It is 2.00 am on the eve of the New Year, 2008 is fast receding and I am yet without sleep. I am very far away from Nigeria, yet all I can think about is my beloved motherland and the hellish habitation it has become! In a little less than 2 years, Nigerians will be celebrating or perhaps mourning the 50^th anniversary of our moribund nation’s independence. On that day, like any other day, millions of Nigerian citizens will wake up and be confronted with the stark reality of a failed nation state! At dawn, “Joe the Nigerian graduate” will peer out of the window, noting the ominous clouds and the depressingly dull firmaments. With little else other than a tireless, indefatigable spirit and a listless sigh, he would boldly step out into the damp and flooded streets, into an abysmal labyrinth of confusion and hopelessness to endure yet another merciless day of toil and frustration hoping to find a job or some form of gainful employment! –this is the story a million young graduates, the lurid story of the common man in Nigeria. Nigerians are a peculiar breed, resourceful and adaptable, resilient and stoically docile, relentless and eternally optimistic. There is a longstanding joke in my family that says if you push a Nigerian to the wall, he will simply jump over the wall! Perhaps the time has come for us, as a people, to make the decision to either keep jumping that wall in eternal and cowardly retreat or to grab the bull by the horn and fight, laying claim to our right and heritage!

It is said that; “A people deserves the government it gets”. Can it be said then, that we are most deserving of the leadership that has been forced on us or did we in fact hoist it upon ourselves? Is it not true that the people constitute the government and that the government is a reflection of the values and moral character of the people? If it is true then, is the performance of this government and all preceding administrations before it, a summation of our value system and self worth? Can it be said that the incompetence, corruption and incapacity for success as seen in Nigerian governments, is a true reflection of a cultural orientation which is deeply flawed, disloyal and uncivil? Are we deserving of the devastating effect of such perverse, impotent leadership as we have had because we have allowed ourselves to be led to the slaughter house like lambs and are therefore culpable for whatever situation we find ourselves?. Indeed, every society aspires to a laudable and desirable milestone of development and self improvement – are we missing this aspiration as a people? Haven’t we allowed ourselves to be ruled by great fools and worthless servants and thus we now pay the price for our timid, careless and carefree disposition.

There are abundant examples of governmental failures in Nigeria! It is just about everywhere we look with virtually no corresponding stories of success. It is indeed easier to run into a flying pig than to come across honest and successfully implemented government projects. We have come to such a sorry state as a nation that we now accept failure as an expected and inevitable end. We have become a people so lacking in imagination and expectation that we meet mediocrity with great applause and marginal successes are viewed in such great light, even tempting us to make crude, ignorant and inordinate comparisons to vastly superior accomplishments in other parts of the world!  A smidgen of hopeful development and we kick our feet up in imperious self-admiration and make allusions to greatness! However, in truth, we will be hard pressed to find any nation in the world with such dismal records of success and such low levels of expectation or achievement.

We should take a long, hard, look at the state of our nation and honestly assess and evaluate our performance. Starting with the police force, followed by the entire military establishment, the judicial system, educational infrastructure, healthcare system, civil service, agricultural policies, public facilities, transportation infrastructures, manufacturing bases, secondary industries, finance and macro-economic policies, public services , unemployment statistics, land use laws, sports administration, even our correctional facilities and see how our national image suffers terribly! Whatever few successes we find, are most often attributable to the dynamic and hardworking private sector and nothing else!

Every facet and aspect of our national identity and development has deteriorated rapidly over years and our hopes and aspirations as a nation is fast becoming an endangered dream. In the light of this, the general performance of the current government is nothing short of a colossal failure and a disaster, yet previous governments have either been worse or were never any better! Nigeria’s dilemma is neither caused by scarcity of funds nor by lack of resources. It is neither caused by an absence of talents nor by a short supply of brilliant minds. Our present circumstance is the outcome and final chapter in the perpetuation of an unfortunate tradition in the nation – the unending propagation of corruption, unabated cycle of decadence and immoral grandstanding in every facet of our society.

I have thought long and deep about this and I have come to the conclusion that the "firing squad" or the “Guillotine” may indeed be the quickest ways to liberate Nigeria from the ghoul and shackles of corruption and decadence. However, even this may not be enough to save our beloved or ‘unloved’ country. Having endured deep seated rot, unmitigated corruption and nefarious activities for decades, Nigeria now has a problem that is much more complicated than that of corrupt and debauched leadership. The nation has been marinated and immersed in a cesspool of acute immorality for so long that it has evolved, regenerated and woven for itself, a cocoon of decadence and depravity. Thus, a festering culture of corruption has consumed the general population and citizenry. We are now confronted with an epidemic of mythical proportions - a massively corrupt culture, deep seated and engrained in our value system and national psychic, one that is not only saliently interwoven into the fabric of our society but also entrenched in the very core of our social element. Alas, the prognosis is stern and simple - the core values of our society, and by default the essence of our nation, has been completely compromised!

