THE NATION<\/p>\n
Of a truth, Nigeria\u2019s major predicament is that those who occupy the driver\u2019s seat in her public administration have masked their interest to appear as if it is the public interest. Of course, the pursuit of this interest is to the advantage of those leaders and their cronies while the led bears the brunt. Regrettably, this informs the types of policies being churned out by the leaders which, in turn, inform the outcome of our peculiar public administration and \u2026 our brand of politics.<\/p>\n
As the saying goes, the wrong we see are oftentimes symptoms of a deeper ailment! Well, it is common knowledge that no country can develop without a predetermined solid structure. Unfortunately, Nigeria has none! Year in, year out, governments come up with pretty and fantastic policy names. But that\u2019s where it ends, simply because those with zero understanding of what a particular policy entails are the ones in government, directing its affairs. While \u2018elected\u2019 leaders lack the coherent vision of development needed to implement the change our country needs, those who have what it takes to move it forward cannot get elected into public office because they do not have the means. Again, how did we get here?<\/p>\n
When Olusegun Obasanjo initiated _\u2018Operation Feed the Nation\u2019_\u00a0(OFN), the belief at the time was that the programme would outlast his regime and that Nigerians would be fed, truly, in their millions. Looking back, where has _Baba Iyabo\u2019s_ OFN landed us as a people and which part of the nation is now being fed?<\/p>\n
In September 1986, the Ibrahim Babangida-led junta introduced the _Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market_ (SFEM) as a second official foreign exchange market in Nigeria. Indeed, little did Nigerians know that, like Siamese twins whose destinies were tied together, the birth of SFEM would bring round-tripping along with it. What of Maryam, his late wife\u2019s _\u2018Better Life for Rural Women\u2019_ programme? Had the intervention also been truthful to its mission, the transformation would have been so visible to the naked eye. Most probably, too, the programme wouldn\u2019t have disappeared like mist from the face of the earth.<\/p>\n
Not too long ago, many young students in school would want to study and become medical doctors, lawyers or engineers. With the incursion of the military, especially, with its clutching onto straws to erect the Nigerian state on the sand of lies and mischief, the music changed! There and then, a typical Nigerian youth would want to become a soldier. Enter the politicians! Like water, succumbing to the whims of temperature, politics won the hearts of our youths as the preferred life ambition. As fate would have it, new fishes have sought tenancy in Nigeria\u2019s ocean. Now, it\u2019s either our young ones do _\u2018yahoo\u2019_\u00a0or nothing else.<\/p>\n
But again, why won\u2019t they? Aren\u2019t our hearts now into grief as a result of Nigeria\u2019s political complexity? Are the ground not also barren and the water no longer springing forth? In our very eyes, a first-class brain \u2018graduates\u2019 into a cart pusher while most of those at the helm of affairs are cobblers. Elsewhere, the selection of those who govern is from the pool of trained minds from its Ivy League while possession of a Secondary School Leaving Certificate is all a presidential candidate in Nigeria needs to qualify him for the tenancy of Aso Rock Villa. Give a scalpel to a carpenter and ask him to perform the duty of a trained surgeon. Of course, the result of such an outing is better imagined.<\/p>\n
In the olden days, a permanent secretary was always content with his status and official designation. These days, a permanent secretary without dollar accounts and ostentatious lifestyle is always seen to have missed it.<\/p>\n
Time it was in Nigeria when those who joined political parties would contribute money to run those parties. These days, a political party is nothing more than an association of hustlers who have merely agreed to come together for pecuniary conveniences. Anything short of that definition is to deceive ourselves, deliberately.<\/p>\n
I have argued elsewhere that Nigeria is one terrible case of _\u2018thief steal am, thief catch am!\u2019_ \u00a0Saying it as it is, bribe has become a commodity in our land. The tragedy of our situation is that the restless soldiers in the system who, expectedly, are to do the job of pressuring the government, have a price. Needless to repeat therefore that they have become preys to those they are supposed to pressure. Is it any wonder therefore that the cost of bribery has gone up?<\/p>\n
At a time in Nigeria\u2019s political lexicon, the catchphrase in Yoruba parlance was _\u2018dibo koo sebe\u2019_\u00a0(vote and be guaranteed a pot of soup)! Now, the stakes have been raised. Now, it is _\u2019dibo koo kole\u2019_ (vote and build a mansion!). The tragic truth is that democracy, as at the present time in Nigeria, is at the point of a gun. In our tent of politics, guns do the voting and guns do the counting. Collation, also with the advice of the gun, is a different and more terrifying experience entirely. What\u2019s more? It is no longer out of place for a tout who has mastered the use of cutlasses and related weapons to be offered a prominent place in our A- rated political parties. Added to this is that we blame others for the vanity strife into which our world is conveniently immersed.<\/p>\n
Yes, we blame colonialism for being responsible for our present pass. But, was the United States of America not colonized by Great Britain? In any case, the blame game is not new! After all, Adam blamed Eve for eating _\u201cof the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden\u201d;_ and Eve blamed the serpent for deceiving her. Judas Iscariot blamed the Sanhedrin for _\u201cbetraying the innocent blood\u201d;_ and the Sanhedrin refused to put the money back into the treasury because, to them, it was [now] _\u201cthe price of blood\u201d_\u00a0and would rather use it to purchase the _\u201cField of Blood\u201d_ for the burial of strangers. Isn\u2019t it the reason we are wasting the magic we ought to be making?<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s dilemma reminds one of Ayi Kwei Armah\u2019s mystical bird called _\u2018Chichi Dodo.\u2019_ In his book,\u00a0 _\u2018The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born\u2019,_ Armah creatively told a story of how the bird hated filth and rotten objects while, at the same time, it could not survive without maggots which, ironically, derived their oxygen from filth and rotten objects. If we may therefore ask: more than two decades into uninterrupted self-rule, what type of economic policy can we say Nigeria is into? Is it Capitalism, defined by Karl Marx as _\u201ca historically specific mode of production in which capital has become the dominant mode of production\u201d?_ Or, Communism, regarded by Mao Tse-Tung as _\u201ca complete system of proletarian ideology and a new social system\u201d?_ Or, Imperialism, which, going by Tse-Tung\u2019s assessment, amounts to _\u2018paper-tigering\u2019?_ Or, Socialism, aptly prescribed by Obafemi Awolowo as the best for Nigeria?<\/p>\n
May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!<\/p>\n
Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk; 07087941459)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE NATION Of a truth, Nigeria\u2019s major predicament is that those who occupy the driver\u2019s seat in her public administration have masked their interest to appear as if it is the public interest. Of course, the pursuit of this interest is to the advantage of those leaders and their cronies while the led bears the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n