After more than 60 years of political independence from Britain, Nigerian leaders in general, still lack the capacity for critical thinking or fine-grained explorations of the human mind. With the exception of one or two cases (though short-lived), this country has always been bedevilled by self-serving, mediocre, and thieving leaders with a blatant display of hedonism. These “janjaweed” leaders and their sympathisers are agents of an internal form of neo-colonialism, while certain advanced nations of the world are externalist socio-political oppressors and economic exploiters. This scenario is one of the tragedies of our times.
It is extremely worrying that despite our humongous natural resources and sophisticated human capital, Nigeria remains the poverty headquarters of the world. According to Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Ltd, more than 94 million Nigerians are living below poverty line. This is a terrible “chieftaincy title” that should commonsensically bother the country’s political leadership. Similarly, Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the global village. By 2100, the country would be the second most populous geo-polity on our planet. Nigeria would have had about 790 humans littering its unplanned, refused-ravaged landscape based on the attitude of the various governments through time.
But despite the above scenarios, the Nigerian political leaders continue with their hedonistic lifeways which are inimical to the interest of the citizens today and tomorrow. Thus, for example, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is always on an industrial action due to the failure of government to honour agreements freely signed by both parties. The students and the larger Nigerian society are the victims. ASUU began a one-month strike on February 14, after all efforts to resolve the contending issues failed. Thumbs-up for the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) for embarking on a peaceful national protest on February 28 over the current ASUU strike; incessant strikes are turning into a nightmare situation for these innocent youths. The youth are our potential national asset of immeasurable value. No healthy youths, no robust future!
Nigeria would begin to enjoy peace and also experience sustainable progress once the political leaders are able to descend from their ephemeral ivory tower in order to meet the led. The Nigerian leaders are usually intoxicated with power. Consequently, they hardly listen to or respect the feelings of the people. They behave as if a tempest (akin to the on-going Russian-Ukrainian war) is ravaging their heads. Holding political leadership positions is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end in saner climes and cultures. This end is good governance. That is, leadership as if people matter. In Nigeria, leadership is not tied to the apron strings of reciprocal centrality of “otherness”. This is at variance with the commonality of every civilised segment of the global village.
Nigerian students and lecturers are being thoroughly provoked by our self-serving leaders, while their wards/children are studying or messing around in Europe and/or America with the taxpayers’ monies. Education is too critical to national development to be politicised or treated with levity. Why must the government continue to use the IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System) to pay staff in order to address the issue of financial mismanagement in public universities? The IPPIS is tantamount to punitive measures against innocent staff instead of the management that distributes the common university wealth.
The use of IPPIS further impoverishes university staff in the face of hyper-inflation. It is a good idea to reduce corruption to the barest minimum, but cutting off your nose to spite your face, reflects a gross lack of sophisticated leadership skills. This was the reason why ASUU developed an alternative payment platform called UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution) for salaries and other entitlements. ASUU developed this, free of charge for the government. But to the chagrined world, more than one year after, this government is still using the IPPIS platform to mutilate staff salaries. The government, given its imperial power, has just magicked away UTAS. It said that UTAS-a baby of maligned ASUU had failed three integrity tests. This is Nigeria where three persons can be standing up in twos. The making of excuses goes on while innocent students remain idle at home indefinitely.
Nigeria needs leaders devoid of a demagogic/ghetto mentality. Consequently, a courageous, patriotic first step in a new direction of truth has to be taken as quickly as possible. It is too easily forgotten, that the power of any leader derives from the people and by extension, divine providence. Indeed, a leader that throws caution to the winds, does so at his peril. Compassion and robust human relations enshrined in uncommon integrity are of the essence.
Top government officials particularly ministers should see ASUU leaders as partners in progress as opposed to rivals. No averagely intelligent person can believe the rhetoric by our leaders that the national economy is in a coma, when a senator still earns at least N25 million monthly. This is in addition to other goodies including lousy/crazy “estacodes” (establishment code), too well known to everybody to be recounted here. It seems to me, that the national wealth is almost exclusively for members of the ruling class and their business associates. According to some newspaper reports recently, a former Minister of Works, Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure told the whole world that, “all politicians that have held sway since 1999 failed Nigeria.” Where are the saints?
The Nigerian people have been facing among other things, petrol scarcity in the last three weeks or more. Nigeria is the only member of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) still importing fuel for local consumption. This situation further impoverishes the masses. Is this a scripted agenda for a subsidy removal? In my neighbourhood, electric power supply is now once in a fortnight, and yet there is no sufficient petrol to keep one’s generator going.
Government’s unprecedented lacklustre performance with respect to security issues and education among others, is the greatest disservice to Nigeria. Nigeria by modern standards is like a vast underground cave system for early humans (archaic Homo sapiens). Thus, for example, a wonderful Nigerian recently used petrol in plastic kegs as gifts during a party. What a monumental shame! The dichotomy between leadership and followership is almost completely arbitrary in saner climes and cultures. Painfully, the Nigerian case is different. Many Nigerians across the board are anxious to become leaders despite the fact, that most of them lack even elementary, received wisdom to successfully manage human affairs. In Nigeria, the rhetoric of our post-coloniality defined, by subjugation and under performance continues to grow in popularity. In this country, the leadership disdainfully de-couples from the led, to the detriment of peace and progress. Therefore, ASUU and NANS among other critical stakeholders in the Nigerian project, have to be respected by the political leaders. The current unhealthy situation whereby leaders are demigods and goddesses with little or no accomplishments is absurd and must be reversed in the interest of the collective good.
- Prof Ogundele writes from the University of Ibadan.