What is wrong with Nigeria

I once raised the issue in a piece in the past, and frequently ask eminent citizens on what they think is actually the problem that Nigeria is, pitiably still, crawling when in fact, the country should be walking with pride. I am glad that President Goodluck Jonathan revisited the matter last Friday in Enugu. 

I agree with him that something is, indeed, wrong with the country, but my point of disagreement with the President is on the fact that he partly hinged it on the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by the then British colonial masters. The amalgamation culminated in the birth of the Nigerian federation. It formed the building plank for the country at independence in 1960.

 It was this same structure that was used by the progenitors of modern Nigeria to lay a solid and sound foundation for the country, particularly in the defunct Western region. So, it was naturally expected that subsequent leaders would build on the foundation in human capacity building, infrastructure, and other fundamentals capable of propelling the country to the next level. 

 Perhaps, the question we must ask ourselves is why were those political leaders able to turn what some now perceive as bad situation into fortunes and ray of hope for a better tomorrow for coming generation? That’s the key issue now. Did those men come from another planet to serve this great country at its embryonic stage, which should have posed more challenges than in subsequent years because of the teething problems often associated with institutions like nation-building?

 I am sure the present crop of political leaders are not just realising any inadequacy or lapse in the almost a century-old amalgamation to the grounding malaise confronting the country today. But what did they do in the past to address the anomaly when they came face to face with the reality? Did they muster enough courage to tackle it frontally or merely paid a lip service by telling the nation’s leadership only what it naively wanted to hear and believe? 

 The point is that our land is now faced with the dearth of great men such as the ones that laid their lives to design and build the beautiful architecture that many had hoped held bountiful promises for coming generations. Instead of having heroes, our country is now hugely populated by a bunch of political charlatans and demagogues, who parade themselves as great men and women. We do not have political leaders whose primary concerns are to build institutions and empower the people. 

We do not have people in the mould of great thinkers and philosophers like Mahandas Ghandi of India, a nationalist that ensured freedom for, and guaranteed the destiny of all generations of Indians. Neither do we have great men like Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican, who evolved the concept of Back to Africa, which was popularised by many reggae artists of Jamaican descent.

 He, like Ghandi, espoused passive resistance against man injustice against his fellow human being regardless of colour or creed. Martins Luther King Junior remains global idol because of his principled campaign against injustice which led to the holistic sanctity of human rights and civil liberties in the United States, as on August 18, 1963 in Washington D.C, he proclaimed his dream for equality and unity in that country. 

 Whereas many Nigerians are used to the phrase, Man is, by nature, a political animal,” it is doubtful if many of us know the originator. Aristotle, the master of philosophy coined the phrase. One of his works, Politics, remains an authority in political dialectics. We lack his like among the current generation of the ruling political elite. The US could boast of elder statesmen like Franklin Roosevelt in politics, Britain is proud of distinguished statesmen like Winston Churchill. 

They influenced their country, and indeed the world, for good. They were able to made a difference in the affairs of men through their clear perception of what is good for their countrymen and women, and with an eye on the future. At home, we also had a number of unforgettable statesmen like late Herbert Macaulay; Bishop Ajayi Crowder, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and a whole lot of nationalists, who laboured vigorously to gain independence for the country. 

Alas, two years to the centenary celebration of the Nigerian federation, we are vainly grappling with ascertaining the true heroes of several generations of Nigerian, born after the 1983 military coup. For the purpose of this piece, we should benchmark a generation simply as roughly 30 years “between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring.” 

So, who among the current members of the political class and to be precise, ruling class qualifies as a great political leader, who deserves all accolades for his vision that may have created institutions and legacies reminiscent of our heroes past? None bestrides the political arena like a colossus reminiscent of the times of the founding fathers of the country. None looks like a true giant that cuts the image of a role model and commands the aura of statesmanship.

 Therefore, we should be concerned that the country now parades mostly a generation of self-styled great men that think about self alone and have continued to mortgage the lives of many generations of their fellow compatriots. This is part of the critical problems that have turned the country into a perceived entity where nothing works.

 While he was the governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande used his old model Toyota Crown as official car and lived in his private residence in Ilupeju, just as his compatriot, Chief Bisi Akande built the imposing N2 billion Osun State secretariat in Osogbo, the state capital with proceeds from internal generated revenue. These are some of the signs of great men.