diggz:


I am not saying it is not achievable because it is. However, I can't see a clear road map on how he is going to achieve such from what he said....Same way I didn't see how your president was going to make 1naira equal 1dollar....and that is majorly one of the issues I have with him. Good and great ideas but how to achieve and implement these ideas is the wahala.

It is simply not enough to make beautiful promises....you have to be able to create and show a road map that adds up.

@states

Especially south south states...especially delta state and n.a. ogun go kee all of them Las Las...

That's why I say restructuring is not the problem because from the 13% derivation shared to oil producing states, we have not seen anything to warrant that we join the clamor for restructuring.
Imagine Bayelsa and Delta states saying 30k is too much for them...Na ogun go finish them Las Las.

patrickmuf:

That's why I say restructuring is not the problem because from the 13% derivation shared to oil producing states, we have not seen anything to warrant that we join the clamor for restructuring.
Imagine Bayelsa and Delta states saying 30k is too much for them...Na ogun go finish them Las Las.

All south south states have no excuse...even without the 13% derivation...those states can still function properly if half the imbec1les we call leaders know what they are doing.

alright

Am I the one that killed Jesus to read all this trash said by a shithole

OP take note, The Trouble with Nigeria was published in 1983, not 2000.

Achebe's was a perspective, yours is also a perspective. This isn't a case for debate.

This debate reminds me of the "who came first, the chicken or the egg?". Whilst poor leadership has been a major hindrance to Nigeria's development, were these politicians not born and raised in Nigeria? In fact I suspect that if you put the common man in a position of authority he will do no better. The issue goes deeper than "poor leadership" rather comes down to the psyche and mentality growing up in today's Nigeria. Until values of society are completely realigned, the same cycle will continue. It will take generations to solve Nigeria's ills.

Religion made us bad.. We forgot how to love and truly care for one another.

Refocus the priority from appearing holy to just been simply good decent people.

sweetrace:


This is totally inaccurate it is this type of thinking that affects Nigeria. Did Buhari not contest so many times? He kept on loosing until Tinubu’s party merged with his. They made Buhari look more appealing and he won. Stop the lame blame game.

I would continue to heap that blame on our almalgamtion with the core core north till they start thinking that rulership does not belong to them.. with the core north with us we cant reason towards true federalism ... without the core north the whole quota system gibberish would be a thing of the past.. how do we stop millions of zombies in the north from voting a calamity like Buhari?? Tell me..

vidicsky:
I disagree with you. It is bad leadership

Buhari's leadership has been bad and we still have many people supporting him. How do you explain that?

NwanyiAwkaetiti:
Yes true. When d people are not enlightened you have those who think they are walk over them.

I don't the change this country needs can come from this generation, unfortunately.

It might take 1500 years to be honest. That's if the world will still exist by then.

xynerise:
Nigerians want to remain blind and dumb. If only the illiterates are the ones misled and brainwashed, I would have focused on education weaknesses, but funny enough, even the so called educated ones are even the dumbest.

The percentage of dumb people is lower among the educated and very high with the uneducated in places like the North. So it's still a problem of lack education among the masses.

lastempero:
How did the masses contribute to the whole thing. Governments are formed not only to loot money but guide the masses accordingly.

Why would the government care to guide the masses accordingly when the masses don't even care that the government doesn't care?

martineverest:
in democratic Nigeria,Nigerians are the problems of Nigeria...but in military era,the govt was the problem

The masses are still responsible even during military regimes because nothing stops the people from revolting and driving out the military dictator.

John343:
the problem of Africa, Nigeria in particular is mainly the problem of leadership...nigeria have bad and wicked leaders who only major concerned is about themselve,they are political thieve who steal our future,make bad policies,sell our common wealth to enrich themselve..do u think any sane person will sell his or her vote for 500 or more..no,is just because of poverty and suffering cause by selfish politicians

Then why do Nigerians always generate bad leaders? Don't you think there is a problem with the masses from where the leaders come from?

Would have made a 3rd class in the university if I could read the long epistle.

That's a textbook you composed up there.

aishapmbtoto:
You are not serious. Our problem is lack of good leadership.

And the leadership just magically appeared in office without the support of the masses. You are the problem the writer is talking about.

hakeem4:
[s][/s] it’s more of the masses

Nope!... it is the rulers either past or present.

