Charles Ikedikwa Soeze, fhnr, fcida, fcai, cpae, son, is a Chief Officer (Administration), Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria. 08036724193 (charlessoeze@yahoo.ca).
In view of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria in 1914, by the British colonialist, Sir Lord Fredrick Lugard, a federating state called Nigeria emerged. This same entity won independence from Britain on the 1st of October 1960. It may be appropriate to state here that what Nigeria actually got from Britain was mere political independence. Consequently, the Britain withdrew their governance of the country and handed over same to Nigerians.
It is abundantly clear that Nigeria today occupies a land area of approximately 923,769 sq. km. The country spans over six ecological zones ranging from the swampy coastal rain forests of the South to the semi–arid but fertile grasslands of the North. Its geographical spread is wholly in the topics. On the West, Nigeria is bounded by the Republic of Chad; the country’s eastern side is bounded by the Republic of Cameroun; while on the South, by the Gulf of Guinea.
In the threshold of Nigeria history, our past leaders moulded this country with great zeal for success. This was manifest in the way and manner they collectively fought and achieved political independence for Nigeria. It is true to say that these crops of leaders exhibited sound leadership qualities and moral pedigree as well as professionalism that is lacking in our current politicians and leaders.
Consequently, the result of their tested, trusted and sincere leadership styles gave birth to a peaceful one Nigeria, as the Nigerian flag of green–white–green was hoisted and the union Jack lowered accordingly to the admiration of all Nigerians. They defended the territorial integrity of Nigeria with full restoration and preservation of our cultural values to the best of their ability and agility.
In addition, these skillful or adept politicians maintained absolute self–respect and protected the oneness of this country through good governance. There is the need therefore for the current politicians and leaders to emulate their ideas and desist from corrupt practices and shun ethnic tendencies.
Senator Hillary Clinton, American Secretary of State while speaking on the failure of leadership in Nigeria said and I quote “Nigeria as the 6th world largest producer of oil in OPEC has no business with continued importation of oil for her citizens”. Refer to the words on marble of the Pointer newspaper of Monday, April 5 2010 page 6. Happily enough, this has been stopped by the current president and commander–in–chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan because he said while declaring his candidacy for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP – the biggest political party in Africa) presidential primaries for the 2011 presidential elections “The past four months that I served as president of Nigeria have opened my eyes to the vast potentials of this office as a potent instrument for the transformation of our country. I discovered that by sheer will power, I could end the long queues and price fluctuations in our petrol stations. Today, all our refineries are working, saving us huge amounts of funds spent on importation of petroleum products”. What a very fine action from a modern – day politician and administrator like the political leaders we had immediately after independence, despite the Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu’s first military coup on January 15, 1966 in Nigeria.
Speaking on Nigeria, President Barrack Obama of the most powerful nation (U.S) has this to say “Nigeria is critical to the rest of the continent and if Nigeria does not get it right, Africa will really not make progress”. In this connection therefore, it is no exaggeration but most appropriate to say that Nigeria is and will continue to remain the giant of Africa. However, it is true to say that some Nigerian leaders are either oblivious of their responsibilities to the Nigerian citizens or blinded by their selfish quest for self aggrandizement. In other words, one can see decadence in all sectors of the economy and some of the leaders are nothing more than self – serving demagogues. Most of our leaders have shown that they are incapable of providing effective leadership to the Nigerian citizens. This is based on their inability to check their appetite and propensity to acquire wealth at the expense of the citizenry is unparalleled. The Berlin based Transparency International puts Nigeria at the top of the list as one of the most corrupt and recently included in the list of terrorist nations.
Towards this, Senator Hillary Clinton blamed Nigerian leaders for escalating radicalization of the youths. She made specific reference to poor living standards and corruption. Hillary Clinton made this statement after a young Nigerian man, Umar Abdulmutallab was apprehended for allegedly attempting to blow up a US plane.
Her words “There has to be a recognition that, in the last ten (10) years, a lot of the indicator about quality of life in Nigeria have gone the wrong direction, Nigerian leaders corruption breeds terrorism”. The big question now is who will save Nigeria from all these? The nation seriously needs leaders with conscience that will face the problems of Nigeria and effectively address them without minding whose ox is gored. One can boldly say that the problems eating up the very precious heart of the nation is corruption. Why Nigeria may find it difficult to successfully fight against corruption is that we continue to re–cycle some old civilian politicians and their military counterparts. To successfully fight against corruption, we must put an end to this. Let us pray in our churches, mosques and if possible or necessary in our shrines so that the president and commander–in–chief of the armed forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, an academic and astute politician would be able to address adequately some of the problems facing Nigeria. From my own personal observation for the past four (4) months, President Jonathan’s leadership qualities, particularly his disdain for injustice and his fearlessness in openly speaking against it should be appreciated by Nigerians and world communities. This is so because leadership is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere according to Chinese proverb. Furthermore, in the words of Jack Welch “genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance”.
