A true leader must encompass the 3R’s Respect for self, Respect for others, Responsibility for all action – Anonymous.
In Nigeria the false idea that the major reason for any form of greviance in the country is Marginalization which is been done through the act of Nepotism and Favouritism. Nepotism can be seen as a way in which people in power favour a certain set of people like friends, relations in times of jobs opportunity, Favouritism is giving preferential treatment to a set of group at the expense of other groups.
Looking at the Nigeria political Structure since 1966 when Maj. Gen Aguiyi IronsI decided to unify Nigeria by squashing the federalsitic structure base on regionalism we were practicing then and over the years it has remained so.
Over the years all these government have all been accused of Favouritism and Nepotism but if you look at the structure of the Nepotic tendency of leaders of Nigeria you would come to realise that the People of the leaders have never actually benefited anything positive from the so called nepotism and favouritsm.
If you take a closer look at the states of which most of Nigerian Presidents comes from you would hardly pick anything worth saying they did for their people which is economical sustainable that have given them unfair advantage over others. Take a look at Niger state can anyone point out anything of economic benefit the state has gotten from the two Presidents the state can boast of now? someone might say roads, to me roads is not a form of favouritism because you can’t restrict roads to only a particular set of people or region etc.
President Obama was Head of this country for 8years but the road to his own farm is bad his people never got anything out of him been their person but we bragged about how he made people millionaire one of them is Dangote who is from the North West.
When Dr Goodluck was President all kinds of lies where brandished that he was doing things to favour his people now same lies are been brandished under General Buhari too. But the reality Nepotism and Favouritsm exist but it’s limited and consciously targeted at a set of people and group. This is the part where I wake up the spirit of Karl Marx from his grave.
Inequality is between the rich and the poor that’s the facet other forms of inequality exist if you juxtapose his line of thought to favouritism and nepotism in Nigeria you would come to realise that it is the people of the political elite class that have and would always enjoy any form of nepotism and favouritsm but people of the president state or region suffer the insult while in reality they are also the victim of such acts.
Now take a look at the process of recruitment in the so called juicy employment names of people been brandished are names of children of the rich and it’s the same thing, even the not so juicy jobs are now hard to get because it’s strictly base on connections and it’s getting worse under General Buhari if you don’t know someone you can’t get anything base of competence and all that.
Nepotism and Favouritsm is just a political elite thing not a state or region thing as people want us to believe the common man is always and would always be the victim, the common man from any zone of the country that’s the crux of the matter.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Whenever the government don’t want you too know the truth about anything they tell you it’s a matter of National Security. But when politicians in government come out to explain certain issues they always forget National security and spring up politics in line of argument, example the Minister of Information said looters of our national treasury are sponsoring Ipob again he has said they are sponsored from France and UK, if you ask him to name names he would tell you national security. He said that UK sees radio BIAFRA issues as freedom of Expression but has the NIA attachee in UK gathered evidence of hate speech against radio BIAFRA in UK and send it to the UK and theyrefuse to act? Mr Lai Mohammed think UK is Nigeria where we act base on Emotions? If UK have disband such Radio that say the is against people of South Africa and Kenya in the Past why would Nigeria case be any different?
AGITATIONS IS OKAY
we can restrict agitations to political issues alone but we can never deny the fact that there are real issues bedeviling people of a particular region, I am not against agitation and I would never be against it so long as it follow the due process. Others can keep quiet due to political hypocrisy or consciousness but don’t expect others to do same.
Example when Niger Delta Militants were bombing pipelines we were told by people in the Government that is aggrieved politicians sponsoring them to bring down the government (same excuse Me Goodluck gave for BokoHaram) but when the government took concrete step to quell the issues now bombing of pipelines are no longer happening and are they now telling us the sponsorer’s have stopped sponsoring them? rather the govt did some things which are :
1. They came up with the clean up of ogboni Land Issue even though it’s just a show off thing but at least it shows they were doing something.
2.VP Osibanjo went to visit the Region and that was a political move that made the people feel among.
3. Modular Refineries where going to be incorporated in the region to curtail illegal refineries
4. They towed the line of reasoning by agreeing to establish Maritime University rather than follow the political ill advised line of Rotimi Ameachi that was saying they should catch Tompolo and when he returns the money he got from government for the land before the university can take off with that same fund.
This are steps government take to quell agitations not just hang issues on the fact that it is politically motivated, I am not saying agitations are not politically motivated but generalizing issues to only one line of thought. Beside have the government ask themselves how come Nigerians especially the youths are easily manipulated into taking up arms or agitating for issues by people with low IQ? this shows that there is an educational deficit in the country and what are the steps the Government is taking to reduce such deficit of critical thinking because education is more than just carrying certificate around claiming you are a graduate.
Look at the way people are going after Shehu Garba because he said Herdsmen are criminals not Terrorist due to such critical thinking deficit, Nigerians don’t know the difference of terrorism and criminality? every act is criminal in nature but not all act are terror in nature, the herdsmen causes economical damages like the Niger delta militants but they don’t have a leader of a group, they don’t have a leader insulting people left right and center like Kanu they didn’t create a Flag and insignia to tell people they have seceded etc so for once let’s face facts Shehu Garba is right on this one even he too like scoring own goals.
We can choose to life together or we can choose to depart peacefully but all the Hate won’t take us anywhere after all we negotiated to be a federation under regionalism that for me was not a mistake.
Have a lovely week fellow Nigerians.
Written by Adamu Auta Adamu
He could be reached though: @adamu318 – Twitter
