Have you ever seen a fully grown-up man or woman crawling like a toddler? Did I hear you say that such a ridiculous scenario is impossible in real life? Then it means you have never witnessed what an estimated 180 million people somewhere in the African continent have been experiencing in the past 56 years – and still counting.
Don’t ask me the name of the said 56-year-old toddler-like man who continues to crawl at an age when his mates are all leaping and flying and attaining uncommon feats. Frankly, it’s not from my mouth you will hear that the 56-year-old crawling man is called Nigeria.
Rather than naming a specific person or country at this juncture, it is pertinent for us to refer to a sobering statement in Chinua Achebe’s small-but-seminal book entitled:
The Trouble With Nigeria. The major problem confronting Nigeria, asserts Achebe, is simply and squarely lack of leadership. Lack of visionary, selfless leaders. Leaders who think more of what they can do for Nigeria and less of what they can grab from Nigeria.
With the exception of that deficiency (as in failed leadership), nothing else is wrong with ‘Naija’, Achebe implied. In terms of climate, weather, natural resources and population, Achebe insists Nigeria is as blessed as the most blessed nations on earth. But with a leadership that has become synonymous with corruption over the decades, none of us should be shocked that Nigeria still crawls at 56.
Hear him again: “Nigerians are corrupt because corruption has been made easy and profitable. The moment corruption is criminalized and made difficult and unprofitable, corruption will cease or at least become minimal.” Now, fellow country men and women, who will criminalise corruption? Is it not our leaders? Who can make graft difficult and unprofitable? Is it not those who are in the corridors of power, those who are being paid to do such?
There is a saying that “When the head of a fish is rotten, the rest of its body will also be rotten.” Using that logic, it is pertinent to ask, if a nation’s leadership is rotten, will the rest of the nation be different? As an example, think of the revelations that have been emerging since the advent of the President Buhari administration. Virtually on a daily basis, we are regaled with astounding details of how monumental sums of money were looted by some leading lights of the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan. Sums involving billions of dollars corruptly pocketed by the likes of Sambo Dasuki and a legion of others.
That, mind you, is only in respect of the Jonathan Presidency. It’s an open secret that the previous administrations (Obansanjo’s Abdusalami’s, Abacha’s, Babangida’s, Shagari’s, etc) were not different. It was all about decadent leadership hallmarked by corruption, incompetence, selfishness, etc, that is.
Under this appalling condition, no nation can progress. In other words, our leaders have raped and cannibalized Nigeria comatose. Hence it is still crawling at 56. Any time the country labours to rise and take its pride of place in the comity of nations, the looters masquerading as leaders will maintain their vicious grip on her neck, taking turn to milk her die.
Can a malnourished man behave normally? If a person is under the scourge of kwashiorkor, can he be healthy? Therein lies the root cause of Nigeria’s malaise. As long as lousy leadership maintains its vice grip on Nigeria, we will continue to crawl like a baby, irrespective of the number of years we may be as an independent nation.
The challenge before us now is for the Buhari administration to truly change our narrative. How can this be done? By not only taming the monster called corruption but giving us quality leadership in the true sense of the world. Leadership that is responsive, visionary and dynamic. Otherwise, mark my words, this time next year, and the year after, Nigeria will remain a crawling old man at 57, 58 and 59.
Cecilia David is a journalist and a public affairs analyst. She wrote in from Makurdi
