The truth about our leaders, our present crop of leaders, is unnerving. It is as horrifying as it is tragic. They suffer from what the British neurologist, David Owen, described as “the hubris syndrome”. They are aware that what they are doing is wrong, but they deliberately convince themselves that it is right. The basic truth is that our leaders do not care. They are so callous, so unfeeling and so inhuman that while our public schools have all but collapsed, they can empower our youths with bikes, keke, shovels, wheelbarrows, hoes, kettle and teabags.

When would such youths ask rational questions? How would they attune their minds to the delicate undertakings of national development and self worth. How would they even know that their vote is their power and that they can use that singular power to change their world. How can they ask pertinent questions or demand accountability on how their common patrimony, their future, are being squandered by the VIPs of waste who have ensconced themselves in power and leadership.

You ask further, do our leaders read? Are they educated? Do they feel or understand the role of education and learning in the affairs of a modern society? Or are they just concerned with the primitive acquisition of filthy wealth.

They may decorate their fanciful offices with volumes of the works by great thinkers and renowned authors and statesmen, but have they read anything, anything at all, about the great ideas captured in such works by those thinkers? Do they understand the biographies and autobiographies of legendary figures and statesmen, of empire builders and the world’s renowns. Do they understand the great ideas these iconic figures generated and espoused. Do they care to know about the positive impacts and revolutionary changes those leaders wrought on their societies and people, or the foundations they laid for those coming behind.

Are the leaders of our country aware of those great ideas that fashion and create durable societies and enduring civilisations. Are they aware of the great ideas, the revolutionary thoughts that recreated humanity, revolutionised human relationships, inspired hope where none existed, and not only brought about a new world but changed the courses of history – east, west, north and south.

Have Nigerian leaders ever heard of what Mahatma Ghandi did for India, Winston Churchill for Great Britain, Woodrow Wilson for the United States, Mao Zedong for China, the Troskys for Mother Russia, Charles de Gaulle for France, Nelson Mandela for South Africa, and many more.

These are ordinary men but who distinguished themselves through conscious determination, a life of commitment to do good and the genuine desire to lead their countries of birth from destitution and backwardness to the era of rebirth and progress and development.

This is not the time or place to talk about the ills of Nigerian leaders and their governance mode. We will continue to talk about that as time and circumstances permit. But when a government treats the rule of law with contempt, abandons the path of accountability, closes its ears to public opinion and rides roughshod over the demands of the citizens, then the society is on a slow death-march. When national wealth is appropriated by a privileged few, and the vast majority are ignored and condemned to wallow in hopeless poverty, struggling for the beggerly crumbs trickling down from the stables of empowerment programmes, the country will continue to stagnate. This is what we have witnessed in Nigeria since 1999 and this is why our leaders and men of the moment empower us with insults and mockery. This is why they dehumanise us. The officials of such inept governments can empower our citizens with inanities and banalities. And we will gladly accept.

As we continue to dwindle and diminish, as we continue to retrogress and atrophy, as our able bodied youths, the leaders of tomorrow, continue to struggle for keke napep and motorbikes, wheel barrows and teabags, as banditry and official corruption become legitimised, with miscreants and politicians as major share holders, we must continue to seek answers to this critically invaluable question – what manner of empowerment is this? This question must be accompanied with answers. Answers that will work for us.

For until we kick out men and women who empower us with keke and wheel barrow, with teabags and shovels, until we take a stand and say no to empowerment into slavery and destitution, until we summon the courage to reject their crown of thorns, our society will continue to bleed and the haemorrhage will continue to drain the life out of us.
Concluded.
Professor Egbo is Consultant/Res Person at NILDS – Abuja. He can be reached via: (08037910012 WhatsApp only).