Rebranding Nigeria - The statesperson-Leader As an Albatross

Then came the latest experiment in civilian rule (not democracy, mind). From 1999 till date, Nigeria has had the singular misfortune of having inflicted on it, the most visionless, corrupt and inept rulership in written history. This is a most impartial judgment given the size of resources available to it and the peculiarity of both the country's constitution and the political society which gives and allows the president of the country wield enormous almost unheard-of powers, powers Suharto possessed in Indonesia and set that country on the path of Industrialization.

This bird's eye view of Nigeria's political history searches for a credible historical perspective and judges its chief participants rather harshly. Corruption and sheer political brigandry have been the bane of governance in Nigeria. Given the enormity of human and material resources in Nigeria, it is simply criminal for the ship of the Nigeria state to flounder so dangerously especially in issues any serious country ought to have resolved eons ago. In Nigeria, we still discuss and tear out our hair over issues like power supply and credible elections and no end seems in sight for the resolution of these foundation stones of any modern democratic society. Issues serious minded countries like our sister Ghana have taken off the shelf still form the only menu of national discourse. I wonder how some present and past public office holders manage to look their foreign counterparts in the eye whenever they meet. A decent person would die of shame! Not our politicians. That human attitude of feeling ashamed of wilful failure is totally alien to them.

The very idea of rebranding presupposes there is in existence another less desirable brand of whatever product seeking to be re-presented to the world. The Nigeria Project, up to now, simply stinks as evidenced above. St. Jerome, philosopher, said "if an offence come out of the truth, better is it that the offence come than the truth be concealed".

The people of Nigeria have often been touted as the happiest people on earth. And why not! How we love our owambes, parties in remembrance of our parents who died 30 years ago, how we love to show the world that we have arrived by celebrating lavish wedding anniversaries. You cannot take it away from the Nigerian, he loves to work hard and enjoy life. The Nigerian is warm and hospitable; never mind the deviants.

Now, to lord it over these peaceful, fun loving people who didn't ask to be lumped together in the first place, is the Nigerian politician who can best be described as a modern day dinosaur who will eat anything, not excluding human flesh. The warm Nigerian spirit is serially abused by these dinosaurs whose love for power and its attendant material booty, has extinguished their moral sense completely. The peaceful, friendly Nigerian culture, which indeed is the country's real traditional image, has been actively invaded and consumed by moral putrefaction exemplified and uplifted by her political leaders - the African concept of 'shame' has taken flight. (Only in Nigeria would you see a politician on trial for corruption, raising his arms and acknowledging cheers from crowd rented to sing his praises like some freedom fighter!). The damage the Nigerian politician has done to our ideas of good and bad is simply unquantifiable. And if a people are really what they think, then the Nigerian image has effectively been wrought out of context by brazen acts of infamy committed by our politicians against the Nigerian state.

The words of Pyotr Chaadeyev calls to mind the Nigerian politician "...anchorites in this world who have given it nothing, taken nothing from it, added not a single idea to the sum of human thought, contributed nothing to the perfection of human reason and distorted everything which that perfection has conveyed to us". The destruction of our moral values is most visible among those to whom we have entrusted governance. Winning elections in Nigeria has become a sure means of "making it in life".

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