Leadership Failure and Nigeria's Fading Hopes
Being excerpts from PATRIOTIC PUNCHES a weekly column in the Nigerian Tribune from 2004 – 2009
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WHAT SORT OF GOVERNMENT IS THIS?
Our rulers know what is good, but would rather do evil; the citizens groan but they pretend not to hear; the nation descends into unpardonable and avoidable poverty and decay but they chose to continue to revel in stolen public wealth. One's discomfort is amplified after every return home from a trip to other nations to which our leaders escape at every opportunity to spend and stack away their loot, but from which they seem to gather no inspiration whatsoever to return home and build their own nation to equally enviable standards. One cannot but wonder, what kind of a government do we have, and what kinds of people rule over us?
What kind of a government do we have, that cares not that the whole nation is now in almost total deprivation of electric power, with most sections of the country having less than four hours of electricity per day, and those only in the wee hours of the night? What kind of a government do we have that has the provision of power as a key element of its 7-point agenda, yet condones a situation where every household, every artisan, and all commercial and industrial enterprises have to rely almost exclusively on imported generators, with the presidency itself unashamedly budgeting over N2 billion for its own generators in the current financial year? Apart from the needless drain on foreign exchange that all these generators constitute, they inflict unnecessary death and health hazards on our citizens, and make us look like foolishly selfish people because the cost of all the imported generators by all and sundry, and the cost of their operation and maintenance, added up over a few years, is more than enough to provide a reliable public power supply to serve the needs of the nation.
What kind of a government do we have, that would not realize the security implications of having more than seventy percent unemployment among its young school leavers and not recognize that emergency job creation measures are called for? What kind of a government will remain unconcerned as its young people, educated and not so educated, migrate in droves to other nations in search of self-fulfilment, many dying along unconventional routes in the process, many ending up in crime and the drug trade and constituting national embarrassments while the few who succeed in securing fulfilling employment end up as involuntary exiles, providing for their host nations, skilled manpower which could better serve Nigeria?
What kind of a government is it that will seem to be actively promoting corruption in public life, even while paying lip service to its eradication? A government whose attorney general has remorselessly reversed his role as a pursuer of criminals to that of protector of highly placed and government-connected ones, a government that hounds sincere citizens fighting corruption and cuddles publicly identified corrupt political mentors and sponsors! A government that has compromised the integrity of its anti-corruption outfits, one of which is now obviously headed by a nominee of those who should be its targets, and the other by “a see no evil, do no harm” gentleman! A government that has now so liberalised corruption to the extent that all arms of government and all public officials are racing against one another to garner as much from the public till as they can, for themselves and their families!
What kind of a government do we have, when legislative probes, such as those on the power projects under the Obasanjo regime, that were supposed to expose corruption and bring culprits to justice, simply become avenues for the probers to also gratify their own appetites for corrupt enrichment, and where those found to be corrupt by the probes are never brought to justice? Even as tongues continue to wag about the outrageous allowances and other grotesque, unpublicised monthly scoops of our legislators, the “peoples' representatives,” rather than seek to redeem their honour through greater openness and accountability, sink deeper into dishonour by seeking to suppress the report of the internal probe over their own shady N2.3 billion vehicle purchase scandal, and to conceal their various ignoble and nefarious acts by subjecting their staff to oaths of secrecy, no doubt taking a cue from the presidency. And to compound the tragi-comedy, the serious issue of Constitution review, on which the very survival of our nation depends, has been hung up by their petty squabbles over the sharing of allowances and on ludicrous ego battles on whether the deputy speaker should be co-chairman or deputy chairman of the joint review committee.
What kind of a government do we have, which cannot make the simple link between unpunished corruption and the breakdown of law and order? A government that cannot recognize that with unpunished corruption at the very top of the political hierarchy, the police cannot but be corrupt, that they cannot but cynically ignore any directives against corruption from their bosses, knowing how corrupt the bosses themselves are! A government that cannot recognize that in a situation of pervasive and unsanctioned corruption, law enforcement agents will not maintain law and order but will merely see every law as an opportunity to have their own share of corrupt enrichment by corruptly aiding and abetting law breakers.
Because we have no responsible government, all leadership sectors in society have become totally enmeshed in and living off corruption, and the corrupt are daily glorified and adulated. The judiciary has lost its saintliness, the churches and mosques have become houses of vice, the clergy and religious leaders eager solicitors and receivers of money from corrupt politicians and the traditional rulers avid partakers of the harvest of corruption by public officials whom they consciencelessly patronize and on whom they generously bestow countless but meaningless chieftaincies. The corrupt and insensitive government smuggly carries on as all the moral and ethical values of society collapse before its very eyes and virtuous men become endangered species while the corrupt become social idols…
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About the Book
Leadership Failure and Nigeria's Fading Hopes
The book consists of excerpts from a critical but constructive weekly column, Patriotic Punches which the author wrote between 2004 and 2009 in the Nigerian Tribune newspaper. It chronicles incidents of corruption in government, laments the corruption of the entire society and all its institutions and decries the enthronement of money as the national deity, such that its acquisition becomes the surest route to national recognition, no matter how it is acquired. It bemoans the fact that this conscienceless pursuit of money has eroded all of society's values, fostered a culture of corruption and criminality and led to the hijack of governance by a wealthy cabal, among them many criminals, who have provided a climate of impunity for the most horrendous levels of treasury looting by public officials, necessitating repeated rigging of elections to install protective successor leaders. The author is particularly distressed that the traditional watchdogs of public morality and probity - the judiciary, the media, religious leaders and institutions and traditional rulers - have all become mortally infected by the corruption.
It calls on the citizenry to take their future into their own hands by shaking off their political lethargy and docility, abandoning their excessive and unreasonable fear of death, and mobilizing to confront bad governance and to ensure the emergence of a government that will fulfil the nation's early promise and give some credibility to the black man's claim to equality with other races of mankind.
About the Author
The author, Femi Okurounmu graduated with a Doctor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968 on top of a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard in 1963. Growing up in Cambridge Massachusetts amidst the ferment of the U.S civil rights and the African Independence movements of the sixties, he was deeply influenced by these transformational experiences to develop a deep passion for engendering rapid political developments in Africa that would uplift the black race from the bottom of the totem pole of humanity and enable it take its rightful place, standing shoulder to shoulder with the other races of mankind. This passion inexorably propelled him into the politics of his country Nigeria and after a brief stint as a lecturer at the University of Lagos, he joined forces politically with the leading Nigerian nationalist and pan-Africanist, progressive political thinker and actor of the time, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who became his mentor. The author has thus spent most of his political life crusading for the restoration of purposeful and people-centred governance in his country, on the platforms of principled opposition political parties, first under the Awolowo-led UPN (Unity Party of Nigeria) and most recently, under the AD (Alliance for Democracy). He has served at different times as a state government commissioner (minister), and as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the platform of the AD. He was a leader of the pro-democracy movement against the late military dictator, Sani Abacha and remains till date, a leading spokesperson of the progressive opposition political movements.