By Nnabugwu Chizoba (Development Practitioner)
I join all Nigerians, in the
celebration of the country’s 57th Independence Anniversary, especially, those
who are willing, committed and steadfast in doing all that is necessary to keep
the country united and peaceful, without compromising their integrity, sense of
purpose and without jeopardizing the future of the country.
It is with this state of mind that
I call on you to arise and to draw your attention to the fact that today and every
other day in the country and all over the land, people are now looking deeply
at their vulnerability to adverse trends, governance irregularities and decline
in the natural supply chain and standard of living.
Each day that passes, the scale
of social disruption assumes scary momentum and frightening proportion. The electioneering
promises of security, economic recovery, job creation and social welfare, have failed.
The lies that followed have not raised hope at least within a foreseeable
level. The Nigerian currency, the Naira, has continued to somersault, revolving
around dysfunctional policies, organizational insolvency and barrenness of
intellectual habit.
If your interest is Nigeria, and
not the political affiliation of your interest, not the personality that
catches your fancy and indeed, not the ethnic group that you represent, you
will see beyond the prism of slogans and mantra, and beyond sentiment and ego.
You will understand that the common citizens are being short changed. You will
rise up, and instead of speaking from both sides of your mouth, or tie your
lips in silence, accept the stack reality that the pendulum of change is
swinging more and more strongly, with contents that emphasize disunity,
insecurity, division and hunger.
As long as you are not blinded by
the hullabaloo of change mantra, fight against corruption and blames poured on
the previous governments on the little things that every leader should face and
provide solution for and focus on addressing the real issues of governance, the
challenges confronting the Nigerian citizens will never be addressed, and the
present government will never seize from taking Nigerians for a ride.
Without mincing words and without
any fear of contradiction, I rise up to say that the Nigerian problems exceed
the Corruption terminology being trumpeted and bandied about by a cross-section
of indeed, aggrieved citizens, which from every indication is spearheaded by the
President. There is no arguing the fact that there is need to recover every
public kobo, stolen, looted, diverted, and misappropriated from the public
vault by those entrusted with our common resource.
At the same time, I belief that
we cannot be just, fair and honest in our pursuit of good governance, if we
permit the conspicuous display of illegality, intimidation, harassment and the
use of crude methods and force, to suppress the accused persons or suspects,
who by the laws of the land, are considered innocent until proven guilty by the
appropriate authorities. The adoption of media trials, to condemn and destroy the
personality of such individuals and neglecting their legally guaranteed and/or granted
human rights, is no less a crime, and to my mind constitute corruption, also.
I am unflinchingly persistent in
my opinion that the government and the governed must resolve to propel Nigeria
to greater heights. And in doing so, embrace and respect judicial processes and
every instrument that promotes transparency, accountability, understanding and
godliness and at the same time, deepen regard for mankind and dignity of the
Nigerian citizen, in particular.
Similarly, I lend my voice to encourage
all efforts geared towards human enhancement, particularly those targeted at,
narrowing the gap between institutional rhetoric and actual practice, as well
as, the promotion of international best practices.
I am strongly of the view that the
most disturbing development, I mean, one that is to my mind and in the mind of
many Nigerians, shaking the foundation of our existence as a nation, is the
intense ignorance of the material nature of the Nigerian state. That is; its
origin, foundation, features and purposes; its people, culture, environment,
carrying capacity and social values. In other words, the major problem with the
country, is that of a missing identity, which has accentuated the lowering of
national consciousness, thereby accelerating the growth of multi-layer
disaffection and resentment.
All well-meaning Nigerians and
international observers alike; those who are consistent with developments in the
country in the recent time, will readily agree that, the Nigerian federal government
has taken some untoward steps, in her conducts. The present leadership has
exposed Nigeria to ridicule in the comity of Nations. This is due largely to
high handedness, persistent ignorance, poor capacity, shortsightedness,
unpreparedness and the likes, that has become the routine of government.
Glaringly manifesting, and unarguably
so, is the fact that the integrity of the present elected political office
holders and their appointees, including the ones they struggle daily to paint
black in the public domain is regrettably very low and predictably
questionable. The attempt by the present administration to fool the people by
pretending to be different or to exonerate themselves is failing woefully.
Arise if you’re cut by their antics! Refuse to be the fool or divided along
political, religious, and/or ethnic affiliations!
