SEARCH FOR GOOD LEADERSHIP IS SMOKESCREEN!

We neither need to regenerate Nigerians of a renewed mind nor do we need any cock and bull “Good leadership” to get our country working! What we simply need is a reworking of our very polity to induce positive reactions in the our citizenry–leaders and the led–in their ordinary business of life and in relation to the state.

I give you an instance:

When, in this same country, we had the impossible NITEL, we had people who denied the bills they owed when NITEL came knocking; we had illegal connections; we had top government functionaries and government establishments consuming NITEL services and not paying “Shishi”. We also had top NITEL officials wiring free services to themselves and cronies and giving out NITEL jobs on the basis of partisanship and ethnic affiliations–in fact governments were also complicit in latter. Behold, something happened: Obasanjo licensed Mobile Telecommunications to operate within Nigeria as private enterprises and also put NITEL on same footing with them. What were the results:

(I) Even if your father were the apex manager of MTN, Glo, Etisalat, you would have to recharge your phone to make a call

(II) Same people who had the bad habit of consuming call services and not paying developed a new bad habit–which of course did not matter–which were: “Flashing for a call back” or calling a few seconds to say, “Call me back”.

(II) The same Nigerian managers and employees were able to deliver efficiently generating massive profits for these private firms.

(III) Because these firms were productive, they generated massive profit.

(IV) Oh Of course, NITEL found its level: the sea bottom and that bad burden on the government was relieved.

Now, despite these stack realities, our people–including our so-called intellectuals think Nigerians needs good leadership or some silly renewal of minds of the citizenry for the country to function. This is sickening, but of course constitutes more of a hypocritical human’s alibi not to make the tough and costly demands that would make a difference–which is: TO RESTRUCTURE THE NIGERIAN POLITY!

Imagine if we had LGAs functional and statutorily made possessive of robust polities and economies sourcing from the activities and resources of their people–and then imagine that the our states were totally made functions of LGAs and depended on LGAs and answerable to the LGAs. Imagine that a governor’s now bloated powers over an entire state were weakened such that he would have to campaign throughout the LGAs for votes–same for legislators–local and Federal parliamentarians,

WOULD YOU STILL NEED TO SCRAP THE SENATE FOR NIGERIA TO WORK?

WOULD YOU YET SAY THAT DEMOCRACY HAS FAILED IN AFRICA?

WOULD YOU STILL NEED SAINTS TO GOVERN YOU?

AND EVEN IF THE DEVIL GOVERNED YOU IN SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, THEY WOULD PLAY BY THE RULE–WHICH IS: TO BE ACCOUNTABLE TO YOU! PERIOD!