They have systematically made the populace gullible, weak in reasoning, poor, selfish and wicked to one another.
All these were been achieved through past and present constitutions , policies, religion , ethnicity, federal character etc.
Mind you , all these factors attributing to the problems as a whole didn't manifest now but have been since the stupid independence we had.

olaboy1:


And the leadership just magically appeared in office without the support of the masses. You are the problem the writer is talking about.

How do you convince millions of illiterate/semi, docile and religious bigot youth not to vote for either Buhari or Atiku?

It's the government that has failed the society they use all the machinery of coercion to their own(politicians and cronies) advantage at the detriment of the masses they sworn to protect.

3kay945:


How do you convince millions of illiterate/semi, docile and religious bigot youth not to vote for either Buhari or Atiku?

It's the government that has failed the society they use all the machinery of coercion to their own(politicians and cronies) advantage at the detriment of the masses they sworn to protect.

How about many of my highly educated friends whose children are not guaranteed free healthcare or good schools, but they baselessly support Buhari or Atiku.

If you can control the thinking of the people then you need not to worry about their action.

That's exactly what the politicians employed and has been effectively utilised.

olaboy1:


How about many of my highly educated friends whose children are not guaranteed free healthcare or good schools, but they baselessly support Buhari or Atiku.

Some folks just want to be realistic, meaning as at now we all know PDP and APC are the two contenders.
And since majority wins the votes, whether they are dumb, illiterate, religiously motivated etc wont matter.

Many wont want to pitch their tents where mammoths crowd is not available.

It was and is the political leaders that started the problem, division and hatred in our country before they spread them to poison the masses.

OkpaNsukkaisBae:
Achebe is right...110% right. Why?
A trip down the memory lane will be of immense help to the subject matter.
According to a story told by a Soviet novelist Chingiz Aitmatov. Aitomatov asserted that former USSR leader by name Josef Stalin was queried as to why despite the harsh treatment dished out against the Russian people by him (Stalin).. they still obeyed, followed him and were ever ready to die for him.

He gathered his loyal officers in a room, he requested for a live chicken and grain seeds which was brought to him. He then proceeded to pluck out all the feathers of the chicken. The poor and helpless animal made several attempts to escape yet all the effort proved abortive.

He then dropped the chicken down and grabbed some grain crumbs and began to walk around the room throwing some seeds on the ground... to the surprise of the uniform men in the room the "chicken" found energy from nowwhere and crawled back to Stalin in order to feed on the grain crumbs that Mr Stalin threw to the ground.

The people wondered why the chicken will go back to the same person that tormented her,, skinned her alive.. at this moment Stalin said to the men in the room..."people are like this chicken. It doesn't matter how much pain you inflict on them. The moment you offer them what they need, they will still follow you and turn to you for survival."


The chicken represent the Nigerian masses/peasants and Stalin represent the Nigerian leaders. What do you think the chicken(Nigerian masses/average Nigerian) needs?. What are the pains the Stalins of our time are inflicting on us? How can the chicken stop the harsh treatment being dished to them by the Stalins?

These are some of the *NEEDS* of the chicken. Basic human amenities.. water,, shelter,, food,, education(remember that as we are talking almost all the public universities nationwide are on strike),, constant electricity,, employment opportunities after graduation, security of life, skill acquisition center for those that doesn't just want to acquire certificate in the university/higher institution, a functional government institutions or agencies,, a sense of belonging.. empowerd by legal document to participate fully in governance not selling the PDP or APC gubernatorial,presidential, senatorial, house of reps and house of assembly nomination form at a high price... a Constitution that works for all, a competent judiciary void of external interference. A police force and military that is civilian friendly.


They fail to provide our needs thereby making us to be poor..i.e intellectual, mental and material poverty. So that despite their draconian behavioural attitude will still run to them for help, they systematically set the system in such a way that their kingdom will reign supreme and eternal.... If they dare set it right and not looking after their own selfish aggrandisement the chicken will regain her freedom, liberty and then be able to an informed/independent action and decision. Because with sound education they will know about the dividends of democracy...

To you Mr Poster Achebe explained everything through literature.. infact he also witnessed the ills of the Nigerian society first hand when he ventured into party politics under Mallam Aminu Kano's party. Before that he held different administrative position in the Nigeria broadcasting corporation/service.
In Albert Chinualumogu Achebe's voice:
..."The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character." .... And I dare to add this �..

