That Nigeria today is an under-developed third-world country is no understatement. It is a reality that stares every Nigerian in the face. This shameful socio-economic condition however does not come about by happenstance. Rather, the situation was created by the kind of political leadership thrown up by the citizens themselves since national independence in 1960.
Some political observers once blamed our leadership predicament on our colonial masters who deliberately and mischievously handed the reins of political power in Nigeria to the conservative North while leaving the more progressive Southern leaders in the cold at independence. But that was fifty eight years ago.
If we are normal people with a thinking faculty adjusted to the current space-age, we ought, by now, to have undone whatever impediments might have been selfishly put on our way of progress by the British Colonialists. After all, other Asian and South American countries like India, Malaysia, Brazil, to mention just a few, also passed through colonialism like Nigeria, but are now marching confidently towards economic development and national prosperity under indigenous leadership.
In order to put our fingers accurately on the cause of Nigeria’s predicament therefore, we must look beyond our colonial past. As Shakespeare once put it: “The problem is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings”
In this column last week, I tried to do some categorization of the Nigerian citizens and the kind of politicians that currently populate the Nigerian political space. According to the ancient Greek’s identification model, I made a proposition that most of us Nigerians belong to the categories of “idiots” and “tribes” men and women. We then described these two categories of people as detrimental to communal or national progress and development.
This negative characteristic is attributable to selfishness and self-centeredness arising from parochial vision on the part of the political “idiots” and extreme group loyalty bordering on separatism and ethnic irredentism on the part of the political “tribes” people. Thus where you have a large majority of citizens of any country falling in the two categories just mentioned, the scenario that confronts you is never different from the current political logjam in Nigeria.
As a result of the domination of the political space by the “idiots” and the “tribesmen,” the kind of politics that becomes prevalent is politics of self and tribe which ultimately leads to politics of under-development.
By way of definition, politics of under-development is that brand of politics in which a preponderance of politicians in a given country scramble and jostle for selfish or tribal advantage in cornering the resources of the said country. Where this kind of politics supervenes, as it is currently in our country, it is either self-interests or tribal interests. The National interest must take a back-seat.
It is the reason why after spending such humongous amount of money (around 17 trillion dollars) between 1999 and 2015, on electricity, all we get from the huge spending is pitch darkness. It accounts for why our hospitals remain hospitals only in name, our roads remain death traps, our universities are nothing but glorified secondary schools that yearly produce semi-literate graduates. One can go on ad infinitum.
Politics of under-development in Nigeria has also manifested in some negative practices which the unwary might regard as democracy in action. During the 2018 budget exercise, the legislature , controlled by the party in power, tore into shreds a budget submitted by the executive branch, all in the name of legislative independence and separation of powers. The legislative spokespersons in explaining this absurdities claimed they reshuffled the budgetary estimates in the interest of their constituencies. As if their constituencies are more important than the nation as a whole. What a demonstration of macro-economic illiteracy by Nigerian law makers!
As a typical example, the budgetary allocation to complete the Lagos-Ibadan express-way was drastically reduced and transferred to some local roads on the excuse that budgetary allocations need to reflect federal character! The honorable members either forgot the importance of the Lagos-Ibadan express-way to the economy of Nigeria as a whole or as usual they just don’t give a damn. But that is the way of the political “idiots” and the “tribesmen”
Another far-reaching consequence of the politics of under-development such as the one prevailing in our country today is that it breeds corruption, nepotism, economic waste, injustice and separatist tendencies. These are negative factors which are likely to condemn this traumatised nation to political, and socio-economic backwardness for a long time if we Nigerians do not quickly have a rethink.
Take for an example the endemic nature of corruption in this country today. To battle this hydra-headed monster to submission among us demands more than Buhari is currently doing in the on-going fight against corruption. What the Buhari government is doing now, in my view, is not more than merely scratching the surface as it were.
Right now, the entire country breathes and lives corruption in virtually all national sectors. To any careful observer, the symptoms of this deadly disease manifests in the people’s attitude and even casual conversations. When people say “it is our turn to produce the next Senator, Governor or President”, such people are voicing their corrupt tendencies. The regular vociferous clamour for “Igbo President” by our people from the South-East also has corrupt intentions underneath. For without some corrupt and selfish inner inclinations, why should anyone be hell-bent on a government position-holder coming from his village, locality or state?
Pray, as a Yoruba, why must I be so concerned that the President of Nigeria must be a Yoruba man or woman? When Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was Nigeria’s President, what special benefit did I derive as a Yoruba man like him? None.
Therefore if we must tell ourselves the home truth, we must admit that those among us who engage in the campaign for political positions on the basis of tribe or ethnic group in the guise of being ethnic or tribal champions are corrupt through and through and are the enemies of our progress.
The situation has become even so bad now the generality of the people can no longer separate the grain from the chaff. The general belief now is that every political office holder is there to “chop” to the extent that if a state chief executive has even performed excellently and is campaigning for a second term, the usual and general complaint is “what does he want again?, has he not “chop” enough?, he should allow another person to chop now”! This is how bad our situation currently is.
As good and patriotic citizens who strongly desire that this specially endowed country attains modernity in our lifetime and thereby bestow proud legacies to the coming generations, our major yardsticks for selecting political leaders should center around great vision, patriotism, courage, competency of the highest order, and above all, unblemished integrity. These are the hallmarks of leadership that should command our respect and loyalty irrespective of where such an individual may come from.
The long and short of what has been said so far is that true Nigerian citizens must rise up and take the destiny of this nation in their hands and rescue her from the precipice in which it is currently hanging precariously.
I mean citizens in the true sense of the word, those who have undimmed vision of a great nation, a happy and prosperous people which can be fashioned out of the current babel of disparate nationalities that compose the Nigerian nation. It is from such calibre of citizens, according to the Greek Philosophers, that true Statesmen and Stateswomen can emerge. We sorely need a good number of such nation-builders at this point in time.