It is flabbergasting that in the 21st century where there are a large number of leadership models to emulate; our politicians and administrators continue to settle scores in the old – fashioned Stone Age way. Historians and others will definitely agree with me that some of our leaders have never learnt anything from the past. As a result, the leaders made Nigeria a laughing stock of the other nations. Our nation that is regarded as the giant of Africa and still can not provide effective leadership. All Nigerians should be concerned about the bad happenings in the polity which clearly have showed signs of ineptitude, ineffectiveness, idiocy, tribalism, nepotism, favoritism and finally, the emergence of political Godfathers and Godmothers. Mismanagement, misdirection, misappropriation, corruption, lack of planning, policy inconsistencies and many others have become the trade mark of every administration that has ruled our nation.
It is true to say that democracy is the best form of government everywhere in the world. To this end therefore, Nigeria cannot be an exemption. Whatever the case may be, we cannot totally write off the leadership of this country, I think and believe we all need to bring our ideas towards national development, this is because no man has monopoly of knowledge; we must not relent in contributing our quota so as to move the nation forward. It is our country and nobody will develop it for us. We don’t have any other place to go. It is rather unfortunate that at fifty (50); we are still at the primary level of development. Let all Nigerians continue to pray for God to give us a selfless leader that can lead us to path of peace, prosperity and progress. In other words, to make Nigeria great is a collective responsibility in that it should not be left in the hands of a few individuals. It seems to me that all hands to the pumps.
According to the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, while lamenting the nation’s monumental losses to corruption since Independence said that Nigeria has lost the sum of $300bn to corruption. Refer to the Punch newspaper of May 28 2010 back page. The said sum would have been enough to build many standard public schools with all facilities. We now send our children to private schools and universities.
In the first chapter of his 1983 caustic pamphlet, “The Trouble with Nigeria” prodigious storyteller and literary critic, Professor Chinua Achebe identified the Nigerian monster in few words. For him, “the problem with Nigeria is simply and squarely that of corruption”. Subsequent chapters only served as explanations to the shattering revelation. The professor was 53 then.
President Olusegun Obasanjo (during his first outing as military Head of State – HOS) noted at the formal opening of the command and staff college, Jaji on Monday 12th of September 1977 and I quote. “The Nigerian society as at now, in spite of our efforts since July 1975 is not sufficiently disciplined, fair, just or humane”. The then military HOS who later ruled the country as a civilian president for eight (8) years went further to say “A nation where the indolent, the dishonest and the inefficient can get to the top or become excessively wealthy is a nation fit for destruction. It will in fact sooner than later bring destruction on itself”. Today, it is still astonishing that we make sensitive appointments without taking into recognition one’s educational background and area of specialization to ensure effective contributions in the discharge of the duties in that office.
Corrupt enrichment had made many Nigerians to display shocking callousness and sadism and their actions, gross indiscipline and selfishness, thereby bring misfortune to some families because man’s inhumanity to man makes countless people mourns. It beats my imagination when we clap and drum to the high heaven for those who corruptly enriched themselves and begged them to accept many chieftaincy titles, in other words, “Chief Thief Titles” including National Honours.
It seems to me this was why a public affairs analyst, commentator and great writer who is always applying big words or heavy vocabularies, Chief Bobson Gbinije has this to say while writing on Nigeria at 50, “The Dialectics of Patriotism” in the Pointer newspaper of August 6 2010 page 7 “. Let us do it right for once after 50 years of independence. It is a shame that a nation with over 100 universities and over 50,000 professors and over 50 million graduates and undergraduates can still not put his house in other. There are no hard–and–fast rules, no apaghetti junctions and no contradiction in and about patriotism. Just do what will protect Nigeria’s interest at village, town, brutally frank and sincere to ourselves about the role we have to play in our decided recourse for nation building. The English playwright, William Shakespeare admonished thus, “To thine owns self be true as the night and the day, for thenst thou cannot be false to any other man”. There must be a recrudescence and the renaissance of patriotism in Nigeria. God bless Nigeria as we celebrate 50 years of Independence, Chief Gbinije added.
At 50, the issue of electricity supply is nothing to write about. Surprisingly, China is boosting her economy with a massive generator trade boom with Nigerians faceless billionaire generator importers. As a result of incessant power supply, hospitals are sometimes forced to carry out medical operations on patients with the aid of kerosene lanterns or sticks of candle and this have unbearable consequences on health–care delivery. We pray President Goodluck Jonathan will address the issue of power supply adequately because this could not be sufficiently handled by previous administrations. With constant power supply, business especially small medium and big enterprises (SMBE) will boom and unemployment would be reduced minimally. Inadequate power supply has choked the development and growth of Nigeria’s economy, particularly in the last two decades. The Punch newspaper editorial comment of 22 March 2010 stated that “poor power supply has been at the heart of the nation’s wobbling manufacturing sector whose capacity utilization has today plunged to 29 percent. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has been crying out over continued closure of factories occasioned by a hostile business climate. MAN estimates that the imperative of providing alternative power supply in the face of power shortages adds up to 40 percent to the cost of factory products”.
In my view, the right way to prosperity is for this country to get credible leadership; leadership that will provide good governance, transparency and accountability in handling of public affairs; leadership that will rule with the fear of God and be fair and just to all. I believe in the politics of ideas, I believe that those who aspire to high political offices must found their aspirations on concrete philosophical approaches to reality.
Finally, let us pray that at 50, we will have God–fearing people and leaders who care for us and who will lead us in the path of peace, prosperity and progress, Amen.
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