Things Won't Get Better; You Must Get Better

We are constantly living with the hope that the economy will improve - the reality is that the economy the world over has grown worse than it was 10 years ago.  The recent economic melt-down in the Western world is not ebbing.  There appears to be a respite but check out what is happening in the entire European bloc - Greek is about to pull the rest of Europe to its kneel.  The American nation is experiencing arguably its worse economic problems in all of its national history.  Unemployment is at its worst.  Their credit rating has nose-dived.  If these things are happening in so-called Developed World, what hope then is there for Third World or Developing nations like those in Africa?  

Things are not getting better.  Nigeria is sliding fast towards a failed state.  Insecurity is as its worst.  We have just joined the league of nations experiencing suicide bombing by its citizens.  This was never contemplated even five years ago.  Our roads are death-traps.  Recent alarm raised by the Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission reveals that of the 192 nations with bad roads, Nigeria ranks second to the last on number 191!  This is inspite of the government's huge funds deployment to the building and rehabilitation of our roads.  Corruption is at its worst.  A minister in the cabinet was recently caught red-handed exchanging text messages with a private citizen and insulting him yet boasting that the citizen was poor because he refused to cooperate to get the minister to line his pockets with some government funds.  Our public officials are public thieves.  Their prosecution is like a show.   They now take pride to be docked and released as they continue to enjoy their loot.  Things are certainly not getting better.

It is no longer correct and right in our clime to count on the government.  Nigeria and most Africans are citizens on their own.  Its a survival of the fittest.  Our schools are poor and overwhelmed with malpractices as they are now certificate awarding centers.  Any wonder then that we should not expect better leaders tomorrow?

Is everything about doom?

Much as there is no hope in the horizon from civil authorities, the individual can rise above the dispair and make a mark.  In nations like America where the economy is on its kneel, private citizens who have discovered their God-given gifts and talents, developed them through sheer determination and created platforms for their deployment are making money daily and living large, oblivious of the storm around them.

I am a Christian, and I know there are many Christians reading this right now.  We were told that darkness, even gross darkness will cover the earth but we must arise and shine in the midst of the darkness.  If you wait for anyone to lift you, you will wait in vain.  It is time to dust ourselves from the shackles of discouragement and dispair - seek out what God put inside you and connect with Him for necessary wisdom to be the best you can be.

I have made up my mind not to cave in to any storm because I am an eagle!  The eagle is immuned to the storms. 

Can we meet and sharpen our minds?

If you in the Kano area of North West Nigeria, I will be huddling together with a group of friends under the auspices of the LoveHouse International Gospel Center to host a series of teaching/discussions on CHILLING OUT IN THE STORMS every Sunday evening throughout the month of November.  The event will feature practical discussion sessions on how to remain afloat in the storms and flood of economic depression and challenges.  The Royal Tropicana Motel on Zungeru Road, Sabon Gari, Kano is the venue and time is 4.30 pm every Sunday.

I am looking forward to meeting you this Sunday, 6th November, 2011.  If you miss out this Sunday, there remains 3 more weekends and the dates are 13th, 20th and 27th November, 2011.  Mark your calendar, adjust your schedules and come with your friends.

Its time to chill out in the storms!

In Search of Nigeria's Purpose-Driven Leadership

Nigeria is at a very critical crossroads as a nation.  And the nation is in dire need of a pragmatic leadership to stir it out of troubled waters.  For over 50 years, we have tettered along as a nation which drifts along without a clearly defined path.  Every successive government has tried to carry out "sweeping reforms" that practically erases whatever little gain its predecessors in office had garnered while it was in office.  This is partly due to the incessant military incursions in the polity of the country and coupled with the lack of leadership foresight and pragmatism by their civilian counterparts while in charge. 

This is the 21st century and the whole world is grappling with unprecedented economic challenges.  While a purpose-driven economic agenda is the immediate desire of a sane nation, Nigeria is contending with more other fundamental challenges that deserves critical attention if any economic theory is to have a lasting effect on its soil.

