Of all the nations of the world, Nigeria remains a peculiar one. In terms of the population, she's not the largest and also not the smallest. Nigeria, like those countries like India, the Koreans, China, and so on, are the third world countries. Of all these countries, Nigeria seems to be at the back seat when it comes to the issues of developments in all ramifications ; be it technologically, science & technology, agriculture, and even in education.
The issue is that, things that worked elsewhere seem not to work here in Nigeria. A couple of weeks ago in a forum, opportunities were given for asking questions after the lecturer ended his lectures. One of the participants stood up, when granted the permission to ask his question. His question goes thus: Do we(the subjects) still need to pray for our leaders, having realized that they(the leaders) have not been assisting our prayers to come to fulfilment on them? The lecturer answered by saying that praying for them is very necessary for peace to reign supreme in our land.
In recent times, many of our political office holders have been alleged of corruption cases. Quite unfortunate, what one hears later is usually that such individuals are now freed of the allegations. However, let it be that a poor man stole a loaf of bread probably because he was about to be starved to death by hunger. The next thing to be heard would be that such an individual has been reminded at the Kirikiri Maximum prison in Lagos and that he would soon be charged to Court whenever an investigation is concluded on the matter ! If such an individual is so unfortunate, he may be in the for quite a reasonable number of years on awaiting trial. Except God is with him, he might eventually die in the prison.
That Nigeria is a multi - ethnicity nation, is not the problem of her not growing as expected nor it as a result of her religion heterogeneous nature.
Many of us who grew up in the ghetto understand quite well that the problems of Nigeria are her leaders. Just like what I've earlier said, Nigeria is a country where some of our influential leaders would stole billions of naira, and when caught would be mandated to pay back a stipend by the law Court having won the case in the Court. Whereas a poor man would be given a life jail term for stollen a tuber of yam because he was hungry.
Thanks to some of our sincere leaders, who're now beginning to actually seeing it that Nigeria problems are the leaders themselves and not the subjects per say. Recently I read of some comments passed by Rtd. Col. Ajayi, who was one of the military officers during the reign of the maximum military leader, Late Gen Sanni Abacha in an interview granted him. He actually made it crystal clear that Nigeria's problems are her leaders. He confirmed that a lot of atrocities were committed by the Nigerian Military during the period. He cited a situation whereby some military officers perceived to be the "enemies of the military Juntas were imprisoned without given fair hearing. And a lots of such. How Nigeria's currencies were been printed by the government not minding the economic implications.
I happen to belong to the school of thought who believed that ones the leaders are okay, then the followers have no option than to follow suite. The faithfulness of any leader is the faithfulness of his followers. It's like the father in a home who's a thief. Such a father shouldn't expect his children to be saints. This is not possible ! The moment the children noticed that their father is a thief, stealing another persons belongings won't be a difficult thing to them. They'll now see stealing as a way of life.
There are three things a country needs to have for her to stand out among her peer. These are Equity, Fairness and Justice. Once all these are in place, be assured that the subjects would be interested in been subjective to the rules and regulations guiding the nation. As a leader, you do not command respect by forcing yourself on people for recognition. The respect naturally would come from the subjects to the leaders, when such a leader leads by good examples. Corrupt leader shouldn't expect his followers to respect him, since it takes two to tangle !
For Nigeria to move forward, the issue of Equity, Fairness & Justice must be strictly adhered to, irrespective of which part of the country one belongs to, or the religion and the ethnic affiliation.
The greatness of Nigeria depends on me and you. Let's us make sure we do not vote for those of our political leaders that are corrupt should not be voted for. Also, as subjects, we should not be enticed by the monies dousing out by these corrupt politicians to buy our conscience before and during elections. Let's us stop selling our futures with plates of porridge.
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