Badero Olusola
Oftentimes I've buried myself in the thoughts of why is Nigeria not developing despite the abundance of human and natural resources God has blessed the land with!
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Then I came to the following conclusions;
Nigeria is not a cursed land! Nigeria can become a powerful, competitive and an enviable nation on earth if we all can be honest with ourselves.
I was in a lengthy discussion with some of my Nigerian brothers in Glasgow a week ago and I passionately appealed to them "never to go to Nigeria for politics".
I made them realised that Nigeria is not a bad country, but the system is! I explained in details of how the system was only crafted to empower the powerful and oppress the oppressed more. And the people are ignorantly in support.
If that is not the case, which true developing country would give a governor the right to spend N500million as security vote that he can't even account for, but find it difficult to give income benefit, unemployment benefit, disability benefit or free medical care to the poor citizens of the state?
Which country spends more to import fuel that she produces in her backyard but complains of saboteurs towards achieving steady power supply and still think of growing?
I said, the orientation of a working government to Nigerians is even different to what is acceptable in other part of the world: in Nigeria, many believes a working government is a government that gives handouts to her citizens. That is why an elected Senator is expected to share money, construct roads, hospitals, give jobs and still make laws. A lawmaker who failed in one or all of these but still keep faith with his primary assignment of lawmaking would still be considered a failure.
So I told them not to ever go to Nigeria for politics because give or take, they will be the loser. They will lose their goodwill within months in office. Nigerians don't trust their political leaders due to their decades of abuse and disappointment. That is why, when you get elected or appointed into the government, your family, friends and kinsmen would throw a big party for you in thanking God for blessing you. They won't be doing that because they see you as a blessing to the country or community, it is about how rich you would become in few years that many of them would be direct beneficiaries.
Mind you, when we talk of leadership problem in Nigeria, lets ask ourselves: who are the leaders?
In 1999, those who are powerful political players in Nigeria today were nobody. They were followers like many of us today. They were with us feeling the brunt of bad leadership and they vowed to change it for the better. Now that they've got the chance, how much have they changed our country?
Don't bother telling me your answer. Because some day, you will be in their positions too and if your thought is they are doing great, then when it's your turn, we will have the leaders we condemn today in you too.
Ray Kroc said and I quote; "The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves."
It is the followers that become leaders. If the way the followers sees development is different from how you see it, first you won't get elected; and if per chance you get elected, they will frustrate you to either reason along their ways or they shove you out at your prime before achieving your goal. That's why the famous educated Fayemi was sharing cooked jollof rice with his wife to voters during his reelection campaign. It's just absurd!
How do we now merge the public opinion and personal opinion together in formulating a good development policy for our country?
Communication!
When the people in power can create platforms for communication between the public and the government, it eases suspicion and mistrust in the polity.
A platform where the government representatives would meet the people from the remotest part of the country to ask them what they want for their communities and keep account of such meetings for proper deliberation every time the government meets on the state of the country.
This will give those in government the clearer picture of how the citizens want their communities developed - they will be the government's work book and this will bridge the gap between those in government and the public that elected them. And in the process brings development.
In my conclusion, I advised them to let us keep educating the people on their rights as citizen of Nigeria. What there roles should be in developing the country, which we all want anyway. Expecting a welfare government from the individual politician instead of asking the government they represent is not a better way to develop the country - there is a difference between an elected politician and an elected government: when a political party wins the majority vote in the country, it forms the government in the centre; when a political party wins the majority seats in the parliament, it forms the government there. But their roles is different.
When you want to press the government to obey your demands, you press the lawmakers and the lawmakers will press it on the government who will then listen to your demand.
But waiting for a lawmaker to build roads, hospitals, schools, and still provide jobs, you are completely not asking for the development of the country.
Because as politicians knows all of these, and with their greed of wanting to remaining in public office, they will begin sharing the booty with you while your schools, hospitals and roads will remain the same.
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Firstly, stop politicising every issue!
Maiyegun General
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