Multi-cultural/religious crisis

Our nation is sharply divided between the North and South, Christianity and Islam, Tribes and Ethnic groupings and all these interests are seeking very selfish portion of the soul of the country.  The question really is this:  Are we ready to dwell together as one people, one nation with one destiny?  This is not about some politicians forcing us through laws made by a few people in the National Assembly or some 1914 forced coallition made by Lord Lugard's British Colonial masters.  Can we sincerely ask ourselves from Sokoto to Calabar, Maiduguri to Lagos and from Kano to Port Harcourt if we are ready to dwell together as one nation and place other considerations like religion, tribe and regional groups aside as secondary?  Can we sincerely first and foremost be Nigerians before we break into our tribes and religions?  If we cannot get a leadership to resolve this seeming and intractable jig-saw puzzle for us as a nation, no medicine can possibly cure the many other social vices that confront us as a nation.

President Goodluck Jonathan does not look like that kind of leader who can confront these questions and ask Nigerians to debate on it.  He seems to have towed the line of other leaders who just pay lip service to the cliche "unity in diversity" without addressing the fundamental questions.  Are we really ready to be Nigerians indeed?  We need a leader who can confront this question and get answers and go for the jogular!  There is no point being afraid of breaking our nation down into nation-states for the sake of sustainable development.  There is no point being a giant with no direction in focus.

This may be the most audacious blog post I have written on the Nigerian state.

The Current Debate on Oil Subsidy Removal

The oil subsidy appears to be the only thing the impoverished Nigerian enjoys from its clueless governments over the years.  I have had issues in the last couple of years lambasting the late Colonel Gaddafi who ruled over Libya with iron fists for 42 years before going down to a popular revolution that started early this year.  Gaddafi was a maximum ruler but he provided infrastructure for his people.  He gave the Libyans water, gave them good roads and the average Libyans never really complained of extreme poverty the kind we have in Nigeria.  They just wanted a better society than what they had.  They wanted freedom in the political space, a democracy where they can be free to choose their own leaders.  That is what really caused the frustration which resulted in the revolution which has been carried out now.

Nigerian leaders talk about freedom of speech and a democracy which is actually meaningless to the ordinary Nigerian.  The other day, I took a trip to nearby Jigawa State in North West Nigeria from my base in Kano.  What I saw on my way (pictures of which I posted on my facebook page) really shocked me.  A little less than 20 kilometers outside the sprawling commercial city of Kano, mud houses littered everywhere on the route to Dutse, the Jigawa State capital.  These people who live in these mud houses were completely cut off from civilization without electricity and water.  They live in houses that were good only in the first decade of the last century!  Yet they live in a Nigeria where leaders steal billions of dollars which were allocated to their states for the development of the country!  Are they not worst than Colonel Gaddafi?  Shouldn't they be executed publicly for corruption?  Didn't Gaddafi deserve a better treatment compared to his Nigerian counterparts?

What really is the Nigerian enjoying from its government?  How does the billions of naira realized from the sale of crude oil trickle down to the Nigerian?  Only about 20 million Nigerians actually work for the government agencies, Organized Private Sector and quasi-governmental agencies.  Of a population of 160 million people, does the government create any conducive environment for the entrepreneurship of the remaining 140 million people?  The rest of us who survive by any means are simply lost and have no consciousness of government.  We are not secured - the police is just a relic of whatever it was meant to be - even milking the citizens who are trying to eke out a life by collecting N20 naira bribes from them on the street.  The entire country is wallowing in a huge darkness that is a huge embarassment to our size and resources as a nation.  The entire country in urban centers now run on generators.  We are emitting more gasious substance than the entire industries in the world - causing unprecedented global warming.  Why are we complaining of the spate of flooding in our cities this last raining season?  Check out the gas emission from our generators.  Someone should take the measurement and the shock we will find from the revelations will be awesome.

Has the government of Goodluck Jonathan considered these issues before contemplating the removal of the subsidy?  Whatever is draining the purse of the government is not the subsidy they give to the Nigerian people.  They should do a massive pay cut for all legislators for starters!  Lately I heard of the House of Representative members asking for money to buy N2.5m cars for each of them!  Imagine how much that will amount to.  Does anyone consider how much impact that can do on the lives of the people who are unemployed if they were given soft loans to start their own small businesses with just N500,000 each?  Now the legislators are going to spend that money on cars!  Don't they have cars before becoming representatives of their people?  They should use their old cars and SERVE the people!  That is the subsidy that should be removed!

