By Jimoh Olorede, PhD
Nigeria is one of the most naturally endowed nations of the world. She has potentials for greatness. Coupled with natural endowments, the country is also rich in human and capital resources. However, there’s a major problem with this country — the followers are as bad as their leaders!
Most often, we blame our leaders in Nigeria. Yes, because many of them are, in actual fact, guilty of blame. Many of our leaders who occupy positions of authority are inept, and their ineptitude retards our progress as a nation. Many of them are corrupt, and their corruption has led us to this pitiable predicament we found ourselves today as a country.
Many of our leaders are power-drunk, and their inordinate power-possession has led to a reversal of our commonality from a unity in diversity to a devastated pretentious unity. Many of our leaders in Nigeria are myopic, and because of their myopia, which gave them an erroneous perception of the enormous tasks before them, they drive the economic vehicle of this blessed nation anticlockwise. Although not all of them, the above exposition describes some of our leaders in Nigeria.
However, many followers in this country are worse in their attitudinal dispositions to this nation than the so-called bad leaders. They hardly see anything good in themselves let alone in their country. A typical American would wake up in the morning and say “God bless America”. And today, God has really blessed America. Conversely, a typical Nigerian would wake up in the morning and raise curses on Nigeria. And today, those curses have actually come home to roost as evident in the current devastating economy of the country.
In Nigeria today, we have only one Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) and the Nigerian Arm Forces, but there are many presidents, especially as it concerns our economy. These presidents are failed unelected presidential candidates who now turn themselves to saboteurs, Nigerian capitalists, business owners, market men and women, and even petty traders, who continue to inflict economic hardships on fellow Nigerians. These presidents have almost hijacked economic decision-making power from the GCFR. When the Commander commands, these presidents would use their ‘financial-cum-business executive power’ to weaken and override the Commander’s command.
Or how do you explain a situation where the ‘president’ selling vegetables at a local market would tell you that the price of her vegetables in the afternoon is now double the amount for which she sold it in the morning? Or ‘Mr. President’ selling cements telling you he’d have to call Cement Deport to determine his price for your immediate demands. So, prices of common goods in Nigeria have now developed wings; they neither crawl, walk nor run, but fly.
Obviously, it would be a fallacious conclusion to opine that the GCFR led us to the current socio-economic woes, just as it would be unjust and inconsiderate to blame the GCFR, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over the self-inflicted hardships occasioned by the unscrupulous market forces in Nigeria.
Some state governors also don’t help matters ameliorating the sufferings. The GCFR governs the entire country through the state governors, for instance, by passing and channelling hardship-ameliorating and poverty alleviation programmes and policies of the federal government, like palliatives, through them. But how many of the state governors comply, after receiving the palliatives, with the directive policy of the Federal Government on equitable and inclusive distribution of the palliatives?
While some don’t distribute at all, others are so daring with impunity to the extent of diverting and thereby embezzling palliative funds released to them by the federal government. This explains why the Nigerian Senate President, Senator Godwin Akpabio admonished the governors, during the week, not to divert the 30billion newly additionally released to each of the 36 state governors from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), apart from their monthly federal allocation, to tackle food scarcity situation in the country.
Dr. Olorede, communication Strategist and Lecturer, writes from Osun State via oloredejimoh@gmail.com/08111841887