The restoration of democracy in 1999 in Nigeria came with a lot of hope and expectations. The emergence of President Obasanjo appeared in the horizon as a master stroke. The North had proved it didn’t have any qualms against the emergence of a Southerner as President in Nigeria. The intractable crises precipitated by the cancellation of June 12 election was eventually resolved because another man from the South-West of Nigeria had become President. Our epileptic infrastructure, led by the absence of electricity, was about to end because a former military officer who claimed to be an engineer, while in the army, was now in charge. The human rights of Nigerians will soon be respected and soon there will no more be awaiting trial inmates because a pardoned convict was now President. Corruption will be a thing of the past because Obasanjo, who had shamed all succeeding Presidents for being corrupt after him was now in power, he will not do the same if he came into power. Our elections were about to be perfected because a member of the global alliance of Transparency International has taken charge of government. Security will be so perfected, every Nigerian will sleep with two eyes closed, because a former military General was now at the helm of affairs. God has finally become the leader of Nigeria, because a man who claimed to have encountered God in prison and became born again had become ordained to lead Nigeria. Everything looked so good and promising. The world immediately received the news of the return of democracy in Nigeria with optimism and fortitude.
Obasanjo did not disappoint in churning out promises. He promised the country, through his Minister of Mines and Power, Bola Ige, that electricity will be restored within two years in Nigeria. As a man of honour, Ige assured that he will resign after two years if he failed. He failed and resigned accordingly. The only achievement he touted was that he exposed the rot that was going on in the ministry. Obasanjo quickly redeployed him to the ministry of justice and assured Nigerians that they should hold him personally responsible if he failed to deliver power to them in the next succeeding two years. He sacked the entire high echelon in the ministry to make way for new ones. Not only did he fail to deliver power within two years, he failed woefully to deliver power throughout the 8 years of his regime, despite humongous amount spent to build invisible power stations.
As requested by him, the House of Representatives held him responsible for this failure and indicted him for the misuse of the funds of the ministry. He was summoned to explain his role but chose to respond in writing. Nigerians believe that about $16b evaporated in building imaginary power stations in Nigeria during the regime. Security was so poor that state of emergency was declared in Plateau and other states. The most unforgettable and unforgivable security breach during Obasanjo’s regime was the brutal murder in broad daylight of Obasanjo’s Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, in his home in the South-Western city of Ibadan. Till date, the gruesome murder remained unsolved. Ige’s wife died of a broken heart. Other uncountable murders and assassinations took place and remained unresolved. In any case, a leader who could not secure the life of his chief law officer could not secure the life of anyone. Niger Delta militancy started during this regime and continued unabated till the regime ended. Corruption became celebrated openly as Legislators were openly bribed with multi millions to support the third term agenda of Obasanjo, while Obasanjo himself threw caution to the wind by launching the building of his presidential library in the lifetime of his regime and extorted, according to Prof Wole Soyinka, the sum of over N6b from parastatals under him in a move Soyinka described as nauseating and executive act of extortionism. Ota road that led to Obasanjo’s farm became the worst road in Nigeria till date. The elections conducted by Obasanjo were the worst in Nigeria history that even the benefactor, President Umaru Yar Adua, repudiated them as flawed. The list is endless. In summary Obasanjo failed woefully as President.
He handed over power to Umaru Yar Adua who died in office. By the time Goodluck Jonathan completed his regime in office, he was described as the most clueless President on earth with terrorists competing with government on leadership of some states in the North East. He was defeated by President Buhari who had contested for the post for three times and lost but luckily won the fourth time. Nigerians were so happy when he won that some people died while rejoicing over his victory. A no nonsense leader who loathes corruption had come in. A General who chased away terrorists from Nigeria as a commander of a division is now in power, our security is settled. The man who openly criticised Obasanjo’s handling of the power sector and assured that he will ask questions had come in, so we are assured of power.