It is obvious, annoyingly very
clear too, that the leadership of today is practicing a set of contradictory
systems. There is no arguing the fact that, the President and those in
government, as representatives of the citizens compromise and sacrifice the
electoral mandate given to them by the people. They do this at the altar of
primordial sentiments, politics of expediency, favouritism, sectional
polarization and in some cases, antagonism, domination, intimidation, greed and
injustice, which increasingly reinforce the existing disparities in social
status, imbalances in resource distribution and loss of genuine principles and
values.
The brazing attempt by a section
of both the media and the political elite to create a great leader out of a leadership
system that has been hijacked, polarized and operated on a pseudo format and arrangement,
and characterized by very visible signs of non-performance, to say the least, should
be treated by all citizens as misnomer and a journey into oblivion and
nothingness.
Great leaders, in a
revolutionary, nuclear age and modern time, increase their decision making
options and development strategies by learning how to effectively counter ambiguous
challenges, cope with the changing face of the task of nation building; replace
instability with stability, present stability with diversity and communicate in
an ideological language of national interest and socio-economic transformation.
These are visibly lacking in the present leadership. The common Nigerians, as a
matter of fact, are the worst for it!
Civilized leaders all over the
world, seek political integrity and justice in the management and
administration of their country’s affairs, but back here in Nigeria, the regime
in power, lacks ideology and philosophy and play little or no role in the
political calculations.
Decency, sufficiency and service
are not the ideals of these leaders and politicians, rather, taste and hunger for
power, arrogance, un-forgiveness, pay-back mentality, “I don’t care syndrome”, harassment,
violence and bloodletting, influences of exotic dimension, greed and wickedness,
set them apart from the common standard and wealth of experience of civilized
democracies of the world.
The major cause of disenchantment,
disaffection and increasing agitation among Nigerians, rest on social class
inequality that exists among individuals, between national and ethnic groups, especially
on the basis of economic legitimacy.
Cases of prejudice, nepotism,
avarice and discrimination against certain groups in education, judiciary,
employment, resource distribution, sharing of political offices and participation
in governance and indeed indiscriminate use of irrelevant models of economic
distribution abound in the land, notwithstanding the change mantra and the
fight against corruption.
Ethnic agitations has become a
phenomenon with far reaching implications. The extent to which prejudices,
discrimination, intolerance, aggressiveness, dominance and parochialism have
reached in this regime, portends great danger to our collective struggle for a
renaissance Nigeria.
To halt the impending
catastrophic consequences, we all must rise in unison and strive to develop
models, hypotheses, tools and values that have the necessary implements and
ability to harmonize our varying cultural values, ethos, and regional structures
(our strength). We must hold the government accountable!
The present leadership must be
made to recognize, practically, the signs and requirements of the time and
render relevant, meaningful and current solutions to current problems. The
leadership is continuously and intransigently, advocating old ways and outdated
formulae that have proven ineffective, unproductive and inconsequential in
dealing with national issues.
We must appreciate the sensitivity
of our citizens and not the carnage and sordid rituals that the citizens are
being forced to condone. We do not need all the carnage, extra judicial
killings and additional waste of resources. Most of the present challenges of the
Nation, require political solution!
The pattern adopted by the
government in handling the issues in the polity has created a situation that
raises many questions on the models, theories, assumptions and indeed the
capacity of government and her readiness to do the right things. It is a very sad
development that institutions of government and governance have become objects
of ridicule in the eyes of the international community. At the rate the
government is going in handling the challenges in the polity, if unchecked, it
wouldn’t be long before we unleash a horrendous conflagration and cataclysm of
the worst proportion on the country.
All well-meaning Nigerians, must therefore
rise, to ensure that the right things are done!
Without arguing further, let me
emphasize that, real capacity and commitment on the part of the leadership is
urgently needed to pull Nigeria out of the present quagmire. 1960’s Independence
brought National sovereignty. The
present conflicts in our country, offer excellent opportunity for serious
structural change, not the blame game the masses are always inundated with by
political office holders.
Frankly speaking, governance
today, has become more complex and by all intent and purposes, it is demanding
newer competences to face challenges and manage the rough and tumbles of
diversities that, information explosion and improved knowledge by the governed,
as a result of ICT is throwing consistent on the polity.
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