By Tochukwu Ezukanma
Nigeria is a failed state because it can “no longer perform its basic security and developmental (educational, power, health, etc) functions and has no effective control over its entire territory”. Nigeria was run aground by a series of kleptomania and scoundrels masked as leaders. In their self-defeating escapism, they refuse to take responsibilities for their actions. Instead, they blame the problems they brought on Nigeria on a variety of factors, including the evil legacies of colonialism and the inherent complexity and intractable dilemmas of our enormous size and atypical diversity.
But then, their blames ring hollow because some bigger and more diverse countries, like China and India have successfully handled their more daunting problems of size and diversity. About one-sixth of humanity lives in China. Interestingly, with her unitary government, she clothes, feeds, shelters and secures the lives and property of this staggering number of humanity. She has also risen from what a onetime British prime minister, Winston Churchill, once characterized, as a “vast degenerate peasantry” to a modern industrial, military and economic power. Nigerians have been embroiled in an endless, enervating debate on a pertinent constitutional arrangement: unitary versus federalism. China has demonstrated that with the right leadership and respect for the rule law, either form of constitution can be wonderful for nation building.
Unlike China that was never colonized, Indian, like Nigeria, was colonized by the British. And like Nigeria, after independence, she grappled with the supposed deleterious legacies of British colonialism, like cultural shocks of colonialism and artificial sovereignty, which our failed rulers blame for their botched statecraft. Yet, Indian is a very successful democracy; she has not known even one episode of military intervention in politics. And she has lifted herself up from a third world country to a semi-first world country. Her strides into modernity, although streaked by periodic orgies of sectarian violence, have not been marked by repressive and authoritarian government policies.
In addition, her success story refutes the blames on size and heterogeneity for the problems of Nigeria. Nigeria has a population of about 250 million, with three official indigenous languages, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa; and two official religions: Christianity and Islam. On the other hand, India has a population of about 1.4 billion individuals and twenty two official indigenous languages, and seven official religions.
It is leadership that defines a country; it builds or destroys it. Undoubtedly, India’s accomplishments resulted from the quality of her leaders. Corollary, it is bad leadership that spelt the doom of Nigeria. The onetime American president, Richard Nixon, described leadership as, “a current in history”. He described true leaders, as “brave and principled and governed by courage and absolute commitment to a cause, to the point, that, even their personal survival becomes secondary to them. Driven by these attributes of great leaders, the first post-colonial Indian president, Mohandas Gandhi, said, “Only if I die for India shall I know that I was fit to live”. Less than 24 hours before her assassination, Indira Gandhi said, “I do not mind, even, if I die in the service of the country, because I believe my blood will strengthen and unify the country”. It was this readiness, on the part of Indian leaders, to subordinate self to the public good, and the willingness to give their all, even their lives, not in advancement of any personal agenda, but for the betterment of the country that led Indian to greatness.
On the other hand, in Nigeria, we have buccaneering deviants and perfidious opportunists masquerading as leaders. Their depravity is made evident in their parlance. Just before the partial gubernatorial election re-run in Ekiti State in March, 2009, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Demeji Bankole, was at Ado –Ekitti. He sang and danced to songs that extolled his party’s, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), earlier intimidation of voters with gun brandishing security personnel and their plans to do the same in the partial re-runs. To extol the terror of the gun, as a means of securing electoral victory faintly echoes Mao Tse Tung’s maxim that “Power flows from the barrel of the gun”. Mao’s maxim was apt in the tumultuous early 20th Century China. But to suggest, no matter how dimly, in 21st Century Nigeria, that the terror of the gun is a legitimate source of power was most unconscionable.
In 2007, in his desperation to foist his favored candidates on the country, the then Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, said that his party’s, PDP, victory in the general election was a “do-or-die affair”. Before the 2023 election, our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu instructed his political supporters to snatch and grab power and run with it. There is no gainsaying that do-or-die politics is contemptuous of the rule of law and the tenets of democracy. It countenances no political defeat, and thus, will not flinch, even, at rigging elections and repudiating the electoral verdict of the people. The words – snatch and grab – smacks squarely in the face of respect for the rule of law. Grabbing and snatching of power are unquestionably in negation to free, fair and credible elections. Power grabbers and snatchers can neither appreciate nor respect the solemnity of the electoral process.
As the saying goes, “From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” Inevitably, our words provide a glimpse into our hearts and minds; and reveal the stuff we are made of.
The words of the Indian ruling elite epitomize qualities for great leadership: selflessness, sacrifice and selfless and unwavering dedication to the good of the country. Thus, they are building a great country. The utterances of the Nigerian power elite exemplify qualities of dangerous and despicable leadership: selfishness, lawlessness and readiness to tear down the country in advancement of selfish and clique interests. Not surprisingly, they literally destroyed a great country, and, in their self-deceit, found refuge in blame game.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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