The furniture allowances that Senators are paid every session is needless.  Remove that subsidy.  They already have houses.  Most of them are not poor people.  If they really want to serve and they know the condition of the nation's finance, they should give up their furniture allowance which runs into hundreds of millions of naira per Senator.  That sum can be channelled to build infrastructures through which employment can be generated for the suffering Nigerians.  That is where the subsidy should be removed.

No governor should enjoy any more security votes!  Their states are not secured.  They can't secure it.  Remove those votes and rechannel it!  Please the people's subsidy and cut your allowances and the excesses in the maintenance of government officials. 

I will come back and write further on the need to avoid the meaningless desire by the government to remove oil subsidy.  That will finally muzzle the common man out of existence.  Any palliative measures they want to use to cushion the effect will make no difference.  It will end up within the circle of officialdom. 

President Jonathan, please seat up and protect the Nigerians you swore to serve on May 29, 2011.  Stop running 250 kilometers in the wrong direction. Make a U-turn for the sake of the common man in Kotangora, the farmer in Ojigo, Benue State and the fisherman in Takum, Taraba State.  If you fail in this duty, the goodwill you garnered during your campaign will be washed away and you will join the rest of Nigeria's leaders who bore the name but had no impact on the lives of the people.  Is that the legacy you want to leave behind for your own children, and kins men in Otuoke?  I think not.

Now that Gaddafi is Dead...

Its funny how tables can turn overnight.  The once strongman of Libya was captured like a chicken early today when he was trying to flee from the overwhelmed city of Sirte, his birthplace which has been his hiding place since he was deposed in August this year.  This once reverred messianic persona who throd over the landscape of Libya like a collosus is now killed and has left the realms of the living.

There are lessons that we should learn from the mistakes and mishaps of others but most often than not, we do not get down to learn these lessons.  Gaddafi was alive when Liberia's Samuel Doe was captured and butchered like a goat in the 1990s when Prince Yommie Johnson and longtime Liberian war-lord turned President, Charles Ghankey Taylor led a splinter of rebellion against his regime.  Even the Ecowas Monitoring Group co-sponsored by the Nigerian government under the leadership of President Ibrahim Babangida could not save the then famous Sergeant Samuel Doe.

In the wake of the Arab Spring which spread across the Arab Magreb in Africa, Gaddafi saw how Ben Ali of Tunisia and his old friend, Hosni Mubarack were swept  by the whirlwind.  He never took notice to quietly stand down and take a deserved rest.  When the youths in his country began the uprising which led to his eventual removal and now death, he called them mad dogs and insisted that Al Qaeda was leading the "rebellion" and went as far as saying that the youths had taken some drugs which has led them into some kind of delusion.  Now we know who was being deluded. 

There are other sit-tight leaders still hanging around the African continent and in the Arab bloc.  In Africa, Cameroon's Paul Biya is approaching the 30 year mark, Eduardo dos Santos in Angola is been there about the same time.  Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is in his 31st year as the only President to have led the republic since independence.  A dynasty of succession of leadership of sort is taking root in Togo with Eyadema Jr now in the saddle after his father passed away after over 30 years.  I believe that Gaddafi was also not unaware of the pranks that Ivorien former President Laurent Gbagbo tried to play after losing the election to Allasan Quattara late last year.  He was eventually captured after some months of dilly-dallying.  Despots and autocratic leadership will always end up in shambles.  If you always want to be a leader by hook or by crook, you will be hooked by a crook as well.

Gaddafi's demise should sound a clear signal once again to all undemocratic and authoritarian leadership across the African continent and the world at large that in today's world, there is no hiding place for the wicked.

A word is indeed enough for the wise.

NIGERIA: What manner of governance?

It is with pain in my heart that I write this post on Nigeria's leadership crisis.  It is a crisis because Nigeria has had issues with leadership since its advent as a nation that sought to lead itself since 1960 when it was handed an independence on a platter of gold by the British colonial masters.  We have had the misfortune of having leaders who were mostly rudderless and having no clue where to lead the nation.  As a matter of fact, some of our leaders needed to be properly led first before stepping into such positions of authority.  A whole lot of them had no personal leadership in their own lives - little wonder then that they could not lead at the political or national levels.

