny that Nigerian claims to be a giant in Africa, a laughable claim though, sadly, when imminent political leaders in Africa like Patrice Mulumba of Congo, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Guinean Sekou Toure, Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumeh, Nelson Mandela of south Africa and Thomas sankara of Bulkinafaso comes to mind, Nigeria hides her face in shame. Since she was birthed in 1960 her political arena is dotted with inept, clueless, despotic and self-serving minions and Lilliputians parading themselves as political thin gods.

AS we count down to 2015, if we wish to make soup with goat meat instead of mushroom, I think we should be looking out for another Ramat Murtala Mohammed. We should be looking out for a servant- leader with 'character, conviction, competence and compassion' (apology to Professor Patrick Utomi)


Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."

Articles by Eze Martins-hassan Esomchi