WHERE NIGERIA MISSED IT AS A NATION?

Written by Oladotun Oladele 

Chief Obafemi Awolowo

Gen. Aguyi Ironsi

Chief Olusegun Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo

Gen Muritala Muhammed

There is need to look at Nigeria from a different perspective because what we see are myriads of problems which had hitherto  bedeviled our great nation threatening it with all manners of problems. Whether we like it or not, Nigeria is the most interesting country in Africa. Many times lots of people have just been awed by the events which had hitherto been happening in this most populous African nation. 

The popular belief shared in many quarters was that the amalgamation of Nigeria was the greatest disservice ever done to this nation. A school of thought believed that if the country was not amalgamated we won't be in this contraption called Nigeria. Someone once said, if Nigerians were to be given the entire United States of America that we would be back in the same place where we are today in no distant time. These are shades of opinions. 

Many Nigerians know that there is a problem while some believe that there are problems but the simple truth is we only have just one problem in this country and every other problem that we are having are all offshoots of the problem. Every country have it's own devil but before we were bedeviled by the demons that are tormenting our great nation we just missed one very fundamental and that has created all the conceivable monsters we have to day in Nigeria.

Leadership is a monster that had bedeviled this great nation. Nigeria have suffered in the hands of the supposed ruling class in this nation because all they have done is continue the path. There is no way a nation can embark on a wrong path and ever think they can arrive at the destination which will be meaningful for its citizenry. Right after the independence of this country in 1960 like the people who had hitherto been the usurpers of power had truncated what could have been a beautiful midwifed nation after it's independence.

Today what people do refer to where times gone by but no one who lived in that era ever knew or accepted the facts that they all missed it. There is no way in which this nation can get it right when the people who are said to be finding solutions to the seemingly insurmountable problems have no inkling of the problem that is wrong with the nation. Like the typhoid, if the symptoms are not detected on time, a patient could be treating malaria and when it gets out of hands it will eventually kill the patient.

Amongst those who had ruled this country, the only reference people ever have are the times of late Gen. Murtala Muhammad and aside that the rest military years are said to be nothing short of courting disaster. The civilian regimes which were aborted by the various coups and counter coups were all fraught with the same excuses as reasons for toppling the government. Till today, these same excuses are the reasons why there are still coups on the African continent.

In every nation, the most important seat in the country is deemed to be the President. Of a truth that position is very important and many nations have gone to war just because of trying to correct or return to the right patha but many have become the monsters they were all said to be correcting. It is so sad that things have rather been worse than becoming better. The truth is that the President of every country is far from it's citizens. Except for deception the seat of power is very far to the common man on the street.

The Governor is a leader but because of the hydraheaded monster we have been rearing in this nation, like the president the convoy is always unusually long. The government at the states are not actually close to the people and the only time they are close to the people are when bad or unfortunate things happen to the people and the governor becomes the chief mourner like the killings that took place in Owo.

There is one thing that is common to the two aforementioned leaders, controlling resources of the people. The president is in charge of the resources of the nation while the governor is the chief security officer for the state. For so long,these people and their cabinet seems to think they know the problems or the solutions to the problems but to be candid, they are all bereft of ideas since they all lack the real knowledge of the problem bedeviling the good people of the country.

Resources, many have even wished that if Nigeria had not discovered oil maybe our economy would have grown better. As sad as it is, what we see on African continent is the facts that these natural endowments of nature have been more of a curse than a blessing. These resources are good but the attendant problem is that there is only one problem if it had been properly handled we would not be where we are as a nation. The first resource we had had been grossly neglected and people are running after the fantasies of the resources.

Many of the developed countries of the world do not have these deposita of nature and they are doing extremely well. These resources have become the root causes for so many deaths and genocides amongst host communities over resource control. From the north to the south, East and West of this nation these resources are now fast becoming curses than blessings. There was a time when expatriates were kidnapped in the Niger Delta region and large sums of money were paid before the kidnapped people were released by the kidnappers.

The greatest monster of corruption is an offshoot of this one thing that Nigeria as a country or Africa have missed. It is so sad that many leaders have become savages, barbaric impoverishing their people by taking the common wealth of the people and squandering them in the western nations. Many western nations are safe havens for many looters and their loots funds. There are so many officials of government who are under protection of some countries despite the facts that it is public knowledge that they looted their countries treasures and are living larger than life acts in those countries like time when Alhaji Umaru Dikko stole money during the Shehu Shagari regime before the overthrow by the military regime Gen. Muhammad Buhari in 1983.

It is highly unfortunate that the system of conduit occasioned by the financial institution remains till today because how could so large amount of money be cartes away if the financial institutions were not involved. Since we had neglected the most important thing way back in time, there was no way in which as a nation we could have corrected the anomalies. The dare devils which we have today are all results of the lack of accountability. We are not accountable as a nation. Imagine if we are accountable or we have proper books of account stealing will not be as grand as it is today.

The catalogue of thieves and looters that have been produced by this country Nigeria is mind-blowing. From the military to the civilian. The military which had been thought to be an institution with great discipline or disciplined individuals have had many military administrators whom today are living way beyond the salaries they were paid in active service. These enemies of the country including their civilian counter parts have plundered this nation to a point of economic comatose. The Gulf windfall still remained highly unaccounted for.

It became so startling when it was said that the amount of crude oil that had been produced in this nation cannot be accounted for. Except for guess work any attempt to probe the amount of crude oil produced in Nigeria will result in fire gulping the account office of the NNPC and the accountant general of the federation. It is in this great country where mosquito steal money fron the safe of a government agency. Many offices had hitherto gone up in flames possibly when there was likely going to be probes in those sectors.

The lack of accountability have made many public servants to be overnight overlords because of the size of the stolen and converted public funds. If only there can be accountability. We are so unfortunate in this country that the cost of recovering stolen funds are so astronomical because of lack of accountability. If only angels would keep our records or are the ones in charge of making people accountable, we will never get it right as a nation. Restructuring is good but accountability is the key. All the stealing won't be so attractive if there is accountability, people are held accountable to the last penny 

Tbe great dearth is, who will hold us accountable in this country? The citizens who are looking for their own ways and opportunity can not hold anyone accountable because the society have lost its values. Everyone want money for what it can do which have given birth to all monster vices from kidnapping to armed robbers ritual killing, terrorists, banditry, yahoo or fraudsters, looting from state to federal parastatals. Except where we want to live in self denial is when we say that looting is not going on massively everywhere. Even in the household of God, looting also takes place there.

From the moment we missed that part of our national life, any other thing we do or the government do is cosmetology. The government is just window dressing the problem we have as a nation. The reasons for agitation by some ethnic tribes is based totally on the fact that there is no accountability. The resources, revenue, the income and the projects are not in any way commensurate. Far too many if not majority of the politicians aspiring for public office today are all potential thieves including those who are looking forward to becoming their aides. 

The truth they say is sacrosanct but if we are to say more it would look like we are reading from the book of lamentations. The Nigeria story is a highly pathetic book of lamentation. If we begin to talk of looting in various sectors of our national life, even for decades we will continue to cite so many examples without end. Unless where we missed it is corrected, till this world will cease to exist, we will not get it right. This is not a curse but the whole truth and nothing but tbe truth. People call God with their lips but their hearts are million of miles away from God. Many would say they know the problem of Nigeria but I beg to differ and if there are any that surpasses what had been written above, I stand to be corrected.