NIGERIA AND ITS DELUSION OF GOVERNANCE by Ashikeni Donald

Leadership in Nigeria is so terrible. Our leaders have failed us on so many levels. Our leaders have been total failures that we as citizens will clutch and grasp onto anything now as a positive.

Since Independence; Greed, Religious and Ethnic bias has greatly stagnated what could have been a world power. Nigerians have found ways to constantly cripple and sabotage their own progress by bringing in greed, religious and blind ethnically motivated bias. The problems that have trailed this country since independence are the same problems we still face in 2016. The sad part of it all is that there doesn’t seem to be any long-lasting/permanent solutions to these.

From the problem of lack of electricity, to the problem of underperforming refineries, ethnic clashes, agitations for secession, violent activism/militancy in the South-South, total collapse of government owned industries and infrastructure, widespread corruption, etc. the list goes on and on but the saddest part is that all these woes are recurrent and nothing new.

Nigeria has lacked leaders with the will and know-how to remove the country from its abyss of woes.
On a grand scale and in all totality, leadership in Nigeria from 1960 to date has been poor.
A few successes and achievements have been recorded but these have either been momentary or have with time reversed due to neglect or poor implementation, sustenance and lack of continuity. Some recent schools of thought would argue that this has largely been due to the extravagance and recklessness of one or two previous political parties in power but I beg to differ. Nigeria’s problems do not start and end along or within party lines. These problems have already cemented themselves deep in the DNA of each and every Nigerian. Our attitude towards each other and our attitude towards our leaders have to change.

Things have gotten to a climax from 2015 to present. The soft underbelly of our economy has been exposed by the rapid fall in oil prices. The government has been lackadaisical, now its nakedness has been exposed… and it is very ugly. The average youth is unemployed still grasping on hope. Still grasping desperately on the promises of politicians who promise a brighter future but still go behind closed doors to enrich themselves by manipulating and breaking the laws of the land to fit their greedy and corrupt motives.

What is the way forward for the average youth? What else do we hope on? The government has failed to employ us and worst still, they have failed to make the environment conducive for small scale businesses to thrive! Crime is thriving. Fraud, Cyber-crime, kidnapping, armed robbery and all sorts of quick money making schemes. Without trying to justify these crimes and its perpetrators, I would say that what else do you do when you have to feed and you are pushed to the wall? A few have made breakthroughs through legitimate means but even these positive strides are still choked by the toxic environment and the poorly thought out government policies that always seem to get worse and distant from the masses. The government is out of touch and never fails to surprise us with its policies and so called solutions.

I am not a politically motivated critic, I am just an angry Nigerian.

I am angry that salaries are not being paid, I am angry that the electricity situation is getting worse, I am angry that the Niger-Delta Militants have re-emerged, I am angry that Boko Haram insurgents are still maiming and killing, I am angry that Fulani herdsmen go into communities, maim, kill women, men and children, I am angry that Fulani herdsmen graze on farmlands of these hard working farmers and rape their wives and daughters, I am angry that I lack basic social amenities and everybody has to provide security, water, electricity and even roads for themselves.

I am very angry, I am angry that the government does not have a plan, it doesn’t have a solution. I am even angrier that the government lies to me that they have it all under control because so far it seems like they don’t.

What is going to change? I don’t know. It seems like the black race is cursed because these problems are not peculiar to Nigeria alone. Africa has been plagued with so many bad leaders. It’s unfortunate.
Sometimes, when I think myself to exhaustion, I remember the saying that ‘Every society deserves its leaders’. We put them in power anyway, they are our brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, fathers and mothers.
We should demand good governance. We should not be grateful for it. It is a right. We should speak up. We should be truthful and just. We should demand more because if we don’t, we would just be accepting the same clichés over and over again. That is, mediocrity. We are accepting mediocrity and we are paying dearly for it. Unless we demand more, we will always accept less.

Our leaders have failed us, we demand more!

Ashikeni Donald Okaku (@KingDiezel) is a Social Commentator and avid follower of Nigerian politics.