Please, make Nigeria indivisible

By Soji Omotunde/OPINION  

Today in Nigeria, 2015 has become detraction. Those in power are hardly working for the people any longer, but more for themselves. The focus of the remaining two years of tenureship is now more on power retention.

It as if accomplishment of electoral promises and attainment of people’s desires are no longer of value. The nation is now filled with desperation for occupying political seats rather than working to put smiles on the face of the depressed people whose vote brought them into power. Insecurity is everywhere and the poor are getting poorer.

As it were, politics is bringing in strenuous tensions, making distress to envelope the land the more.

Ahead of the so-called Democracy Day last week, it was as if people were waiting for official announcement to confirm the death of Nigeria as a nation. But thank God that on that day, President Goodluck Jonathan and Senate President David Mark were reported as declaring Nigeria as indivisible, talk less of dying, despite the escalating challenges.

Making public presentation of his mid-term report in Abuja after which some of the ministers had rolled out heartening financial indicators, which among others was that Nigeria has become the highest investment destination in the continent, the president said contrary to the position of the opposition parties, he had achieved so much in the two years of his administration.

Mr. President self-applauded his administration’s performance. He challenged the media to use his 234-page report as a confirmable tool for any objective assessment. “I plead with all of us, especially those who want to assess and write about it to develop criteria because without a marking scheme, you cannot mark anybody’s paper. Develop your own, compare with previous governments. Develop your marking scheme and mark us.” Perhaps he is unaware of the numerous online hands now placed on websites to respond to virtually all criticisms in the media.

In seriousness, Mr. President ought to know that Nigerians need no marking scheme to know that under him, the rate of unemployment has gone up, security of lives and property and the welfare of the citizens have receded discouragingly. In truth, what scoring format does one need to know that despite the ostensibly inspiring economic figures rolled out by the ministers, the average Nigerian is worse off today than before PDP took over power in 1999?

The core basis of the nation’s afflictions has been that most of those who find themselves in leadership position hardly lead by example. The realism is that good leadership deficit has constituted the greatest clog in the wheel of national development and progress.

As an opposition party said, “performance is like a pregnancy that cannot be hidden.” Other than swelling corruption and desperation to retain power at all cost, how much of practical performance in power, security, job creation and vital infrastructural developments is already making impact on the life of the people today?

It is non-performance that is pushing desperate aggression and the fight of imaginary enemies much more within the ruling party. With sincere and wise people on the president’s side, the battle with Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi should not be as dismal as it is. Perhaps they are blind to see the unnecessary conflict thinning the integrity of the president while Amaechi is being lifted higher.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who preferred to be part of Jigawa State May 29 show than being with the president in Abuja called for change in leadership. He was quoted: “You know you can help somebody to get the job, but you cannot help him to do it. If somebody cannot do the job, we have Sule Lamido who we are confident can do the job.”

Before this, Obj who reigned and ruled over Nigeria in totality of more than 13 years, had earlier condemned the increasing level of indiscipline in PDP leadership. Although THE GUARDIAN editorial reminded us how he contributed to the foundation of the indiscipline, the newspaper also recollected:

“To say that PDP “lacks sufficient discipline” may well be the least that could be said of the party that has ruled Nigeria for 12 years, with very little to show for it. Poverty in the land is acute and widespread, corruption is endemic, critical infrastructure decrepit and insecurity of lives and property prevail in a huge magnitude. The PDP-led government has also not found solution to the problem of epileptic power supply. The situation deteriorates by the day without much hope of a respite.”

With this contention, how then can Nigeria be saved from being dragged to primitivism? If the Bible says that a soul that sinneth shall die, why can’t the present leadership focus more on cleansing the nation from impurity so that it will not finally disintegrate?

It will be in the nation’s interest if political office can become less attractive and corruption eliminated. It is clear today how politics is fuelling corruption. The desperation to occupy political office is largely to loot, plunder and embezzle. Politicians are not seeking for power to serve anymore. From federal to local level,

the few in power corner the resources of the land and leave the masses with the crumbs.

When there is leadership error, the common man will suffer the consequence. If sincere steps are not taken to correct the ills in the system – starting from the top, there might not be restoration of the people’s confidence in government. Ultimately, when citizens are not given desired measure of goodness of the land and assured of protection, the country will be pushed to crumple.

As those in power might be pretending not to know, many Nigerians are not blind and are not foolish. People are aware of the level of corruption, insecurity, insincerity, joblessness and poverty. They will become totally disillusioned if the leadership failed to resolve the afflictions.