The Truth about Nigeria

Nations are not
perfect. Even families have their
feuds. It is the duty of a nation’s
citizens to find a path to progress in
spite of the differences that exist
between them.Nigeria is plagued with chronically
inept leadership and burdened by a
loud, vociferous and critical, but
largely ineffective followership.
Nigeria’s leadership is inept, not
because it lacks credentials. There
are proportionally, more PhDs and
Professors in the Nigerian cabinet
than you will find in a University
Department, yet we remain trapped
in the mire of underdevelopment.Nigeria’s followership is loud and
ineffective because all that it does is
talk. Loud, boisterous, garrulous
and banal talk – that is all we do. In
Newspaper editorials, internet chat
rooms, on twitter, facebook, in beer
parlors, market squares and bus
stop libraries, our voices loudly
bemoan the state of the country.
We blame everything under the sun
for our problems – from a colonial
experience that ended over 50
years ago, to the poverty of
leadership & ideas that currently
afflicts us and our ethnic & religious
differences.We are blessed with a marvelous
ability to convince ourselves that we
are the victims of circumstances
that we conjured into existence. We
talk as if these leaders that we
denounce at every turn were
dropped on us from outer space.

As a people, we spend too much
time debating whether we should
stay together as a nation. No
household can move forward unless
there is agreement that the
marriage that bind that house will
last. A couple who are convinced
they will soon divorce will not sit
together to make long term plans.An entire region in Canada –
Quebec, which is predominantly
French – has agitated to be a
separate nation for ages. The
Basques in Spain have had their
own dalliance with separatism. In
Belgium, the Walloons (French
Speaking) and Flemish (Dutch)
have lingering issues. In Turkey,
Kurdish elements have waged a
perennial struggle for
independence. In Britain, it was only
in 1997 that power was devolved to
Scotland and Wales allowing for
limited self-governance by these
nations. In 2014, an independence
referendum is scheduled in Scotland
to determine if their 300 year union
with England should continue. Inter-
ethnic tensions are not unique to
Nigeria.who is to say
that the breakup of Nigeria into
ethnic nationalities will resolve all
the current conflicts that afflict us?
Form a Niger Delta republic and the
Itshekiri and Urhobo might still
continue with their rivalries, and
surely the conditions that led to
Andoni-Ogoni tensions will not
suddenly dissipate. Create an
O’odua republic and the Ifes and
Modakekes will still have their
problems. Establish a Biafra republic
and you might still have crisis like
the Aguleri-Umuleri conflict. We
need to accept the fact that a nation
without conflict is an unrealizable
utopia.

The entire Northern
region is depicted as comprising of
nothing but freeloaders and
hangers-on, a parasitic appendage
that is bleeding Nigeria dry. The
purveyors of national
dismemberment are united in
saying the excision of the North is
the first step that should be taken if
Nigeria is to be split.
This same North whose
agricultural produce was the stuff of
legend (the groundnut pyramids of
Kano, the cotton fields of Northern
Nigeria, etc) is now considered to be
a drain on the Nigerian nation, and
the cause of all that is wrong with it.
If a tiny group of Northern leaders
have failed Nigeria in the past,
should the entire region be blamed
for their failures? No region in
Nigeria suffers the privations that
our Northern brothers are forced to
endure. Poverty, illiteracy and
disease are more prevalent in the
North than anywhere else in Nigeria.
The Northern masses are therefore
victims too.
Do we
really expect that a group of elected
officials will repudiate their own
mandate and turn the power of
representation over to a sovereign
national conference? How will the
delegates to such a sovereign
conference be selected or elected?
These fundamental issues have not
been addressed.Nigeria’s
followership stays quiet until some
misstep by Government suddenly
galvanizes us to seasonal action.
Would the “Occupy Nigeria”
protests have happened without the
self-inflicted subsidy removal
debacle of the Jonathan
government?Ask a Nigerian where the worst
Nigerians are and they will tell you
they are in Politics. Ask them where
the best Nigerians are, and they will
tell you they are in the Private
Sector. Yet, the so called best of us
in the private sector sit on our
hands, tweeting and texting about
our disillusionment with
government, while miraculously
expecting the “worst of us” to come
up with cutting edge policy
positions, and solid ideas for socio-
economic growth. Such an
expectation is plain lunacy.We must wake up to our
responsibilities as a people. We all
have roles to play in moving Nigeria
forward. We have talked enough. It
is now time for action.we should engage in
advocacy, protests, lobbying,
occupation, and rapprochement &
do whatever is necessary to ensure
that our voices are heard. That is
what happens in all nations that are
making progress. That is what
needs to begin to happen in Nigeria.

Excerpts from Shut Up And Move On: Arm Chair
Revolutionaries And The Nigerian
Problem By Malcolm Fabiyi