Leadership from the concept I seek to address here which is a scarce commodity in Nigeria is strange to many people in positions of authority in the country today.  While real leadership is about adding value to the lives of the people one is expected to lead, in Nigerian parlance based on the way politics is played, leadership is about a personal ambition to get a position of authority and command respect from people and at the same time use the position to amass wealth and display such wealth stupendously amongst the poor and disadvantaged Nigerians.  The former concept of leadership changes the society and adds value to the citizenry while the latter leaves the people more impoverished and the nation more sapped.

To my thinking, very few Nigerian leaders from 1960 were actually prepared to lead this vast nation.  My readers may chose to agree or disagree with me but we have had only two people who were actually ready to tackle Nigeria's leadership issues from the day they took over the reigns of leadership.  These two individuals knew from day one what their mission was and they set about doing it.  One of them started out and was cut down by the bullets of fellow soldiers in a bloody military coup.  The other came on board with grand plans but was sabotaged by the kind of people he surrounded himself with.  They are General Murtala Ramat Mohammed and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida respectively.  All other leaders apart from the first set of leaders from 1960 to 1966 were all circumstantial leaders who got into leadership by chance and therefore had to try finding their feet while already in the saddle.  By the time they get an idea of what to really do having spent and wasted time trying to understand the complexity of the Nigerian situation, their tenure would have expired or they would be busy trying to enlongate their stay that they end up losing focus on the main business of governance and leadership.

The same is the case for the Goodluck Jonathan administration which is presently enmessed in a lot of problems it is finding difficult to grapple with.  Goodluck Jonathan was a circumstantial governor of Bayelsa State with no ambition or eye for Aso Rock until President Olusegun Obasanjo drafted him to run on a ticket with late Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua in the 2007 Presidential Elections.  He was still trying to get used to being thrust in the center when Yar'Adua took ill and he had to be saddled with the responsibility of becoming an Acting President.  While at that, his boss died and he became a substantive President.  Amidst all kinds of confusion, he announced his intention to run for the President and riding on the crest of popular acclaim for having a minority candidate and being so "innocent", he won the Presidential Election.  Now is time to lead the nation and he is being found wanting.

Communication as a leadership tool

The Nigerian people are becoming enlightened by the day.  They can tell when a leader is confused.  The best way to douse such insinuations (if they really are) is to speak directly to them.  There is a place for press statements through the Special Adviser on Media and Communcations, there is also the role of the Minister of Information and all the Cabinet Ministers responsible for specific job functions but the real leader of the nation is the President.  The buck eventually stops at his desk.  If he has a major policy thrust that he wants to carry out in the nation like the current issue of the State Governor's opposition to the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and their insistence on the removal of the petroleum subsidy, as a President, is expected that he takes to the airwaves and address the Nigerian people directly on the issue.  He could also call a Presidential Press Conference and address the nation through that avenue and take questions off the hook from the members of the Aso Rock Press Corp.  That way, Nigerians can be properly informed.  But the reverse is the case.  The President of Nigeria is silent and many of the other leaders are busy engaged in a cacaphony of noise thereby confusing the Nigerian people and leaving a picture of a confused leadership.

When the British nation was under attack by Nazi Germany during the World War II, the Prime Minister of the British, Sir Winston Churchill spoke to the heart of the nation and charged them to be strong.  His voice represented the English nation's resolve not to be cowered to submission by the madness of Germany's Hitler.  On the strength of his powerful communication, he galvanized the English troop even though weak compared to the Germany machines to victory.

Every remarkable American President had changed the tide of the mood of the nation at adverse times through direct and powerful use of words to communicate to the American public.  Besides the prepared speech and the paraphenalia of state protocols, powerful leaders have been known to speak off the hook from their heart to convince their citizens that as leaders, they were on top of the situation.

Why would President Jonathan play the ostrich at this time of our national emergency and by not communicating directly with the Nigerian people?  It is time to speak your mind about the critical issues and if you think we oppose government's position, try your best to convince us and if we are not, do a rethink.  You are there to serve us and not the other way round.  Be courageous and be bold.  Take the reins of leadership and give the Presidential job your best job.  A whole generation of people is counting on you and the destinies of millions is hinged on your decision today.  We are waiting.

