Nigerianistan: When Leadership Is Bereft Of Ideas?

By Prince Charles Dickson

“The People have a right, an
indisputable, inalienable,
indefeasible, divine right to that
most dreaded and envied kind of
knowledge- I mean the character
and conduct of their rulers. John
AdamAgain we are in the light for
the wrong reasons, to say the
least…as usual is the case, last
week, two foreign nationals were
killed in a failed rescue mission in
the Sokoto Caliphate.
Let me not bore my readers with the
details that many already know, yet
like the words of John Adams, the
incident itself again has revealed
the lack of conduct and character in
leadership.
One that makes it so easy for a
David Cameron to say albeit
painfully that… “Preparations were
made to mount an operation to
attempt to rescue Chris and Franco.
Together with the Nigerian
government, “TODAY I
AUTHORIZED” it to go ahead, with
UK support”. Emphasis in caps is
mine.
Despite the traditional British
hypocrisy, one could sense the
character in the words of the Prime
Minister, he did not talk about being
under or above the situation, and
there was no mention of getting the
perpetuators. Strong worded and
equally addressing all concerned.
I really do not care so much about
who authorized what and when, but
I am concerned that our leadership
cannot authorize anything in the
first place.
We have all come to the conclusion
that the problem of Nigeria is the
lack of political leaders with the will
to pursue the right path to success,
some schools of thought feel
otherwise…they say we have the
men that can do it, the only
problem is that these men do not
have the money or the fraudulent
political machinery to get to the top,
in a phrase “they are clean”, too
clean. Others think that we deserve
what we get, some feel we are
confused and others see hope.
We continually lack conduct and
character, leaders who are a mould
of themselves with shoes, know
what they want, delivers on
promises and possess a sense of
what, where, how, when, who and
consistent.
Unfortunately as I have often
opined…the easiest and most
attractive national past time now
seems to be buck passing especially
with the bunch of leaders that we
have. Not many of us want to take
responsibility for anything, from
personal, to family or national life.
The blame is on the system.
We do not need to create demons
out of our leaders because they are
specimen of demons, so we hang
our sins on them appropriately and
inappropriately too. And
unfortunately their behavior has
made it easy for the critic to
descend on them.
We at most, talk, write and discuss
the Nigerian myth, one which is
leadership, with a sense of fatalism.
If everyone thought as much as I
did about justice and fairness, life
would be better. I am critic, but I am
also the critics’ critic, the
unrepentant believer that the best
way to keep government on its toes
is to keep harping on their flaws so
they can improve.
Often I say I believe the things I
write on, are important for our
nation as they are for other nations,
but when it appears to me Nigerians
especially those in authority do not
react to these issues as people in
other lands do, I repeat them in new
essays to remind old readers and
recruit new ones to participate in
the continuing dialogue.
As a critic, even my bitterest
opponents, those Jonathanians and
apologists, politicians from all sides
North, South, Middle Belts, and all
other belts have to read me
personally or have someone read
me and tell them what I said and
did not say, so that their anger can
be kept burning hot.
Sadly this is Nigeria where nothing
works and no one cares, when it
works, it is because someone’s
interest is about to be served or
being served not the people’s
interest. Like bashing South Africa
because a serving Senator had a
false or infact no yellow fever
vaccine certificate.
Government bashing is now a
national past time and every
drinking joint and free newspaper
association has a sitting parliament
with an expert on every issue, but
we forget that no matter the input if
the politicians have questionable
lives both on personal and domestic
level, nothing will change, the best
government policy cannot change
the individual.
Like I once said NITEL, NIPOST, NPA,
NMA, everything and anything that
has an N has been run down. Even
Nigeria herself or is it himself.
Despite my barrage on the
leadership I believe we ourselves
can do a lot in improving our lot, we
do not need a decree or law that
would ban urinating in public place
because it is wrong.
We do not need government to
teach us to stop treating ourselves
like animals. Do we need
government to teach us that we
demand responsible leadership and
representation? Certainly not, we
should know that and act in a
fashion that depicts that we
demand more than what we are
getting.
The critic’s anthem would be my
end to this short essay, it is one
that has always inspired me by H.G.
Wells “we are going to write about it
all. We are going to write about
business and finance and politic and
pretences and pretentiousness, and
decorum and indecorum, until a
thousand pretences and ten
thousand impostor shrivel in the
cold, …we are going to write about
wasted opportunities and latent
beauties, until a thousand new ways
of life open to men and women. We
are going to appeal to the young,
and the hopeful, and the curious
against —-the established, the
dignified and the defensive. Before
we are done we will have all life
within this scope of the novel.
Our problems have been over-
exaggerated, it is not that it cannot
be solved, but really do we want it
solved. He that is cheated twice by
the same man is an accomplice with
the cheater…Where do we stand as
part of this enterprise of Nigeria, is it
ours, or theirs or for all of us and
them. What we are afraid of doing is
a clear indicator of what we need to
do, our worries in the lack of
leadership gradually is becoming a
master to us.
We need the character to act, and
those who will act with
character….in Nigeria a word is
never enough for the wise, because
he is really not wise in
character…Time will tell.