Chinua Achebe was right when he said in The Trouble with Nigeria, that the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. Yes, something is terribly wrong with Nigeria’s philosophy of leadership. University students have been at home for over eight months. Flooding has been ravaging communities across the country where hundreds of people have lost their lives, thousands displaced and billions of naira worth of properties lost. Fuel scarcity has returned to our national capital.
Yet, in the midst of this crisis that requires national state of emergencies, our government led by Mohammadu Buhari found it convenient to invite people, some with questionable characters to the comfort of Aso Rock Presidential Villa, to confer awards them. No nation with leadership, will entertainment this outrageous awards at a time of this magnitude of national crisis that is facing Nigeria.
A close look at the list of the awardees leaves one further heartbroken. Why on earth will politicians populate list of national honours? Their major achievement—was just being in office to plunder and enrich themselves and their cronies with our common patrimony.Court propagandists like Femi Adesina and co also got awarded as well for telling lies.This can only happen in Nigeria.
We need a new leadership philosophy in Nigeria—a new school of thought. Majority of those who claim to be leaders today don’t even understand what leadership is all about.Nigeria needs a paradigm shift and of all the people applying for the job of the highest office in the land, Peter Gregory Obi is the only person who possesses the qualities that will usher in the people-oriented and servant-leadership that Nigeria needs at the moment.
