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Nigeria’s development, a collective responsibility

By Simon Abah
11 September 2018   |   1:46 am
We blame political distresses in Nigeria on political figures and that is absolutely unfair. I wish so much was expected from all predecessors while in office but we all went to sleep in the day not at night and at a time when we should have demanded proper accountability to develop Nigeria.

Sir: We blame political distresses in Nigeria on political figures and that is absolutely unfair. I wish so much was expected from all predecessors while in office but we all went to sleep in the day not at night and at a time when we should have demanded proper accountability to develop Nigeria. We had the resources and missed the golden chance to put some structures on ground.

There is a lack of leadership in all other people who brandish themselves as leaders in Nigeria and if my memory is still agile, I have never heard any revolutionary statements from them as well to make me portray them as great leaders.

Yes! We all wanted some candidates and their bunch of thieves out of power but were our choices right? I check the profiles online of some political persons and the only books I found listed on ‘books read’ are Holy Books. I can’t lay claim to have read many books myself. While it is not an offence to read any of the holy books, do you not strongly believe that a modern day leader who doesn’t do wide reading will be bereft of noble ideas?

Majority of so-called leaders are exceptionally shallow, if you ask them to define leadership, I’m sure many of them have got no simple clue. How many of the people in offices in the past and now did a 9 a.m. -5 p.m. job before offering to seek for political offices? Many do not know the difference between a career and a vocation and that is why nothing works in Nigeria. Politics is a line of business for them not a vocation.

Nigerians are always quick to exculpate selves from all problems in Nigeria. Most of them don’t vote, pass off for bedroom activists, the people who vote are the have-nots who are lured by avaricious politicians to vote with nickels. How can we change a country when people are politically lethargic? The middle class in every country influences the social process, real change come about with an active middle class. You must have heard it said repeatedly that Nigeria does not have a middle class.

Isn’t this a wrong supposition? The services, generals, those workers in the oil and gas industries, bankers, civil servants, journalists, lawyers, doctors etc. are all in the middle class but they all pretend to be rich in Nigeria, all it takes to be called a rich man in Nigeria is to own a car, they don’t vote, neither do they influence the social process because they are scared of losing their jobs because they say jobs are hard to find. I know many persons in the middle class who run away with their children to Dubai and the U.S. during elections in Nigeria out of fear of political troubles, to lands not exempt from troubles, places where they are classified as second class citizens. So unpatriotic lots.

Gabbers! How can you justify your criticism? There is a world of difference between a critique and criticism. The former x-rays the good and bad and offers solution within the ambit of objectivity but the latter is to attack while reveling in illogic.

Politicians are not the only problem of the political entity, we all are. I think of the days when clergy men told truth as a matter of course, now they tell people what they want to hear. People went to religious homes and came back feeling sorry for the sins they had committed because of the messages they heard and they as a result repented. In our day believers go to these homes to laugh, dance and clap and some are taught how to hate and throw bombs.

Those clergymen who are members of the faith of politicians never challenge them for not governing properly either publicly or privately. They pray for them, same way with clergy men from the other side. They hold thanksgiving service for crooks in political garbs.The same politicians who do not appear to reassure but to cause disorder.
Simon Abah.

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