Nigeria as a nation has been quite unfortunate to come across several
wrong decisions making which however has slowed the pace of her
development, but despite all these set-backs, the country is
exceptionally rich with diverse natural resources, in crude oil,
agriculture, limestone, coal, and cocoa etc. Luckily, it has traversed
beyond the vicissitudes of life and still remains the giant of Africa.
No doubt, prior to Nigeria’s independence in 1960, her economy was one
of the strongest in the world, hence the reason why her citizens were
wooed to study abroad while their fees were paid from home due to the
popularity of the country’s currency compared to the dollar.
Shockingly, the mighty has fallen and left questions unanswered, while
all these go on, a curious mind will begin to probe why the country
allow woe to betide her? Did the economy suddenly go beyond the level of
resuscitation? How convincing should states in the country find it
difficult to pay salaries of their workers? Could this be likened to bad
governance or wrong decision making? Why would bad decision making be
misconstrued with stumpy economy? When will Nigerian leaders wake up
from slumber and take the bull by the horn? The best time to begin is to
begin now!
Nonetheless, Nigerians are yet to find answers to these posers but to be
candid as a realist, the leaders need a change of attitude and
direction, they should be focused and shun distraction which is the
major cause of Nigeria’s underdevelopment since the inception of
democracy in the country. Little wonder why the crop of leaders the
country possesses missed the main tract of good leadership and
governance while in pursuit of self aggrandizements without regard to
the constitution which they swore to protect.
With due respect, I concur with the postulation of a logo-mania scholar,
Sobowale “that Nigeria is getting it wrong because as a nation, we
started out on Parliamentary Democracy before the Military converted
that to the Presidential System without regard for its inherent nature
of being a tripod of separation of powers or cost of maintenance”.
“Indeed, as a nation, we still operate a unitary system instead of a
federal system. The unitary system is reflected in the funds allocation
system whereby states go cap in hand to get funds from the center. It is
reflected in the state of mind of the Nigerian legislature that it is an
island on its own separated from the electorate that put it in power and
that its leadership is above the law since it is the law making body as
well as the budget approving authority”.
Bad decision making has been the bane of ethnic tribalism and nepotism
which has fanned the ember of national disunity and development. There
is no doubt that sheer corruption and crass partisanship on the part of
public officers have contributed in no small measure to undermining the
cause of justice thereby promoting instability, bad governance and
underdevelopment in post colonial Nigeria.
In a virile democracy, not all decisions adopted exclude the people, but
for the interest of national unity, development and accountability,
decisions are better made when it involves every component sections of
the citizenry as part of government’s efforts to creating public
awareness.
Nigeria has suffered a lot and it should not be wise for the country to
continue to suffer abject poverty, backwardness, nepotism, ethnic
tribalism and egocentric ‘mafianism’ for the sake of the rapid
recovery of the economy. We must build our system on some fundamental
values that cannot be sacrificed on the altar of exigencies. Citizen’s
rights to hold divergent political opinions must be held as sacred,
likewise free speech.
Considering the situation Nigeria is currently into, the nation is in
testy times in the pursuit of justice, attainment of justice and
ensurement of justness. With specific regards to the anti-corruption
crusade of the change government of President Muhammadu Buhari is
pursuing with appreciable and unprecedented single-mindedness and gritty
determination, especially, now that there has been loud debate not on
the rightness of the cause but on its process to enthrone good decision
making aimed at reshaping the people’s perception.
In as much as the present government is doing everything possible to rid
the country off corruption, there is need for a rebrand of the national
image with a view to wooing international community into the country for
investment. It is noteworthy that as a result of this hydra headed
monster, the country has lost billions to fraudsters who masked
themselves with political offices as channels of embezzlement.
It is high time Nigerians began to say that never again should their
leaders milk the common resources of the country while using very sweet
rhetorics to deceive the masses, never again shall the country allow
dupers, miscreants, touts and fraudsters man any position of authority
in future. A situation where those elected to make laws, whether at the
federal, state or local levels for the general interest of the country
derail from the status quo, and instead make decisions only favourable
for themselves is an invitation to anarchy and should not be tolerated
no matter the individual involved.
From the legislature, executive and judiciary, the story remains the
same; just quite recently, a number of court judges were arrested and
bundled by the Nigerian secret police following their alleged
involvement in corruption related cases.
This is very disheartening and dishonorable for judges everyone views as
sacred stoop too low for peanut and abuse their offices in pursuit of
earthly wealth, what an opprobrium, what an odium and what an irony?
This is sacredly pugnacious even though am persuaded that none of the
suspects has been proven guilty by a court of competent high
jurisdiction. Indeed, wrong decision making has become a threat to
national unity, things have fallen apart, and the center can no longer
hold!!!
_….IKENNA ONUOHA IS A MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANT___