It is difficult to pinpoint one person, or one group, who must bear responsibility for Nigeria’s descent into the doldrums of poverty and underdevelopment since 1960.
However, if what would undoubtedly be such a difficult assignment is to be done, Nigerians would in all certainty settle on the people who have led the country in that time.
It was always going to be a difficult journey. The military coups of 1966 and the Civil War of 1967 ensured that a newly independent did not have much breathing space before the red mist came descending.
Since then, Nigeria has remained a deeply fractured country with the different groups that make up the country striving to compete with each other instead of cooperating with each other to make the country great.
The Civil war may have ended in 1970 but it was not until 1999 they the country found some semblance of the stability it is currently enjoying in its democratic experience.
In what has been a most difficult national journey, the groans have never been louder.
Passing the buck
If there is anything many of those who have served Nigeria in different capacities in recent times are experts in apart from incompetence, it would be deflecting blame and pointing the fingers at others.
Leadership has failed in the country in recent times, but there is never a Nigerian politician who is ready to admit their failures or take responsibility. Instead,many of them curiously think they have done just fine and should be applauded.
For the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, it is state governors that must be blamed for the stratospheric levels of poverty in the country.
On the sidelines of a recently held federal Executive Council Meeting,Mr.Agba wasted no time in pointing a finger of accusation at state governors.
Mr. Agba was reacting to the recent figures from the National Bureau of Statistics which put the number of Nigeria’s poor at a staggering 133 million.
According to the figures, most of Nigeria’s poor were found in the rural areas which prompted the Minister to accuse the State Governors of ignoring the welfare of their people and instead embarking on such extravagant projects like bridges and flyovers that add little to the lives of those who live in the rural areas.
It is in indeed a curious thing that he would call out state governors and ask them to do more.
It is even more curious that in a country of such staggering resources, so many people are dirt poor with little done in the preceding years to bring them out of poverty.
If Nigerians were ever in doubt or confused about the situation of the country, such doubt and confusion have been long cleared by the fact that the country’s main challenges have sprung from shocking leadership failure.
Nigerians are unanimous in their conclusion that for many years now, many of those who have had the opportunity to lead the country used the opportunity to look out only for themselves and their families, leaving the country they were supposed to lead aright wallowing in confusion and stagnation.
Nigeria’s problematic federalism has also created a ponderous system in which multiple layers of incompetence provide multiple levers for the multitude of leeches posing as leaders to milk Nigeria dry.
It is common knowledge that the arrangement in Nigeria is that three tiers of government being the local, state and federal governments should work to complement each other, thus creating a country every Nigerian would be proud of.
However, what Nigerians have borne witness too since local governments were introduced is that state governors do everything to ensure that they do not function properly.
Of course, they take a cue from the federal government which because it has more power than it can ever know what to do with, leaves the other tiers of governments scrambling for scraps.
The multidimensional poverty afflicting Nigerians is no coincidence. It is multidimensional precisely because it is multifactorial, and a big factor has been the shocking failure of leadership at all levels.
As fish usually begins to rot from the head, many of those who have been state governors in Nigeria have simply looked at the examples of whoever was president when they were in office, and followed their footsteps of incompetence.
Nigeria is a country where a busload of blame is always going round. In a country where it is a rarity for a public officer to resign from office no matter how badly they fumble, there is always someone or something to blame.
However, that things have simply refused to work in the country for many years now points to the fact that many people have conspired and lent their hands to spoil the broth for Nigeria.
Maybe, if some of those who have thus contributed to the malaise eating up the country realise their mistakes, Nigeria may begin it’s journey to redemption.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter: @kenobiezu