"The trouble with Africa is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the African character."

#PEACE.

It is what the leaders do scroll down to the masses. Achebe is very correct.

bayelsaowei:
I would continue to heap that blame on our almalgamtion with the core core north till they start thinking that rulership does not belong to them.. with the core north with us we cant reason towards true federalism ... without the core north the whole quota system gibberish would be a thing of the past.. how do we stop millions of zombies in the north from voting a calamity like Buhari?? Tell me..

We need to be very factual when we speak. I am a Southerner who grew up in a home environment where the default perception was that Northerners caused the amalgamation to happen for their selfish interest, and also destroyed federalism to the enthronement of this quota system. For the first 22 years of my life I carried that impression in my head and hated Northerners in my mind. I never knew I was a victim of psychic manipulation from a background environment which was nearly composed of people who were themselves ignoramuses of the issues about which they so much made assertions with authority.
It was in my university final year days I stumbled on books in my school library's reference section in which I was shocked to discover that 95% of the problem of faulty structure we all now complain of were architected by Southerners due to pure greed.
The so-much-talked-about amalgamation was done by the colonial masters without concrete/formal consent of any of the tribes native to Nigeria. However, you may be shocked to be told that Northerners were first to later realize that it was more of evil than good hence were the first to start calling for its reversal. Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Region, was the first to rechristen it "The mistake of 1914". This earned him a lot of bashing and name calling from the Southern Political elite who deprecated and frustrated all his proposals for de-amalgamation. At a point he made a case for the separation of North and South into two countries at the point of independence, but was equally resisted by the southern elite particularly those from today's SE. As the North's paramount political leader he was harrassed and armtwisted into being part of Nigeria against his will, and ended up being killed by a Southerner. Put yourself in the shoes of Northerners and see if you'll ever love southerners.
As for federalism; All records in the annals of history clearly show that the genuinely federal structure we started with at independence was first disrupted by a Southerner (Aguiyi Ironsi) on the advice of an committee 100% composed of Southerners headed by the same Professor Nwabueze currently, albeit hypocriticaly, calling for restructuring today without having told us why his committee destroyed the very structure he now desires in the first instance. Northerners twice sent a delegation to beg Ironsi to leave the federal constiution alone and focus rather on addressing the issues which triggered the coup. But he arrogantly refused and told them that he couldn't govern well if he didn't tamper with the key provisions which defined the very federal nature of the constiution. Mind you that no member of the public, be it from the North or South, at that time complained about the constiution let alone ask for its review. Even the southern politicians who were at the receiving end of the crisis of the moment didn't see constiutional amendment as solution to the crisis. Moreover, the crisis in question was caused by abuse of power by the Balewa-controlled central government by way of rigging of censuses, re-regging of the reruns, rigging of the 1965 elections in the Western Region and illegal interference in the purely internal affairs of the Western Region. So if at all the constiution deserved ammendment, it should have been towards further weakening the center to forestall a recurrence of the center's abuse of power and the attendant crisis. But Aguiyi Ironsi chose to criminally amend the constiution in such a way that further concentrated powers at the center thus giving rise to a situation whereby the tribe or region which successfully clinches power at the center has absolute power over all others hence all these quota system, etc.
Northerners only fought back and took advantage of the political domination which Southerners too had in mind against them.

bayelsaowei:
First of all we all need to separate from the core north then can we start talking about the masses voting for the right characters.. how can one help millions of uneducated almajaris and abokis not to vote for Buhari??..

The north need the sense more than any

ayukdaboss:
It's quite unfortunate what we represent as a nation. We're not getting things right at all, we've made a mockery of Democracy and the country is oozing with filth, most of our politicians are very useless and we're encouraging them. PDP or APC are not the solution to our problem right now, regardless of how much anyone wants to make things work as the President from both of those parties, before coming into power there are a lot of people (idiots) who will help them because of one reason or the other and they'll need to compensate this people in one way or the other and the same cycle continues having idiots in sensitive positions.

Can't we elect someone else? Why vote because of tribe or religion instead of competency? Why are we so USELESS in this country? Why hate another politician because he's from another tribe instead of looking at his competence level and intelligence? We're truly very useless in this country, no hope even in the next 15 years if this cycle continues.

