Various metaphors have been used to portray the crisis of leadership in Nigeria, including the country’s problems. Where do you start to analyse the difficulties that have overwhelmed citizens over the past 60 years? The current economic hardships have been worsened by the scourge of coronavirus that has exposed human limitations. 

Many people are out of work. The global economy is groaning. Air, land, and sea transportation has been grounded. Countries have shut their borders. Many relationships are now on the edge, tested by a new virus that has remained indecipherable to scientists, medical, and pharmaceutical professionals. Staying alive, surviving the terror that coronavirus poses to our health and wellbeing, and returning to our normal routines constitute the key challenges of our time.

Beyond these, our problems are grave. The economy is in a bad shape. Our healthcare system is haemorrhaging profusely and needs urgent blood transfusion and a substantial revamp. The higher education sector is in a state of confusion caused by rampant strikes by academic and professional staff of universities. Federal and state public service is unable to provide satisfactory and efficient service. The agricultural sector, the former lifeblood of the country’s economy, has lost its appeal.

Today, everyone is complaining about the restrictions placed on their movements, their inability to return to their jobs, the limit on the number of people they can interact with at a given point in time, the scarcity of some essential food items, and the soaring prices of foodstuff in markets and shops. There is no shortage of things we grumble about.

The stay-at-home order appears to be the greatest problem everyone is facing now. even as everyone struggles to cope with the government order. Citizens have mortgaged their individual freedoms and human rights. It is all for our everyone’s own good. If we are to beat the spread COVID-19, we must make all the sacrifices and observe strict personal hygiene practices. Staying alive has never been more important than now. Unfortunately, we live in one of those countries where hungry people far outnumber the rest of the population.

Our situation is compounded by lack of so many basic amenities. Steady supply of electricity, good healthcare system, effective network of roads, potable water, and public housing, all of which are regarded as the undeniable rights of every citizen are now available only to those who can afford them.

We are so used to stories of corruption and abuse of office by political office holders that, when we hear or see a few politicians who are working in the interest of the public, it seems surreal. Despite a few examples of state governors working hard for their people, many state governors, National Assembly legislators, ministers, advisers, and special assistants are seen to be exceptionally corrupt and greedy.

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Although a relatively few high-profile politicians have been convicted of corruption in a court of competent jurisdiction, in spite of the anti-corruption campaigns by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), many people still argue they don’t need a court verdict to adjudge some political office holders as corrupt. Unfortunately, a significant number of political office holders have, by their own conduct and ostentatious lifestyle, sustained that public assessment of the void in their moral character. The public is entitled to be offended by the unrestrained display of financial excesses by these corrupt officials.

For a long time, appointment into a political office or election as a legislator was regarded as the quickest route to undeserved affluence. And that’s why many strongminded politicians perceive elections as “do-or-die” contests (apologies to Olusegun Obasanjo). It is perhaps only in Nigeria and a few other developing countries that corrupt officials brag about their ill-acquired wealth and advertise their membership of the billionaires’ club. In our culture, in which wealth signifies strength, many people aspire for influential public office with the sole aim of raiding the treasury as soon as they have been elected or appointed to serve.

Within the Nigerian political environment, there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that many high-profile politicians and public officials who parade the streets are financial predators. They have a voracious appetite for illegal property acquisition.

Across the country, social and economic development is taking place at an uneven pace. In some states, you get the impression that the governors have forgotten why they were elected to serve their people. In these states, no one is talking about providing basic infrastructure for people or improving their socioeconomic conditions. In some other states, you are astonished by the scope of the capital projects the governors are undertaking. Overall, the conclusion is that Nigeria is a country of two entities – the developing and the underdeveloped (perhaps backward) states.

After observing the uneven levels of development, you are prompted to ask some critical questions. Why are a few governors working productively with the funds allocated to their states while a majority have gone to sleep or cleverly diverted the funds to other useless purposes? To what extent are state governors accountable to the people who elected them? To what extent are National Assembly legislators able to scrutinise the President? Do state legislators have the power to monitor how governors spend public funds? While state governors might feel they have the executive power to do as they like, it is important to remind them that state lawmakers have the oversight responsibility to keep them honest by focusing on how state funds are expended.

Disparate levels of development and underdevelopment among the states underline why states that receive almost the same amount of funds from the federation account and have similar projects use their allocations differently. It must be said that a handful of governors use the funds prudently while the rest do little or nothing but pump the money into public relations propaganda designed to publicise achievements no one can identify.

As I argued in a recent essay, political power is symbolically appealing but also intoxicating. It is possible to use that power constructively for the benefit of ordinary citizens. But it is equally easy to misuse that power. That is when power becomes a form of political and social disorder. A state governor or local government chairperson can wield all the power but it is how that person uses the power to positively impact the lives of people that makes all the difference. Public service is a duty. It is selfless service.