can't take the zoo out of the man

LEADERSHIP JUNCTURE

This morning I walked down to the local store and on my way back held a conversation with 3 Igbo young men all in their 20s. Igbos are the people who fought for a separate State called Biafra back in the late 60s. This civil war claimed the lives of over 3 million people, and in an attempt to move forward, Nigerians don’t really speak of it, except for some radical Biafrans who propagate independence on the Biafran radio.

2 of the guys started their own businesses (repairing gas cooker and a laundry service). I walk past them on a daily basis and at times no work, partly due to no electricity. They come early in the morning, sit and gist all day, and when night falls, they disperse to their various homes. When there’s money, they buy fuel and run the generator to operate their business. One didn’t attend school because of funds and as far as I know, there is no free education for higher education here. All 3 men ardently argued for the separation of state once again as the solution of better standard of living. This deliberation was intriguing and filled with both passion and despondency. One said Igbos needed to get out of this zoo (Nigeria) where animals are not well fed to make their own country and be free. I fired back saying that the same people who’d lead Biafra are the ones leading these Igbos states now, and unless they govern justly here and now, no silver bullet would do the trick, not even an independence of State. We went round and round trying to figure out a solution. One posited that we need young people in government, but after a while we agreed that even the youth would follow the same protocol as their fathers- one of siphoning money. The exact phrase was, ‘if you’re offered sugar, you’d take it because it’s sweet, it’s sweet well well’, meaning once you enter the system as is, you’re doomed to be contaminated because the temptations are stronger than your holy convictions.

There’s a saying that no good men last long in politics. Perhaps this is true of every country out there. They resign, are kicked out or worst- they change. This morning we bemoaned our fate until we realized that once you infiltrate the system with a critical mass of selfless people, the inevitable happens- the polluters are inversely affected by selfless people, subsequently causing change in the system. I’m not alone in my sentiment. African literature giant, Chinua Achebe wrote a book in the early 80s called, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’. His conclusion is one many others share- the problem: leadership. The solution: bountiful selfless leaders.

I fully acknowledge that leaders aren't the only problem in this land. Even the 5 yr old is taught to cheat and lie to get what they want; to hustle. Get what you want 'anyhow'. We need people with a different orientation leading the government, leading a movement, ones who put national interest before practicing nepotism and stomach infrastructure, ones who come down from their self-aggrandized pedestals to engage with the everyday people in this country, they who get disturbed when they see and hear of abject poverty, ones who aren’t myopic in their mentalities nor insular in their ideologies. Is it really this simple? Trust me, I don’t confuse simplicity for feasibility and possibility, but can this really be all it’d take to change the trajectory of this nation and the surrounding ones to be a more burgeoning continent?

In my next post, I will do a part two of God & Church. I received some feedback which indicated to me that my American readers didn't quite understand what I was trying to say about 'religiosity' here. Relationship w God is very different from relationship with religion. Stay tuned.