Without going further to bore you with semantics, as I write to you now, we have not had electric power for two days in Abuja and system collapse has become the order of the day. Security has been so bad that bandits collect taxes from citizens, meaning that they have effectively established governments, in some states and local governments in Nigeria. Even the Governor of the President, Masari, is now advising his people to carry arms and defend themselves. Fuel and diesel are gradually becoming too costly and increasingly unavailable. The war against corruption has become more confusing than confusion itself. Ibrahim Magu, the head of EFCC, suddenly was arrested and detained and investigated and relieved of his duty. He was unceremoniously despatched back to the police force. Till date nobody had told us what he did and he is being promoted in the police force. The President’s party is extorting N100m from its aspirants and even his Central Bank Governor, Emefiele, has the audacity to query his employers and even sued them to court for putting any stumbling block on his way to contest the post of the President while still serving as CBN Governor against every known law of morality. He gleefully asserted that he enjoys giving people heart attack. In all honesty, this creature is heart attack himself and has caused heart attack on every thing he has laid his hands. Have our naira and our economy not suffered heart attack under this creature that behaves as if he fell from the sky. As am writing, I have not heard that he is no longer on his job and President Buhari is solely responsible for this anomaly. We can go on and on to talk about borrowing and the rest. The President still has one more year to go. Unfortunately, if things continue on this trajectory, there’s nothing much to cheer about his regime.
Is there anybody in doubt as to the main cause that might terminate Nigeria? The first and apparent reason is bad leaders. They are greedy, selfish, incompetent, corrupt and heartless. Honest ones lack knowledge, knowledgeable ones lack integrity. We must embark on a search for the knowledgeable honest to lead us, the philosopher kings. Just look around and see what Governor Zulum is doing in Borno State. He is an academic Professor. Nobody can blame him of lack of knowledge. When he came in first, he risked his life many times to go to the frontlines of Boko Haram infested areas to supervise the activities of both the security forces and the rebuilders of his state. You cannot deny him of courage. Even the Secretary General of United Nations had been attracted to Borno State and many Boko Haram members are being killed or rehabilitated. All the money the State government mentioned in its budget can be seen on ground signifying that corruption is not his favorite pastime. Leadership can make a difference. On international level, watch what President Zelensky is doing to secure his country against Russian invasion. He stood his ground in Kyiv, while Putin is losing his ground in Moscow. He had no silver or gold to give his people to fight or powerful superpower weapons to defend himself and his people, but he has good leadership to offer the world and soon the world caught the magic and started pouring more support to him and his country. The world offered him a ride out of his war torn country, but he chose to stay, fight and die with his people. He asked for weapons instead. The world, marvelled by this rare courage, patriotism and selflessness, gladly obliged him weapons with which he is pushing the super power invaders away. Ukraine is winning, Russia is losing. Without good leadership, Ukraine would have ended as a country and ceased to exist. It would have been swallowed up by external force.
Likewise Nigeria, without good leadership, may cease to exist, but unfortunately, Nigeria is being gradually swallowed up by internal wicked forces led by incompetent and corrupt leadership. When those leaders fall sick, they ask for a ride from the advanced countries to fly abroad to cure themselves while leaving the ordinary citizens to die in their own ill-equipped hospitals back home. When ASUU goes on strike, they ask for a ride from foreign countries to fly their children abroad to learn and study while their citizens’ children study in dilapidated, sanitary challenged institutions at home, that is, if they study at all. When they steal government money in billions as the present Accountant General of the Federation is alleged to have done, eighty billion naira in laundered money, they ask for a ride from foreign countries to fly in private jets out of Nigeria to enjoy the loots with their array of mistresses and loud friends while leaving their citizens without light, power, energy, security, education and so on. A country with so much bandits that masquerade as leaders will soon milk the country dry into kwashiorkor that may ultimately liquidate it. Whatever challenge we have today as a nation stemmed from poverty and lack in the country orchestrated by faulty leadership. Unless something drastic happens, Nigeria is gradually tilting to a precipice. May God not allow us to trip over. “May” in law is not a mandatory injunction, it is an optional injunction. At this level, Nigeria is still rescueable. Let Nigerians use the opportunity of 2023 to vote out leaders that are suffering from Acute Integrity Deficiency Syndome (AIDS), which is an incurable disease, from office, and replace them with honest knowledgeable leaders.
• To be continued