Buhari

By Destiny O. Enabulele

Our nation is passing through ominous times, will the country be overwhelmed by problems? The economy we are told is in quagmire due to sliding oil prices, yet every day the media are awash with reports of monumental corruption, wastage and unbridled abuse of our collective patrimony. Nigerians are suddenly at a loss about the paradox of a nation so rich, yet wallows in abject poverty. Nigerians now ask questions without expecting answers because no one is providing any. How did we get into this trap? How did Nigeria end up in this bind? There exists strong nexus between natural resource governance, corruption, wastage, violent conflict and wanton destruction of lives and property be it in the Niger Delta, the Middle Belt, the South West and northern Nigeria.

The recurrent jingo in government circles these days is economic diversification yet there is no clear blueprint to achieving this. It is sad that rather than look towards sustainable resource management, the government is looking the way of another round of reckless extraction of natural resources.

In seeking for a panacea for what has become a diversification conundrum, I will process by examining the present state of affairs in Nigeria since political self rule, with emphasis on the leadership question. It is increasingly becoming apparent that the failures of those who have superintended over the affairs of Nigeria since colonial exit have been the notable ingredients for the perpetual melancholy in Nigeria. The repercussions of this failure have persevere to reverberate in all strata of the Nigeria existence. It is this forgoing that informs the choice of Leadership and Diversification Conundrum in Nigeria as the theme of this article.

Having posited like several other intellectuals that the lack of leadership is at the core of Nigerian predicament, I proceed to argue that the way forward is to look torwards the followers for an antidote. As the United States America President, Barack Obama did put it, what Africa needs are strong institutions and not strong men. While in line with this submission, I argue that only the collective will, push and insistence of the followers is capable of creating the desired institutional structures with which to undermine the pervasive strongman phenomenon in Nigeria. I further argue that the way forward lies in a critical enlightened and political followership that desires meaningful change and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices. They must be willing to stand up to their corrupt, inept and unenlightened rule of the political elite whose mission and omission have kept Nigerians in their current prostate state. This is not in any way utopian especially with the hindsight of the history of our agitation for political independence during the colonial epoch.

Since the independence, it has become apparent that Nigeria has been undergoing fundamental quandaries that permeate the socio-political and economic structures of the various regions. The frightening aspect of this diversification conundrum is not only that diversification appears no-go-area but the fact that the hope of improvement has become a mirage. Nigeria is imploding. Most institutions in Nigeria have either collapsed or are collapsing. Instability in all spheres and structures of the current Nigeria states has become part of their characterization. Most of these have manifested in the form of economic policy inconsistencies. The economy policy somersault have produced cycles of violence across the Nigeria regions making it the highest producer of migrants via Libya to Italy and the greatest receiver of aids, the dilapidating infrastructural facilities, the unprecedented elevation of corruption as part of state craft and the concomitant socio-cultural decay epitomised by professionalization of fraud as a means of livelihood are some of the manifestations of the Nigeria conundrum.

This image of Nigeria is a sad reminder of the state of Songhai Empire after the 1591 Moroccan invasion. As noted by the Arab writer Al Sadi, the western Sudan”was one of God’s favoured Countries in prosperity and fertility…. Now all that has changed. Security has given place to danger, prosperity to misery and calamity, while affliction and distress have succeeded wellbeing…. Disorder spreading and intensifying until it covers the Country”.

The degree of economy convulsions, in which ethnic and religious uprisings and insurgencies have become dominant features of Nigeria economic landscape, leaves much to be desired. The above, coupled with the unbridled corruption, intolerance, insecurity and anarchy that now perfuse Nigeria leaves no one in doubt that the aforesaid description depicts the contemporary state of Nigeria. The current or recent cry that all should seek diversification of the economic space in the belief that it will provide the needed panacea for the economic quagmire is laughable. This is because the bastardisation of the electoral process by avaricious and sel f-seeking politicians has remained a bung up in the wheel of meaningful diversification.

Comr. Destiny Oghayerio Enabulele (B.A,Int’l Studies & Diplomacy, MA-History Student)
Lead Director, Cradle of Black Civilization Initiative & Director of Administration, Conference of Non Governmental Organizations(CONGOs)