Answer / okafor tochukwu

Nigeria and her leadership problems
By Abiodun Komolafe
To those of us who trust, take and even judge people based
on mere appearance and allied externalities, Nuhu Ribadu,
ex-Chairman of the ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo-created
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), was such
a mannerly saint that heavens would naturally adore. And we
need not be blamed!
After all, even if a man is to idealize the vibes of truth
or glamourize the frills and thrills of deceit, he may not
necessarily have to access another planet before he is
taken for what he purports to be.
Undeniably too, Ribadu is spectacularly striking, enviably
erudite, bravely beloved, particularly powerful and
giftedly gracious. He is no doubt a great achiever and a
hero of anti–corruption who has severally, distinguished
himself where most of his peers and contemporaries have
collectively failed. During Obasanjo’s moments of
expediency, so much had I banked on Ribadu’s competence
that I was, with the last drop of my blood, ready to defend
him and what he tended to stand for.
Even when he, with a supposed air of assured finality,
astonishingly informed Nigerians that he has investigated
the expired President who, interestingly, was his employer
and Chief Paymaster, and that, he (the president) was not
corrupt, while others unrelentingly expressed reservations,
I was undoubtedly among the few Nigerians who took Ribadu
for his words.
During Obasanjo’s maximum grip on Nigeria, apart from those
Nigerians legally covered by immunity, few other people
were conspicuously above the bounds of the laws of the
land. Notable among them were Ahmadu Ali, the now-
ousted ‘Ali-Must-Go’ Chairman of the People’s Democratic
Party, Olabode George, then, one of Ali’s Deputies and
Scrgeants-al Arms; Nasir el-Rufai, the then Minister of the
Federal Capital Territory and ‘Obasanjo’s Chief Demolition
Officer; and, of course, Nuhu Ribadu. Dora Akunyili,
Chairman of the National Agency for Food and Drugs
Administration and Control, (NAFDAC) came a distant fifth.
Then came the likes of Lamidi Adedibu and the Uba Brothers.
Like every other obedient servant, so ‘useful’ to the
Khalifa was Ribadu that he was touted as the head of
Balogun Owu’s Terror Group. And the ‘cop’ never failed the
General! Meanwhile, recent revelations seemed to have
shamed my trust. And, I am not happy at all!
Also found in this web of the ‘belovedness’ mantra were
Ayodele Fayose, former Governor of Ekiti State and
Olagunsoye Oyinlola, governor, and the incumbent occupier
of Government House in Osun State. Fayose and Oyinlola
appear to have and share some things in common. Both are
Yorubas and members of the same party; both got elected, or
selected, on the platform of the PDP in the Year 2003 and
both claimed to have been responsible for the new waves of
conviviality and development which their respective states
now claim to be enjoying. Added to these is that both were
3rd term political professionals.
Fayose and Oyinlola loved and worked for Obasanjo during
the 3rd term political hip shop as if their whole lives
depended on it. ‘Third Term’ miraculously failed and the
table expectedly turned against especially, the
former ‘Oluwayose.’ However, while the Afao-Ekiti born
politician has long been booted out of office and the once–
beloved son is now out in the cold, prodigally gnashing his
teeth and licking his wounds, the prince from Okuku is
still there, kicking and holding Osun State and her people
by the jugular. In his book, “The Devil’s Dictionary’
Ambrose Bierce defines capital as “the seat of
misgovernment.
That which prodes the fire the pot, the dinner, the table,
the knife and the fork for the anarchist.” According to
him, “the part (The repast that himself (supplies is the
disgrace before the meat. “With the second term
already ‘perfectly’ secured Oyinlola now struts around and
about town as (if he is) the conqueror of the stayte’s men
and materials. The governor has unfortunately turned the
state into a glorified turf as he now delightedly dines,
wines and whines with the sheep and the wolves and finds
what he does not - and needs not - seek in Hotels and
Resorts Centres. And, with a history of evidential
backwardness carapaced by contextual ignorance, guerilla
governance, brazen profligacy, hereditary fantasies and
other illusions of leadership paralysis emblematic of what
the now-aggrieved Theophillus Danjuma would rightly refer
to as the ‘de-development’ of the state, no one, not even
the voice of those who reportedly put him in power, counts
any longer.
As Nigerians who expect much from their leaders, our hopes
and aspirations become dashed when those we have hitherto
expected so much from end up performing far below
expectations. The situation even gets sadder when such
leaders, rather than do things that could ordinarily help
endear them to the hearts of the electorate, become
encapsulated in the crazy vagaries of misplaced priorities,
disguised objectives, misguided maturity, and other
deceptive devices that only end up doing the masses no
good.
The materiality of this assertion is that, from the Bola
Ige-led government in the old Oyo State; to the Serubawon
stop-gap of Isiaka Adeleke; and, of course, to that of Bisi
Akande, Oyinlola’s tenure as Osun State Governor has been
the worst. With the benefit of non-performance on his part,
while Akande is sure to be congratulating himself that
those who conspiredly got him out of power have not after
all succeeded in finding a competent replacement for him,
those who actually ‘did the do’ would by now have been
biting their fingers in uttermost consternation, for the
governor has not only markedly myownised the state by dilly-