In a mere 48 years of self rule, Nigeria has managed to lose its way, its esteem and its purpose as a nation. If it is true that Babangida institutionalized corruption in Nigeria, then Obasanjo maximized its impact on the people. This, however, is not to absolve other past leaders of the degenerate leadership style and acute mismanagement proffered by each of their successive administrations. I will not neglect to mention the depraved, brutal and myopic leadership style of Abacha and I will be remiss if I do not note the nefarious activities, criminal looting and raping of our nation’s treasury during the brief tenure of Abubakar.  From the cacophonous and mindless government of Shagari to the vacuous, slothful and illegitimate Yar’dua administration, Nigeria has been the unwilling victim of fate - shackled with the despair and misery that is the exclusive reserve of those who elevate folly into places of authority!

Since after the hay days of oil boom in the mid seventies (70’s), Nigerians have prayed earnestly and steadfastly for the return of favor and good fortunes, to help us overcome the troubles and burdens brought about by government incompetence and excesses. The Lord, merciful as He is, hearkened to our supplications and brought upon us another era of plenty – an era of unprecedented oil prices, brought about by a zealous global demand, an era that was not only marked by high prices but one that was prolonged for 8 years and even better still, it came at a time when we had the capacity to produce vast quantities on a daily basis. Never had we been more fortunate than in these last 8 years, never had so much been poured into the coffers of our nation, never had there been a better opportunity to pull ourselves out of the rot, never had the potentials for real accomplishments been so real and the glimmer of hope shone so brightly. But alas, saddled with the curse of depraved leadership and crippled by social decay which we had consequently engendered, we have now managed to squander and waste a truly rare opportunity for self-redemption and self-healing and the miracle birth of true greatness and purpose in our nation has been, once again, aborted!

At the end of eight (8) years of plenty, what have we? How has the avalanche of slush funds and record earnings benefited and developed our nation? Can someone please point me in the direction of any such benefits? What do we have to show for the $450+ billion earned in 38 years? What is the status of our nation with regards to development and what is the state of our economy? What have we before us and what do we see? - I see massive and unearthly palaces, called homes, being constructed by politicians and their cronies in exclusive areas, albeit surrounded by decaying neighborhoods. I see luxurious and expensive cars on the roads, owned by the same privileged bandits, but no decent roads to drive on. I see expensive and lavish parties being thrown by a select few while the rest of the nation goes without a decent meal. I am overwhelmed with the stench of our streets from overflowing refuse, decaying infrastructure and horrendously bad roads. I see the faces of the young – criminalized and devoid of hope and light. I see a dysfunctional government, rampant corruption and a criminal police force. I see governmental impotence, cultural decay, unemployment and grinding poverty, barbaric and fearless banditry, overwhelming fear and insecurity. I see a frustrated citizenry, disenfranchised and disillusioned. I see the unmistakable and ripe sign of a failed nation state!

The question must be asked, what can be inferred from nearly 50 years of self rule – can we boast of one world class national institution or infrastructure? (…and by this, I do not mean buildings!). Can we truthfully proclaim that we are in fact better off today than we were 25 years ago? It must be agreed that our attempt at progress so far, can best be described as a ‘whiskey gait’ – a phenomenon which describes a drunken attempt at forward mobility by an inebriated persona. ‘Whiskey gait’ is performed by taking two steps forward and three steps backwards, such that at the end of the period of assessment, the cumulative effort of the subject has most often managed to regress his original position with the effect that the end point of his journey takes him further away from his goal than his beginning position. This phenomenon explains why Alcoholics can often be found a few hundred yards away from the pub and in the opposite direction from home at dawn! ……..but I digress! After 48 years of self-rule, shouldn’t we take a deep breath and assess our performance so far, pondering about our circumstance? Shouldn’t the question of accounting for lost time and wasted resources be asked of our leaders? (Both past and present) Should we not be asking ourselves if at the dawn of our independence, we were not better off as a nation? Wasn’t there a decent quality road infrastructure even if limited in scope? Were there functional medical facilities and a good education system in place? Was there a functional judicial system and law enforcement infrastructure? How much nation building have we done since then? Have we further improved and expanded our national interest or have we regressed? If anyone is of the opinion that we have made progress then I must ask you, what type of progress have we made? Can this perpetual and prevalent state of anarchy and chaos be anyone’s idea of progress and development?

