A New Nigeria: Examining The Possibility In The Seeming Impossibility

By Mbanasor Victoria Chinyeaka.

1. The Bitter truth that Must be Told.

For the umpteenth time, Nigeria is going through what Chinua Achebe described as “a failure of leadership” in his book, The Trouble With Nigeria. One would therefore imagine, after each election cycle and ritual—and a new administration comes in with its empty rhetoric, we find ourselves repeatedly rotating in the same orbit of underperformance, corruption and greed, tribalism, religiosity, insecurity…significantly leading to a decline of everything we are, have and /or stand for. Nigeria as we all know is unfortunately taking the lead as the hub of poverty with the phrase “the survival of the fittest” becoming the our mantra. The situation is analogous to the case of predators and preys in the jungle where one depends on the meat of another to survive. Everyday in Nigeria, a gazelle wakes up knowing it must outrun the fastest lion or starve. At the same time, the lion stirs and stretches knowing it must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. Little wonder cybercriminals, kidnappers, armed robbers, white collar marauders have been on the rampage. While cybercriminals are looking out for innocent and unobservant citizens as prey and Government officials are plundering our national treasury for their selfish gain, those who are too holy to fit into the system—those who cannot lick the feet of the so-called godfathers and dance to their tunes are knocked off. Frustration and desperation knock at their doors if they cannot do what others are doing by greasing the palms of influential people to even secure jobs at top companies.

Every sector has now been infiltrated with one serious problem or another. From the economy to economy to our capital markets, inflation rates now compete with the sun, rising and setting at will. Our health sector is disturbingly inexpensive and frighteningly unequipped even after the revelations of Covid-19. Embassies have been littered with medical practitioners who are trooping into advanced countries as if there is an el dorado overseas. Our educational system is not left out of the discourse. This sector has failed to the dust and is currently grasping for air in a system where repeated strikes have been the new normal. Ironically, while the children of well-to-do Nigerians or elite are consistently graduating from foreign universities, our public universities have been on strikes for elongated periods over the government’s failure to pay its civil servants and uphold simple agreements. This is despite that one must not be above 25’ at the time of job application in the labour market.

Our civil and public services are broken; wildly unrewarding, terribly inefficient and poorly adapted to evolving times. A system that exposes hardworking civil servants to chronic instability and possible destitution–while those in the helms of power loot away. A system where the independence of the judiciary is a foreign language and Court orders are flouted with impunity, where institutions of peace and justice are toothless bulldogs, rule of law dethroned and the law, a respecter of persons. A system that brutalizes her people, massacres peaceful protesters and exploits the poor, where fundamental human rights are ruses and laws and policies are mere tissue papers.

2. But Shall we Continue in this Tribulation for what to Abound for us? Agbado? Political Affiliations? Ethnic and Religious ties? Shorter Campaign National Cake?

Wars have been fought, laws passed, reforms initiated, unions organized and protests staged to bring promise and practice into closer alignment, and with each passing day, we find troublingly, the magnitude of our challenges equaling the increment of the non-seriousness of our leaders. It, therefore, begs the question: How long do we wait till we take it upon ourselves to rewrite history? Truly, Garen Thomas, author of Yes We Can, wrote that “there are few times in our lives when we have a real opportunity to alter the course of history and put civilization back on a course toward prosperity and unity for all races and genders”. Dearest Nigerians, that time is now. A time to acknowledge the gap between the politics we have and the politics we need.

A time to fashion the Nigeria of our dreams, a new Nigeria where leaders are held on the standards of ideology, competence, capacity, reputation and precedents, and not weighed against a party, tribal or religious affiliations. A golden age in which regardless of which party is in power, civility reigns and government works, because the citizens understand that it is their responsibility to protect their future and that of their children through accountable leaders–and not cling to some illusions of senseless party ideologies and structures. An age of the understanding that we are the absolute structure, for “sovereignty belongs to the people through whom the government and constitution derives its powers (see section 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution).

Nigeria is an enriched nation. A people helped by God. It is, therefore, in our hands to transform the status quo. We all pray for a country that is working and peaceful, but as most instructively put by the learned Professor of Law and Nigerian Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo:

“God allows us by our voting to show him whether we mean the prayers or not. You cannot wish this country well, and vote for someone you do not believe in.”

Nigeria needs charismatic leaders who understand the nuances of leadership and what it takes to steer a nation amidst diversity and differences. We must do more than audio activism and casting of aspersions. We are quick to blame colonialism and diversity, but we then look at our counterparts with awry disappointment at our failures. Have we forgotten that some other countries like India, China, Singapore and some of the Asian Tigers with a larger population than ours were also colonised?

Indeed, the wave of change is here already. May we never err on the side of political-cum-party stupidity. May it never be said that we are sycophants to old incapable men who parade themselves as leaders with nothing but criminal records, unscrupulous precedents and Agbados to offer.  In Timi Dakolos’s voice, we are all we have, we defend our land. I hope for the optimism we carry so boldly in our palms—the time for that next leap is now, for hope can be as fragile and fleeting as a snowflake and the reinvention of a country where there are consequences for bad behaviour and rule of law is enthroned and economic and human capital development hallowed, takes more than hope and prayers. It requires action. It requires informed voting! YES, WE CAN!