Is Nigeria a hopeless case?

Also published in Daily Trust

President Goodluck Jonathan 

Many local and international observers had cautioned successive Nigerian governments of the repercussions of their indifference towards the gradually but consistently deteriorating socio-economic conditions in the country and warned of serious unrests in the land and even existential threats. Unfortunately however, such warnings fell on deaf ears and went unheeded while the situation kept getting worse steadily but continuously.

Now that much of what had been warned against has come to pass and indeed takes more alarming dimensions in the form of escalating violence, growing public resentment and frustration, government’s helplessness and indeed brewing political turmoil, no right-thinking person doubts that unless this trend is reversed before it is too let, the situation will definitely burst. After all, such warnings were not issued on the bases of any painstaking research, because the leadership responsibilities neglected and the social obligations ignored over the decades were too fundamental to produce repercussions less than what the country is currently experiencing.

As a matter of fact, Nigeria is considered quite lucky anyway, because there were other countries which failed and plunged into chaos due to some relatively less serious challenges, yet Nigeria, which for quite a long time has been dancing on the brink does not seem to imbibe any lesson from such countries’ fates, instead its leaders arrogantly take things for granted and pretend that no cause for alarm whatsoever. This is even though, the situation as it stands now is so serious to the extent that it renders even the clearheaded confused, provokes the impatience of the patient and indeed exhausts the optimism of the optimistic.

This is not an exaggeration but it is actually what is quite obvious in reality, notwithstanding the pretense to the contrary, which many people particularly the elite tend to do.  After all, the spontaneous actions, reactions, commissions and omissions of the vast majority of Nigerians imply the absence of real hope that things would change for the better in the country anytime soon.

For instance, the amount of desperation that characterizes the struggle for power and influence among the political elite suggests how they simply view Nigeria through the narrow perspectives of their respective self-serving interests. This is particularly obvious in their unapologetic attitude in spite of the negative impacts of their deliberate breach of the leadership trust entrusted to them, administrative incompetence and indeed their acute kleptomania, which has earned them their notoriety within and outside the country.

They not only downplay the gravity of the impacts of their misdeeds but actually deny any wrongdoing for that matter, while they exaggerate the ridiculous amount of “progress” achieved under their supposed supervision. Though they already realize that the country can neither achieve any progress under the status-quo nor even reduce the rate at which it degenerates for that matter, yet they derive fun by giving empty promises, pretending to set and chase illusionary goals and indeed painting a rosy future for the country.  However, once they lose relevance in the intrigue-ridden struggle for influence, they instantly turn into “progressives” who desperately seek to impress the public with their polished rhetoric, pretend to expose the scandals of the incumbents and insist of being the best for the jobs all the time.

Moreover, worse still is the insensitivity of the people, who ironically turn a blind eye on the real causes of their misery and ignore the only realistic and sustainable remedies. This irony is particularly confusing considering the fact that while the elite, being the beneficiaries of the status-quo, predictably do whatever it takes to protect and indeed sustain their vested interests, the very people wallowing under the agony created and sustained by such elite beat about the bush hence fail to identify the causes of their suffering and the ways to end it. Instead and under the influence of an orchestrated brainwash from their respective ethno-religious and regional elites, they have effectively reduced themselves to mere instruments manipulated by the elites either in return of some peanuts or even without any material returns at all, depending on whether a particular person is materially compromised or mentally brainwashed.

Instead they have resigned to an elite created destiny imposed on them, having been deceived into believing that suffering is their destiny decreed by God the Almighty hence they have to accept anyway. This explains why they have literally given up hope to enjoy a reasonable living condition and instead they console themselves by hoping to get compensated in the Heaven for what they lack in this world, or, to put it more appropriately, for what they have been deprived of by their successive leaders over the decades.

Like many of my compatriots out there, I sometimes unconsciously succumb to the inescapable dynamics of reality to almost lose hope completely in Nigeria’s future due to the overwhelming intensity of the challenges bedeviling it and the absence of light in the tunnel through which it literally marches towards the unknown. And it is perhaps when my mental system has enough of the resultant sense of frustration that I find myself indulging in daydream where I fantasize of an efficiently functioning Nigeria where rule of law prevails, public infrastructure and services function well, which by the way actually gives me some consolation before I am ushered back to reality by, for instance,  a news of a bomb blast, a monumental looting of public fund or a colossal failure to deliver in a particular aspect of our national endeavor. 

    

Since it is obvious that the prospect of success of any reform initiative and indeed its sustainability depend on the amount of hope that drives it, it is quite necessary to revive hope in Nigeria’s future, and this can only be achieved when leaders imbibe and prove in practice the virtue of honesty in discharging their leadership responsibilities.