Date Published: 08/07/09
WHO IS SERVING WHO?
By ARINZE ALINNOR A.
I looked at the school uniform of my little Precious, and saw the motto of their school. It read thus: "To lead is to serve". It invariably means that leadership is synonymous with service. But if you take a closer look at what obtains here, you will find out that leadership is not, cannot, would not, and may never be synonymous with service. The slave and colonial attitude and mentality are still very much with and in us as a people. Many who work with white or foreign expatriates still exhibit some funny traits associated with slavery and colonialism. To many a leader should never serve but ought to be served and feared like he made the heaven and the earth.
There are some kind of absurdity that had stayed very long with us as a people. Many believe that a leader or traditional rulers authority should not be questioned, likening them to God. Everything they say or do is always right and in line with the rule of law. No wonder even fraudsters and corrupt politicians all want to be crowned or installed as traditional rulers. Many had advocated for constitutional roles for the traditional rulers. I am not against that but have my reservations. It is very true that authority without accountability leads to disaster. We have few or no role models again because of unquestioned authority. Many of them have different magnitude of problems with their subjects when their authority is questioned or put under check. It ultimately shows they are not serving the people but using the people to gain access to their personal needs.
I was pushed to ask ‘Who is Serving Who?’ because of certain things we see daily in the polity. Leadership had been redefined by all standards in Nigeria. Some say the redefinition was informed by the fact that most universal principles do not work here because of nefarious fact - the Nigerian factor. Someone very close to me said that if Nigeria can have civil rule without democracy being in place that I should not be surprised having leadership without service to the people. There is leadership without service because the electorate had been over powered by the ‘selectorate’. The only service noticeable in the polity is debt servicing. This debt servicing is not necessarily that of World Bank or any foreign lenders but godfathers and bank managers who bankrolled the campaign and election into office. This is reasonable service!
When leadership is devoid of service, dictators are having a field day. Let it be clear to all of us that nobody enters into any position in Nigeria to serve the populace. Do you kill to enter to serve? Many are in their graves today because they were seen as credible candidates by their opponents or party associates. Our expectation from people in office is questionable; we expect them to favour our tribe, state or community and forget anything about Federal character. We do not expect them to be accountable either. They should amass illicit wealth and convert many government properties to personal properties. They should steal enough to throw around as godfathers when they leave office and leave the rest for their unborn generations. We are not making genuine noise about them and corruption because they met our definition of earnest service to the nation or state; they took their portion of the cake that is inexhaustible.
Service to the people should deal with unemployment, strikes, hunger, roads, hospitals, schools and security of lives and property. But these things do not bother those occupying positions of power over here because they are immune to the effect of these. Their children and siblings are not among the students on strike. Their children are not among the 90 percent of graduates that are unemployed. Their children eat bread from the bakery called Nigeria while the children and the people they claim they are serving are all over the place in search of bread. People are complaining about collapsed infrastructures and it does not bother anybody up there because their families are abroad and they can afford helicopters when the road become serious death traps. They leave the Police to quench fire with bare hands; robbers with sophisticated weapons overrun police divisions spilling blood of police personnel and civilians around. The truth is that Nigerians run their own governments daily at their offices and homes; they have personal security guards, water boreholes, private schools, generators and yet pay tax to government.
Where is the service? Who is serving who? It is time for us as a people to define certain things very well. A journey undefined is a destination unreached. The people up there should know that leadership is a burden, not a blessing. They should be aware that complacency breeds militancy. Values have collapsed because of their inability to give functional education system. Let us look beyond tribal sentiments; the North has enjoyed more years in ‘service’ of the nation but their people live below the poverty line; 95 percent destitute and 5 percent mega rich. Is that the benefit of service? Until we address the issue of corruption, let nobody claim he or she is rendering any service to this nation. We just have ethnic champions using their people to gain recognition and eat the cake. No one is serving.
ARINZE ALINNOR A.
P. O. BOX 17985, IKEJA - LAGOS.
08033001782, 07029447342
arinze198@gmail.com
www.arinze198.wordpress.com
