igeria started great, everything pointed in the right direction. The potentials were great and every Nigerian felt proud to be called a Nigerian. The whole world looked in the direction of the most promising black race with admiration. Today, we grapple with agitation for secession or outright emigration, amidst high level of insecurity.
What went wrong? The commonest answer you get is that of leadership but I beseech you to tarry a while before you conclude. No one will argue that leadership is a big problem in Nigeria but leaders don’t drop from heaven. They are a product of the society we created for ourselves. As they say, a people deserve the leaders they get.
• The elites in my country have the solution to the problem. They propound theories and draw references from across the world. They turn round to say that credible candidates cannot win election because they don’t have the money required to bankroll election. The elites abandon the electoral process and expect signs and wonders.
• Nigerians queue up patiently outside Nigeria but find it difficult to queue up within Nigeria. That doesn’t seem to qualify for leadership problem in my opinion. I doubt if there is a legislation in the United Kingdom, that compels people to queue up for services. It is a self imbibed culture that has become a way of life.
• Nigerians take bank loans they don’t intend to pay. Some of us will remember People’s Bank led by the Late Dr. Tai Solarin, a man with a genuine aspiration to liberate the Nigerian masses. Someone said President Babangida set People’s Bank up to fail but I asked if Babangida also sponsored the loan defaulters across Nigeria.
• We believed everything the white man told us. They told us they are white and we are black, we believed them. They described everything good with white and everything bad with black, we believed them.
They told us polygamy is bad and sold monogamy to us through the church, we believed them. Now their church is joining man and man in ‘holy wedlock’ but we are resisting them from selling same sex marriage to us. Someone posed the question – is that not monogamy too? A case of confused identity, one is wont to say.
• A Nigerian living abroad rejoices when the Naira depreciates, so that a unit of his hard currency can exchange for multiple units of Naira for him to flaunt. He turns round to complain that the economy of Nigeria is bad and the Naira is worthless.
• My countrymen want double digit interest rate on their deposits in the bank but want single digit lending rate that is business friendly. They argue that access to fund is cheap in places where businesses thrive, but they are silent on deposit rates in those climes. Someone told me that only voodoo banking delivers such returns the way my countrymen desire.
• The artisans abandon their vocation and embrace the title of ‘okada rider’. Dishonesty costs them patronage and they turn round to say the country is hard. They blame everybody but themselves for not getting jobs from Nigerians who want results but not excuses.
The Togolese and Benin-noire ‘expatriates’ continue to gain the trust of architects and construction engineers. Gradually, bricklayers, carpenters and other artisans of Nigerian origin become hard to find. Little wonder the informal sector has struggled to take its place, in a country that yearns for rapid economic development.
• We are a nation of believers. We believe everything and everyone including the fake prophets. We convert every idle place to worship centers. Ailing factories and warehouses are easy targets for churches as alternative means of employment. From morning till night, we pray for jobs that exist only in our imagination. Miracles happen for those who believe. Only that faith without work is a recipe for disaster.
… to be continued.
©️Akin Oluwadare Jnr
20 September 2021
