By Dr. Austin Orette
To Thine Own Self Be True. This is not an endorsement of any leader in Nigeria. I was in Nigeria recently and observed that Nigerians have formed a subculture of always complaining as a means of coping with the realities. I now see these complaints as a quarrel amongst thieves. They robbed a bank and the smartest among them drove off with loot and left the rest stranded. They cannot call the police, so they are left with the infighting which they consider as protest.
Every Nigerian wants good leadership, but none wants to aspire to be good citizens. The negative ordeal I encountered while in Nigeria was never by any one in power. Nigerians are the gods in their little domain. In this domain, they are very dictatorial and callous and exercise power with vehemence in their various jurisdictions. From the trader who will sell you fake goods at exorbitant prices to the policemen at the checkpoint who mete out summary punishment, the rule is to dish out as much pain as possible. There is no sense of brotherhood. There is no sense of “we are in this together, let us help each other “.
Dishing out pain is the culture. You must pay before being served even when you have paid. This is the ugliness that hides before these excessive criticisms of leaders. Anytime a Nigerian comes in contact with a government agent, it is time to be punished. There is no agency in Nigeria where those employed there don’t make the abuse of the citizens the metric of their productivity. Trying to get a driver’s license, you must jump through hoops , trying to get a passport almost as bad as trying to obtain a visa to another country. In most cases, the visa ordeal is friendlier and there are no bribes involved. Try to clear goods from a Lagos port is like squeezing through the eye of the needle. There are no rules and regulations, just chaos and cruelty that numbs the mind.
A lot of people choose to walk away from the abuse of the government officials and agents, leaving their goods behind. Flying into Lagos airport is the worst ordeal. Every government agency is there including the touts from Ido Park. They are all trying to tell you they are there to hurt you. There is no cordial welcome for a returnee. There is nowhere in Nigeria the citizen does not try to erect his own obstacles. This is very sad.
Are we at war? Why so many checkpoints? Why is the Nigerian criminalized and humiliated daily by agencies that are supposed to serve them? The ordeal of being a citizen in Nigeria can drive one into a mental institution. Nigerians are resilient and quietly watch their country being turned into one huge mental asylum. The madness has become cultural. At the end of all these, the extortionists get together and blame the leaders who are the product of their thievery. This is the problem.
People who have no sense of good citizenship are crying daily for good leadership. Let’s learn to recognize that the microcosm must be organized to care for each other. Imagine that police don’t harass and shake down farmers bringing food to markets. This may lower the price of food and the decay of food due to loss of time at checkpoints will be avoided. Inflation reduced .Let us learn to care, maybe one day we can have someone who cares to assume leadership. Then we can be proud to say that is one of us.
The ratio of the naira to the dollar is not a measure of the Nigerian economy. It is a measure of the lack of productivity of the Nigerian. Blaming the leaders is a subterfuge that subtracts leadership from the people. Leadership is always a reflection of the consciousness of the people. Bad people can only get bad leaders while good people get good leaders. You cannot have one without the other.
Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
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