NIGERIA @ 50: Growing or Groaning?

NIGERIA @ 50:
Growing or Groaning?
By: Uche Ohagwam
“…both literature and history are replete with man’s unending quest to break free from internal imperialism.”
Leadership failure in Nigeria has been a major impediment in our march to nationhood and real independence. Year after year, decade after decade, administration after administration, system after system, policies after policies, have all pointed to one singular fact: our leaders are purpose-barren and vision-finished. As we celebrate independence annually, we the followers, go home after every 1st of October, bowing our heads down in shame, in agony and in tears. Sure, we have been unsuccessful and unworthy of emulation; even if we have leaders who would dispute this with their “white papers.” Sometimes I wonder, “What is wrong with our land?” “Is it in our land even?” But as I contemplate further, I remember Shakespeare, who once said that,
“The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we’re underlings”
(Julius Caesar, I, ii, 140-141).
Sincerely, neither our colonial masters nor fate is responsible for the prolonged poverty, corruption, maladministration that have plagued us as a country in the past fifty, I mean, fifty good years; but the selfish and dishonest leadership style we have had in the past fifty years.
One major undoing of our country is that we have always had leaders who never feel what the masses are feeling. They feign ignorant of our collective pain. Like the proverbial elephant who stepped on a poisonous thorn, but made light of this thorn deeply imbedded in his foot, judging his size, as his strength and resistance; unmindful of the fact that as time wore on, this thorn became infected right inside his body and eventually led to his death. In the same way, Nigerian leaders have shown a carefree, indeed an “I dey kampe” attitude to the numerous thorns that are about to put out our national life.
That our shame and tears are brought upon us by own leaders are no longer debatable. Like many African writers have lamented and insisted, through fiction after fiction, play after play, verse after verse, that: Nigerians and only Nigerians can clean up this country. Citing Chinua Achebe’s The Trouble with Nigeria, a little book I read during my undergraduate days, Achebe proved that our leaders should be held accountable and responsible: “Corruption goes with power, therefore to hold any useful discussion of corruption; we must first locate it where it properly belongs---in the ranks of the powerful” (38). In this 63-page work published in the 80s’, I feel, he had submitted a guide on how to recover our beloved country. Yes, Nigerians have gained a global reputation for being densely corrupt, owing to the blatant display of wealth by our politicians and public office holders, without any sense of accountability. This has further heightened the lust for political positions by almost every Tom Dick and Harry.
In summary, a better Nigeria is possible. Our leaders must show a sincere commitment to serving the people and re-building our fatherland. We must have a national re-orientation; where our motive for leadership would be redefined: to build a strong, secured and economically- buoyant nation. A nation where our children can smile again, a nation where our youths can see hope in promises and willingly let down their arms; a nation where a vast population of our people could live their dream. Truly and really, We will make it, if only we choose to. God Bless Nigeria! Happy Independence!

Uche Ohagwam, is a strong campaigner for A Better Nigeria
uchemy@hotmail.com