|
The Misgovernance of Nigeria
By Chido Onumah Newsdiaryonline Tue Aug 2,2011
I was reminded of the misgovernace of Nigeria, the giant of
Africa, on a recent visit to Fez, Morocco. When I received a
ticket for a flight to Casablanca, a distance of about 250
kilometres to Fez, I was a bit worried. Anxiously, I wrote to my
hosts asking how to get to Fez from Casablanca. Obviously
bemused, they wrote back informing me of the train services at
the Casablanca airport.
With me on the Royal Air Maroc flight from Lagos to Casablanca
were some Nigerians travelling to different parts of Europe and
North America. Out of curiosity, I had enquired why they decided
to fly to Morocco first instead of taking direct flights to
their destinations. I got the same response. It was a longer
route, no doubt, but the price was affordable. For a brief
moment, I wondered why there was no Nigeria Airways. The train
ride from Casablanca airport to Fez was smooth and pleasurable,
right on time to the minute!
A week later, I was welcomed by the sweltering heat of the “old
domestic” wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. My
flight to Abuja which was to leave at 10am did not leave until
2pm. The departure lounge was brimming with passengers whose
flights were supposed to have left much earlier.
I paced up and down to see if I could find a passenger
who was tired of sitting and wanted to give up his or her seat
for a few minutes. I was lucky to find one two hours later. It
was a great relief, considering that I had been on the road for
more than 24 hours.
I said a silent prayer. Just as I took my seat, there was an
announcement that three flights had arrived. The over 200
passengers crammed in the lounge rushed to the single exit, only
to be stopped by the airline security. But some passengers still
managed to find their way to the tarmac and waited as the planes
refueled. The joke was that the airline had to pay cash at the
tarmac before each plane could refuel. I was too tired to make
sense of the situation. As I watched fellow passenger drift from
one end of the lounge to the other with anger and frustration
written on their faces, all I could think of was the level of
underdevelopment in the country brought about by visionless
leadership.
But another reality also dawned on me. It was not just the rape,
abuse, and criminal neglect that Nigeria has suffered since
independence that was troubling.
I realized that our rulers have done more damage to our
minds than they have done to the country. Because of the
misgovernance of Nigeria, we have become a country of low
expectations. After paying the equivalent of $200, excluding
airport surcharges, for a 50-minute flight, we still are
expected to scramble and shove one another to board our flights.
We applaud and continue with a thankful cry of “hallelujah” each
time a plane touches the ground at any of our domestic airports.
We pray and give thanks for things that ordinarily should be
part of our daily existence. We go to church to give testimony
on how we fasted and prayed for PHCN not to disrupt our
ubiquitous social gatherings.
The police whose job is to protect lives and maintain law and
order have ceased to maintain law and order. Each time we come
in contact with a policeman or woman we expect him or her to do
the very opposite. Even in the midst of national insecurity, the
greater percentage of our policemen are either keeping guard for
ex-this or ex-that or accompanying madam to the market or hair
salon. This is Nigeria and that’s what the police is expected to
do.
Our elected representatives neither represent nor act as if they
were elected by the people. Only recently, the House of
Representatives “summoned” the governor of the Central Bank to
explain the apex bank’s position on two issues that have
generated intense public debate lately: Islamic banking and the
N150, 000 maximum daily withdrawal. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi spoke
for more than two hours on why the Central Bank embarked on both
policies, his presentation intermittently disrupted by applause
from lawmakers.
“Don’t you want to change Nigeria?” Sanusi asked rhetorically
mid way into his presentation. “We have to change Nigeria”. Like
school kids our lawmakers applauded. At the end of his
presentation, the CBN governor was given a standing ovation and
excused from taking questions.
Who really expected anything different? It’s been twelve
years since the country returned to democracy, yet our National
Assembly still passes legislations based on voice vote. We are
not expected to know who opposed or supported what legislation
or how many people were in attendance when a bill was passed.
The media that is supposed to inform has ceased to inform.
Nobody expects the media to raise questions about critical
national issues or undertake investigative journalism. We read
newspapers or listen to news on TV, not because we expect to be
informed or educated, but more out of habit.
We see public service not as an opportunity to serve, but God’s
blessing. So we expect public servant to make the best use of
their God-given opportunity. It is not surprising therefore that
public officers (elected officials and civil servants, including
the military and police) are some of the wealthiest people in
the country. Once you are in power, you and your family are
expected to be above the law. That explains why the son of a
second-term governor in one of the south-eastern states goes
around with a convoy that will put the presidency to shame.
Our leaders so-called all have lives outside Nigeria. It is
expected. Nigeria is just the place to make your money. You are
expected to go outside to spend it. They have their doctors
outside Nigeria; they have schools for their children outside
the country; their wives, concubines, and girlfriends, shop in
New York, London and Dubai. The only way to rehabilitate
“ex-militants” is to send them to Turkey to learn welding.
Learning how to weld in Nigeria is unacceptable.
We have entered the
second half of the Nigerian century, yet we still struggle with
the basic things of life; things that countries not as endowed
as we are take for granted. Sometimes, I imagine where we would
be as a nation, with our ingenuity, drive, and resourcefulness
if our rulers just made the country a tad more livable.
conumah@hotmail.com
Onumah is Coordinator, African Centre for Media& Information
Literacy
|
