Every nation passes through trying times. But God raises individuals to the rescue. The Jewish nation spent over four hundred years in Egypt’s slave camp. God raised Moses to deliver them. Their journey through the wilderness to the promised land was very painful but they eventually made it. Many years ago, Ghanaians moved around in search of greener pastures, including Nigeria because the economy of Ghana was then in complete shambles. In 1983, Nigerians added a new word to their vocabulary: “Ghana must go”. Nigerian President Shehu Shagari issued an executive order that forced illegal immigrants to leave the country or face arrest. Two million migrants were deported, including one million Ghanaians.
But in 1979, God raised John J Rawlings who put his life on the line to redeem Ghana’s economy and his people from corruption and bad governance which had led to the frustration of Ghanaians and forced many people to look elsewhere outside Ghana for a living. According to John L. Adedeji, “Rawlings, unlike many other leaders in Ghana’s history, subsequently led the country through the difficult years of economic recovery and succeeded in giving back to Ghanaians their national pride.” Quoting Chazan (1983) who observed that “without Rawlings’ strength of character and unwavering determination, Ghana would not have survived the Economic Recovery Programs (ERPs) of the 1980s put in place by the ruling Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC)”. The lesson here is that it would take one leader at the top to turn around the lives of the communities.
For over sixty years, we have seen hopes fall in Nigeria’s nation-building. From the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, “the best president Nigeria never had” (according to Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu) through today we have seen Nigerians’ faith in their leadership steadily diminish. In July 1975, General Murtala Mohammed was raised to put the country on the path of recovery and greatness, a hope that was dashed on February 13, 1976, the day it was believed General Mohammed had planned to meet with Chief Awolowo. Murtala rose to the challenge of nation-building, not considering himself a saint but rather out of a desire for everyone to make a change for the good of the nation. He always arrived in his office promptly and set high expectations for his staff, and every employee of the Federal Government. He fought corruption, which was just getting noticed in our government, and put in place reforms that would lead the nation on the path of progress. The dream was lost because some satanic radicals killed him and those who succeeded him lacked the same strength of character and determination to push his agenda.
We finally tried a second democratic rule, which was characterized by incompetence and widespread corruption. The import license process was abused, and the importation of non-essentials became rampant. The nation was thrown into an era of queues for essential commodities. Those who drove that inefficient and harmful system have now left their descendants to deal with the consequences of their mismanagement. On December 31, 1983, the military came back to power with General Mohammed Buhari as the head of state and General Tunde Idiagbon, a Fulani from Ilorin, Kwara State as Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, the administrative head of the government.
The error that most Nigerians made in the 2015 political calculation was the perception that the reforms of Buhari’s regime of 1983 were made by Buhari. It was the brainchild of no-nonsense General Tunde Idiagbon. I remember that people generally didn’t care if Buhari was on television speaking as the head of state but the mere image of Idiagbon on the NTA news attracted public attention because Nigerians at that time knew he was truly behind the governance reforms. But the government was overthrown by another military junta led by General Ibrahim Babangida just while the reforms were about to turn the nation around, and it has since not been the same with Nigeria.
Pratibha Patil said “Corruption is the enemy of development and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective.” General Babangida is an intelligent man, but it is not clear what he was aiming to achieve. His government drove up corruption in the land. The politicians were handed the key to the nation’s treasury and the bureaucratic system which hitherto served as checks and balances for good governance was destroyed. The subsequent government in Nigeria since 1985 has built on corruption and criminality. The IMF-backed structural adjustment program (SAP) which was put in place purportedly to correct the economic distortions in Nigeria by the regime of Babangida put a nail in Nigeria’s economic coffin.
SAP was corruptly implemented, several industries were gradually dying, and small businesses folded up because the environment was very hostile to any truthful business. The only businesses that were thriving were governmental contractors who were used by government officials to enrich themselves. By 1993, the millionaires in Nigeria were government officials or those who had ties with the government. They vaunted their stolen wealth, and it became apparent that you did not need to work hard in Nigeria to be rich if you had contact with the government, and you knew how to play the game of corruption. Just like other economies, in the world, corrupt earnings not backed with production have always impacted the nations’ currencies. Unfortunately, the yearning of Nigerians demonstrated on June 12, 1993, elections to put in place a hope for good governance was also killed by the military government under General Babangida. The free and fair election was nullified.
By the time Abacha died in 1998, all the refineries had collapsed and died, and we massively imported petroleum products and entered the practice of petroleum subsidies, which created wealthy criminals in Nigeria. They became so strong that they threatened the lives of determined individuals who called for change. You remember, Dr. Okonjo Iweala, former minister of finance who related her experiences with these criminals. Today, we can objectively say that President Tinubu was not directly the creator of the issues in Nigeria. But he cannot be exonerated of the evils Nigerians have experienced in these past years. He was culpable in the ascendance of Buhari’s second coming. He didn’t care so long as Buhari would get him to where he is now. These are the kind of evil games of politics all over the world.
Politics becomes evil when those who succeed in it are godless individuals. I am completely devastated to see people defending the politicians. Some individuals that one thought were decent became defenders of evil. But Nigerians don’t need anyone to help us defend evil but rather to help us exterminate it. Rohini Nilekani said, “We cannot be mere consumers of good governance, we must be participants; we must be co-creators.” Sadly, those who are defending corruption in our government are not doing any good for Nigeria, Nigerians, and even our leaders. Many times, their utterances are insults to the ordinary people of Nigeria, who have kept hoping against hope. Any politicians who mean well for this nation should have studied the problem before they contested for election. It is not enough to argue that you did not cause it, what Nigerians want is the solution.
Finally, let me tell our president a truth to which he has the right not to listen. Your past does not matter to Nigerians, but what you do now does. In less than one year in governance, your officers do not show any sign that Nigeria will change. They continue to steal from the commonwealth, and you have not demonstrated the willpower to check these excesses. When criminals in government walk the streets free, we are creating room for more criminals in and outside the government. Abacha breaded many criminals some of them who became governors and legislators and they have overpowered Nigerians. Reformers don’t look the other way when unrighteousness thrives in the land. Please, hold people accountable for crimes against good governance, and start with your friends and associates. If you continue to keep deaf ears, it will consume the nation. Where do we go from here? Next is Nigeria, a Failed State (Part 4).
Michael Jolayemi is an author. His books include Saving America, The War We Can’t Ignore; Sheltered Through the Storm: The Travails, and Ultimate Triumph of the Church; and his new book, The Mysteries of God: The Origin We Don’t Know, and The Eternity We Should Believe
https://www.michaeljolayemi.com, https://twitter.com/michaeljolayemi;
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