The book of proverbs 29:2 in the bible says; “When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice but when fools rule, a nation mourns”. We are a nation that has been afflicted with the malady of corrupt and depraved leadership. And do we not moan and groan under the injustices and social disorder brought about by such rule? Our leaders have failed us and they have destroyed our hopes and aspirations. The only thing important to them has been to feed their own insatiable gluttony. The next generation is faced with a fast changing and unforgiving world, ill-equipped and ill-prepared, we are called to fight the good fight and to overcome a barrage of problems and issues with a quiver full of lies and broken promises! We have been failed by our leaders and elders and generations to come will suffer the consequences. They are doomed to a life of hardship and struggle because of the actions of our present leaders.

What have we been bequeathed? We have a criminalized society which has embraced corruption and public theft as a culture, thus the fabric and moral values of the society has long been compromised. We have teenagers, supposedly the future of the nation, who never witnessed anything in their life outside of corruption and depravity. We have an educational infrastructure riddled with corruption and lacking both integrity and effective capacity. We have a very unprofessional and uncommitted civil service which is oozing with systemic and institutional corruption. We have health care infrastructure that is devastated and drained of funds, motivation, commitment and talent. We have a citizenry that is broken, frustrated, disenfranchised and predominantly infused with the pernicious ideology of selfish interest and self aggrandizement. We have systemic failures, infrastructural decay and cultural decadence in both low and high places. We have a messy reputation of fraud and corruption abroad and we are unwelcomed anywhere and everywhere in the world. Can someone tell me how it is that so much blessing could lead to so much gloom, misery and despair? We call ourselves the giant of Africa but Africa disagrees, hardly do they acknowledge or respect us. We are supposedly a regional power in West Africa but most West African countries resent us and barely mask a disdain for our reputation. We, much like Esau, have betrayed all expectations and have sold our birthright for a plate of porridge. How did we get here? How did the Nigeria that was the darling of Africa in the 70’s, become the pariah of Africa in more recent years? Can someone please tell me what we have been bequeathed?

I will conclude this by quoting what the book of Ecclesiastes says in chapter 10:

 “5 There is an evil I have seen under the sun, an error proceeding from Rulers:

 6 Folly is set in great dignity, while the Wise sit in a lowly place.

 7 I have seen servants on horses, while princes walk on the ground like servants”

 “16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a fool, And your princes feast in the morning!

 17 Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles,

 And your princes feast at the proper time, for strength and not for drunkenness!

18 Because of laziness the building decays, and through idleness of hands the house leaks.”

Indeed, one does not need to be a Christian to understand the wise words above. Therefore, the urgent need to change must start in every individual’s heart. We must change out attitude as individuals before we can change our society. We must change our attitude as a society before we can change the nation. We must change our attitude as a nation or we will perish as a people! It is my hope that, in good time, we may have someone with righteous indignation rise to power. When that time comes the decision to bring a change must be true and honest. It must be swift and enduring, it must be both sincere and reassuring, it must be deep and unwavering in its commitment, and finally, it must be consistent, effective and unassailable in scope, strength and quality. The ‘firing squad’ may be symbolically important as a first step but ultimately, we are going to need many, many unbroken years of strong and wise leadership - leadership that is dedicated to establishing the rule of law, justice and equity thus engendering a positive environment for social development, sound government ethics, integrity, transparency and accountability. In so doing, we would have evolved a positive and lasting culture that is built for fast paced development, growth and socio-economic advancement. It was the great philosopher - Socrates that opined that: “Until kings are philosophers and philosophers are kings”. Until such a time as this, Nigeria will continue in its chosen path to self-destruction, obscurity and eventual failure.

Robot  # 1 | 05.01.2009 19:21

It is 2.00 am on the eve of the New Year, 2008 is fast receding and I am yet without sleep. I am very far away from Nigeria, yet all I can think about is my beloved motherland and the hellish habitation it has become! In a little less than 2 years, Nigerians will be celebrating or perhaps mourning the 50th anniversary of our moribund nation’s independence. On that day, like any other day, millions of Nigerian citizens will wake up and be confronted with the stark reality of a failed nation state! At dawn, “Joe the Nigerian graduate” will peer out of the window, noting the ominous clouds and the depressingly dull firmaments. With little else other than a tireless, indefatigable spirit and a listless sigh, he would boldly step out into the damp and flooded streets, into an abysmal labyrinth of confusion and hopelessness to endure yet another merciless day of toil and frustration hoping to find a job or some form of gainful employment! –this is the story ...Read the full article.