dallying with its fate but has also consistently
marginalised thc people by hanky-pankying with their future.
Marginalisation is not only when a section, or a sector, of
the population is neglected. Marginalisation arises when
the governed is subjected to the hideous pretensions,
individualistic meddlesomeness and criminal small-
mindedness of revisionist forces and political hawks whose
sole mission is to wantonly destroy a collective monument.
When a leader diverts the resources meant for the
emancipation and rehabilitation of the led into other
pretended and spurious uses, marginalisation has set in.
When the taxpayers’ resources are not judiciously used
for ‘controlling, regulating. and directing the attainment
and continuous enhancement of the economic prosperity and
social well-being all the citizens in a state, without
exception or discrimination “, it is outright
marginalisation.
When security votes are expended on conspiracy theories,
romantic rigmarole and other infectious cacophonies of
conceited affection, it is nothing but an actt of
marginalisation. When allocations meant for local
governments are arbitrarily slashed and bogusly used for
unaccounted-for projects; that is marginalisation. When
leaders who are supposed to be consigned to perpetual exile
criminally denationalise the led into second-rate citizens
and socio-economic refugees, scavenging for survival, both
at home and abroad; when leaders rejoice in the educational
backwardness of the citizenry; or, when a leader chooses to
dramatize pretentious bigmanism when ordinarily he is
supposed - and he is naturally expected - to practicalize
servant leadership, marginalisation is the word!
Without doubt, Oyinlola’s inability to develop Osun State
has been worrisome. Ijesaland, interestingly, the
birthplace of Ebenezer Babatope, Nigeria’s former Ebino
Topsy and, now, a promincnt member of Oyinlola’s ‘do-or-
die’ field men, is unfortunately the worst hit! It is as if
the zone is no longer on the -map of the state. Five years
on, the zone cannot point to any meaningful dividend of
democracy from the governor.
Due to leadership negligence, qualitative education, access
to healthcare; network of good roads; good housing, though
very dear to our hearts, have remained far from our reach.
As if these are not enough, the governor has practically
taken governance out of the state; it is now on television
screens and radio stations where fellow acolytes,
bystanders and meanderers, carpetbaggers and cheer leaders
take their turn, thereby forgetting that good wine needs no
bush. Even, Osun State University, which the governor
claims to be building with the people’s money, is basically
out of the reach of the real people.
On a more serious note, the state has been having security
votes that have refused to serve the purposes for which
they were appropriated even as we have security agencies
that are practically moribund. Where and when they appear
to be functional, they are only unleashable on the
commoners. Though the governor revels in the glamour of
being a trained and an accomplished military warrior, these
days and, certainly, unlike before - armed robbery attacks
have become phenomenalized in our state as dare devil
robbers have turned her into the hub of their criminal
activities.
In all of these, Nigerians have been responsible for
Nigeria’s woes, because sanctions - that is where they
exist at all - have been only for the oppressed, the
repressed and the suppressed. Calling to question our
erring leaders has been an uphill task. For instance, what
happened to the Deputy Returning Officer who turned the old
Ondo State into a theatre of war in the 1983 elections?
What happened to those electoral officers who conducted,
counted, contrived, concocted and announced the votes that
eventually declared Chris Ngige as the winner of the
governorship elections in Anambra State in 2003?
Admittedly, Sunday Afolabi died in detention; but where are
the others charged along . with him over the National
Identity Card scam? Since Adolphus Wabara, Fabian Osuji and
others were arraigned in court over the bribe-for-budget
allegation, have Nigerians heard anything about the case
again?
“Asking polilicians to vote themselves out of power”,
according to Bob Beckel. “is like asking rabbits not to
multiply. We all know that in truth, though, contrary to
popular expectations, here, as elsewhere, politics is all
about business, It is all about (return on) investment. And
that is why people invest so heavily - in cash and in kind -
on political parties, campaigns and elections. But. that
is where the Western world differs from ours! Again, unlike
other civilized climes, it is unAfrican, especially, for
leaders to resign. retire or quit when their services are
no longer of any use to those whose interests they claim to
be serving. Zimbabwe is Africa’s latest example!
For instance, Geraldine Ferraro resigned her appointment as
Hilary Clinton’s Adviser over her racial colouration of
Barack Obama’s campaign breakthroughs. Samantha Power has
to quit as Obama’s Senior Adviser for referring to Clinton
as a monster. And, Jeremiah Wright left over his comments
on September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on USA. Eliot
Speitzer, Governor of New York State, resigned on
allegations bordering on prostitution. Elsewhere, Ho Chih-
Chin, Taiwan’s Minister of Finance, resigned over a mere
mass brawl between rival members of the Parliament. But,
no, not here! Dying in office is the exclusive preserve,
the defining syndrome and the pedestrian psychosis of our
own leaders.

Answer / dumkwu collins praise

LEADERSHIP PROBLEM IN NIGERIA FROM FIRST - THIRD REPUBLIC

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