"There is the art of the demagogue, and there is the art of what may be called, by a shot-gun marriage of Latin and Greek, the demaslave. They are complementary, and both of them are degrading to their practitioners. The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself. Every man who seeks elective office under democracy has to be either the one thing or the other and most men have to be both. The whole process is one of false pretences and ignoble concealments. No educated man stating plainly the elementary notions that every educated man holds about the matters that principally concern government, could be elected to office in a democratic state, save perhaps by a miracle. His frankness would arouse fears, and those fears would run against him; it is his business to arouse fears that will run in favour of him. Worse, he must not only consider the weaknesses of the mob, but also the prejudices of the minorities that prey upon it. Some of these minorities have developed a highly efficient technique of intimidation. They not only know how to arouse the fears of the mob; they also know how to awaken its envy, its dislike of privilege, its hatred of its betters." (Henry Mencken, Disease of Democracy)

Your points are lucid and concise, ur analysis is an extension of prof view of the structure of the Nigerian society. kudos

SHABZ:
Fantastic write up. I've always told my friends and colleagues that Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria, and not the politicians. Look at it this way, in a non-governmental organization, if you're employed, you get a set of KPIs to achieve. You the employee, will make sure you achieve the KPIs because failure to do so, will result in getting sacked. If you know that your job is secure irrespective of whether you achieve your KPIs or not, you would'nt make any effort towards the achievement of the targets.

This is exactly how the politicians operate. Because whether they archieve the targets or not, they know they'd be voted in again

That's a good analogy you put up here, but do you know that the 'KPIs' or set target you mentioned, can be likened to a dream or a manifesto of a 'leader' leading a group of people. Organizations have leaders/or managers if you would call them that, that's why they could even have targets(KPIs) in the first place. Now, when targets are not met, it has consequences. The consequences now depend on the laid down rules/laws. Thinking very well about it, you would see that the 'rules' can be likened to laws and justice system in a setting, or a country.

My submission is this, while followers too have their share of blame, leadership is always the owner of the biggest blame in a faulty system. Our laws exist, but how many of those laws have been justifiably used to put corrupt leaders behind the bars(that's what has helped China till today), why is the same law which deals with followers who break the law is excusable for the leaders who is meant to uphold same laws? It is leadership question. When company is lacking compass, energy and drive, it has been taught in leadership classes that the best solution which has been proven again and again to be true is to fire the head/manager. That's the power of leadership which we have not really enjoyed in this part of the world except for those we read about on pages in other countries in better climes. It is true that we have politicians as heads, but they are not really leaders. Do you know that even in advanced countries, leaders can by themselves resign from their position because they feel that people are not feeling their impacts or not fulfilling mandates...not in Nigeria. They will rather die there, with similar dumbasses-followers ready to die for them.
Followers are who they are because of who the leaders have presented themselves to be.
Look in a football team, no matter how good a team is, it most importantly needs a very good coach (leader) too.
The buck always stops with the leader.

ogongogames:
This debate reminds me of the "who came first, the chicken or the egg?". Whilst poor leadership has been a major hindrance to Nigeria's development, were these politicians not born and raised in Nigeria? In fact I suspect that if you put the common man in a position of authority he will do no better. The issue goes deeper than "poor leadership" rather comes down to the psyche and mentality growing up in today's Nigeria. Until values of society are completely realigned, the same cycle will continue. It will take generations to solve Nigeria's ills.

You got me by the chicken and egg analogy, I first thought of it too when trying to analyse this post.
Thanks for believing in good values. But come to think of it, individuals come from families right? But you would agree that what a kind of leadership is, is what will make or mar the humans coming out of any family? We have both positive and negative examples all around us. Now apply it to society, society can do little where there are no sane authorities keeping human activities in shape and under control, even including the authorities themselves. The good news is that we have authorities and laws, the bad news, very bad news, is that the authorities are irresponsible with the law. Just like before you would blame a spoilt child alone leaving the progenitors out of the blame, so also is when you make the society blame-worthy, but exonerating the authorities meant to guide and nurture to a better society.
So bad it is that on the part of the authorities, they even bend the power and laws to their taste so as to perpetuate themselves and their kinds in the place of power! Before we blame the children from a family, can we examine first the parents, before we blame Nigerians, can we look back in history if we have ever had a leader so willing to let power go when people perceive him to be ineffective just by himself?

Nigeria has both leadership and followership crises. The leaders are corrupt and the followers are gullible because of their poverty stricken condition.