My Headache Over Nigeria...

Dateline was Saturday, October 8, 2011:  The place was the National Stadium in the heart of Abuja, Nigeria's sprawling capital city.  The occasion was the make or mar African Nations Cup qualifier between Nigeria's Super Eagles and the Syli Stars of Guinea.  The stakes were high and much was expected from the Nigerian team.  They needed a slim win of 1 goal to nothing and they would be through to the Nations Cup starting in Equitorial Guinea/Gabon on January 12, 2012.

As expected, Nigerian fans came out in their numbers to support their home team.  The world outside was watching on cable TV as the event was being beamed live to every Nigerian home and those in the Diaspora.  At the end of 90 minutes, the result was Nigeria 2, Guinea 2.  Verdict:  Guinea has qualified ahead of Nigeria to play at the bi-annual soccer fiesta.  For records:  This is the first time in 25 years that the National Team of Nigeria has failed to qualify for the Nations Cup.

The Nigerian fans who went into the stadium expecting to come out celebrating were so frustrated some of them who could not stomach the defeat had to resort to damaging some of the stadium facilities.  As much as such venting of anger is unnecessary, one can understand the frustration in the land not just only in the area of football but also in every sphere of our national life.

After a thoughtful reflection time on the ouster of Nigeria from the Nations Cup, I got out of my angry mood and suddenly I was no longer surprised that Nigeria would not be at the soccer fiesta.  Why should we single out football administration and artistry from the many troubles we are having as a country. Is the country not one?  Are the players and soccer administrators not part of the corporate entity called Nigeria?  The rot we have in the nation is inclusive of the sports realm.

Our national institutions are collapsing right before our eyes and our so-called leaders are busy speaking English and giving press statements.  The reality on the street is a far cry from the "reality" in the laptops they carry out in the different state houses and Aso Rock proclaiming a drop in inflation.  There are more people out of jobs than those in any gainful employment.  Our educational institutions are bereft of any standards.  Many Nigerians who can now afford it are sending their kids by road through the Lagos axis to Accra where the standard of education in Ghana surpasses all of ours here.  Our children who get out of secondary schools number over a million every year yet our Universities can only support the admission of a little over 150,000.  No provision exists for the remaining 850,000 even if they are qualified.  While we struggle with that, the rate of failure in the secondary school WAEC examinations is a national embarrassment.  To worsen the situation, they are not issuing conflicting results on the internet and in hard papers!

Are we this daft as a nation not to be able to produce a leadership that can fix things in record time?  We have been giving President Goodluck Jonathan a benefit of the doubt for the past 2 years.  Yes, he won a fresh mandate in April, but he has been in the saddle for nearly 2 years.  Where is the impact of his being there?  The power situation improves only on the pages of newspapers and our hospitals are national morgues of repute!  Recently, I took a personal war with Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano where patients are treated worse than animals.  No wonder, the rate of deaths in that hospital is alarming.  I have lost two kids to the lacklustre attitude of their personnel and consultants.  A family friend who was about to be delivered of her first baby was so delayed because there was "no bed" for two straight days and when she went in for a CS, she could not come around neither was the baby alive!  Yet she undertook all her ante-natal sessions in that same hospital.

The other madness that has entered the head of the leaders is the issue of the  quarrelling over the Sovereign Wealth Fund which was set up to inculcate into the consciousness of the nation the culture of savings.  The State Governors who have refused to think up other revenue generating activities within their respective states are clamouring for the scrapping of the fund to enable them continue their looting spree.  The immediate past Governors now being queezed by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) were all part of the ones who opposed former President Obasanjo for starting the Excess Crude Oil Fund back in 2003.  We now know why they wanted the money.  They claimed the wanted to alleviate poverty but the poverty was actually in their pockets.  How can a single individual loot over 20 billion Naira?  Can you imagine what that amount can do in alleviating poverty and providing gainful employments to our teeming youths?

If the situation continues this way, like many people have alluded to which I do not have the evidence to prove otherwise, we are headed for the precipice and a failed state stares us all in the face.

That is my headache about Nigeria and it is getting me really worried.