[Poem] Hobbled By. . .

By Abubakar D. Sani, Esq

Few nations have been cursed
With such a sustained surfeit
Of bad leadership
As one which shall, for now, remain anonymous

But not for long
As shall become clear
As we go along
Albeit by inference

It was touted as the hope
Of the black race - nay, Continent
At independence
All of three score years ago

The political leadership
Which that water-shed moment birthed
Particularly at the center
Consisting of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa

Had little prior experience
Of managing such a complex structure
Beyond colonially-superintended
Stints in the Regions

However, their shortcomings were
More attitudinal than anything else
Best summed up as
Nepotism, corruption and words similar

Little surprise, then
That their political immaturity
And, indeed, naivety
Ensured that they lasted less than six years

But, alas, their successors
Whose starched uniforms
Gave them the aura of integrity
Were worse (it was merely a mystique)

They first led the country
Into a disastrous civil war
Which, even though its end was
Proclaimed as “No victor, no vanquished”

Has continued to haunt its citizens
As those animosities and tensions
Which directly led to it
Have remained with us

Indeed, they've been compounded
By newer, deadlier, threats:
A religious insurgency
And armed banditry

You'd think such a cocktail
Of centripetal forces
Tearing at a Nation-State
Would catalyze the requisite leadership

After all, it is said that
“Cometh the hour, cometh the man”
Unfortunately, in our case
Successive leaders have been our bane

The military adventurists
Who abandoned their primary calling
Ostensibly to “save" the rest of us
Soon showed their true colours

Their motivation was no different
From those that were elected:
To live out their delusions of grandeur
And gain access to the national purse

For the good things of life
Everything that money can buy
This applies to all of them –
Except, perhaps, Gowon, Ironsi and Murtala Mohammed

Indeed, in many cases, they out-did the civilians
In outright looting and graft
Infamously exemplified by Sani Abacha
Who seemingly turned it into an art

But before him was Babangida
The gap-toothed General
Who was worldly-wise and politically-savvy
Far beyond his primary constituency

His endless experiments and political chicanery
Pushed the country so close to the abyss
That he was forced to ‘step aside’:
His exit was anything but dignified

Not to forget the man from Otta
Whose post-retirement status was a chicken farmer
A reluctant successor to Murtala,
He returned triumphantly 20 years later

This time, as a civilian President
But, in reality, still a soldier to the core
As he brooked no nonsense
And was constantly at odds with the Legislature

Because of his perceived token efforts
At fighting corruption
That charge continues to be made
Against him to this day

How was he able to rise,
Phoenix-like
From the ashes
Of post-prison penury?

Arising from his incarceration
By Abacha for a coup that never was
However, given that the evidence is purely anecdotal
He surely deserves the benefit of the doubt

Of those that came after him:
Yar'adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari
Only his immediate successor, Yar'adua
Came away relatively intact

In terms of legacy and reputation
The median one – that is, Goodluck
Seems to have fared the worst
Fortunately, he redeemed himself – somewhat

By his gracious concession
Of defeat to Buhari at the 2015 Presidential elections
Talking of whom, no one seems quite sure anymore
Indeed, he is the subject of much speculation:

Is it really him?
If not, who is it?
A body double, perhaps?
If he is ill, is it dementia?

Allegations of nepotism
Incompetence and cronyism
Are rife and are, indeed
Credible, given the evidence and the optics

From all indications
This is not the Buhari of yore
The no-nonsense, tough-talking General
Whom some of us recall with nostalgia

So what went wrong?
Not with Buhari – no
But with all of us
Why is the place we call home

Perpetually crawling
Always failing to live up to expectations
While its erstwhile contemporaries
The likes of South Korea, India and Singapore

Have made the transition
(Or have almost done so)
From Third-World status
To rubbing shoulders with Europe

In terms of diagnosis,
The answer is simple: Leadership
As famously observed by the author of “Things Fall Apart”
In another book: “The Trouble with Nigeria”

So much for the analysis
What about the prognosis?
Is there a solution in sight?
Will we ever get it right?
Only a brave man, indeed
Will hazard a guess
As to when – or if
We will ever solve our leadership problems

In the interim
We will keep plodding along
Stumbling from crisis to crisis
Waiting, perhaps, for the Lord’s intervention

Written by Abubakar D. Sani, Esq., 18^th January, 2021

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