Yes,
we need to make hard choices in Nigeria but Nigeria’s problem is not
bad leadership but simply bad followership …We are all guilty and have
all lost absolute sense of patriotism in our mad scramble for power
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former United States Senator from New York, First Lady and Secretary of State is
a woman I admire
in many ways. In years to come, the history of democracy cannot be
written without outlining her genuine and sincere contributions to
global democracy. She has not only re-defined International Diplomacy
but has also fought for the rights of people left out and left behind
of governments policies worldwide, the people she termed ’’those who
feels invisible to their government’’. This great Amazon has made one of the
best speeches on earth and I honestly wished we had a Hillary Clinton
in Nigeria. But listening to her speech few days ago concerning Nigeria,
I was convinced that she was largely misinformed on the true state of
the country.
Nigeria has made bad choices, not hard choices, Senator Clinton stated in a New York
event she attended, challenging the credibility and quality of the
country's leadership under President Jonathan's watch. This I may not
argue as she has her reasons, but her statement would have been better
said this way Nigerian Citizens have made bad choices, not hard choices.
When on that cold
winter morning of December 2001 I embarked on an ill-fated trip to the
University of Maiduguri to contest for an elective position into the Executive Council
of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), it never
occurred to me that I was on a journey of self-discovery. When I look
back at all my years in students and youth activism, I can confidently
affirm without apology that the WORST STUDENTS UNION GOVERNMENT IS
BETTER THAN THE CURRENT POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT WE HAVE IN THE COUNTY
TODAY. The political orientation of an average Nigerian student is
greater than that of our Political party card carrying member in the
country today and the worst Student Union
Leader is centuries ahead of most of the Politicians masquerading as
our National and Regional Policy makers today…..HOW DID WE GET TO THIS
STAG
The answer is not
far-fetched. Because of our greed, sectionalism, apathy and
unpatriotism, we have destroyed Nigeria. We have thrown competence,
integrity, capability and experience to the gutters and welcomed MONEY POLITICS,
AMALA POLITICS, ITS OUT TURN POLITICS, HOW MUCH CAN YOU PAY ME
POLITICS, DOUBLE REGISTRATION POLITICS, COURT INJUCTION POLITICS, HOW
MANY OIL WELLS DO YOU HAVE POLITICS and all those nonsense that
have absolutely nothing to do with Democracy….How does these have
anything to do with Jonathan Goodluck?.This is the area where I disagree
with Senator Clinton and this is where I believe she got it wrong
Where did we learn
to acquire black market court injunctions with most of them flying
throw the windows to stop a legitimate electoral process in Nigeria.
When did we learn to bitterly criticize in a scheme to run ourselves
down? Whereas a student’s Union Opposition constructively criticizes a
sitting government to bring out the best for the general interest of all
students, Opposition Political parties criticizes to destroy a
government at the detriments of the citizenry. What happened to
constructive criticism? We don’t even have an opposition shadow
government, what we have are just praise singers for any government in
power. When did we start glorifying money bags and drop outs who seeks
power, sometimes we even send emissaries to them begging then to
contest, because of what’s in it for us. When did we learn to collect
N500 to vote during elections, to vote people who are unqualified and
ask them to hold offices in trust for us, are we that cheap or is it
ideological poverty? When did we learn to internationally disgrace our
leaders not because there are good evidence of corruption but because we
felt that their ENGLISH was not good enough, what has happened to our
sense of patriotism?. What has all these got to do with Mr. President?.
How did we get to this stage?
BAD FOLLOWERSHIP
is the bane of Nigeria’s young democracy. It is the precursor of bad
Leadership and the eternal mother of Corruption. The federal government
is responsible for most of the concerns of the country including
economic productivity and security. But the president cannot be held
responsible for every Bank Staff that defraud the Banking sector nor
should he be held responsible for the failure of our parents to teach
our children the sanctity of human life, turning them into political and
religious tools for violence and Terrorism
(Boko Haram) and killing women and children in their sleep. Come on,
these and others have nothing to do with the President. It has more to
do with us. In our mad scramble for power and sectionalism we have
thrown decorum to the wind. We have also destroyed our youths and
Students Unions that was once the last bastion of the common man and now
we want to destroy Nigeria
Yes, Senator
Clinton was right, we have all made bad choices. we make bad choices
every day we refuse to train our children the basic principle of love,
tolerance and patriotism .We make a bad choice each day we collect N500
to vote at the polling Units. We make bad choices each day we send
emissaries to known corrupt miscreants to contest elective position for
the reason that we will get some economic tips from them (I see it
happen daily in Nigeria).We make bad choices each day we fight and kill
each other on religious, ethnic or sectional ends We make bad choices
each day we celebrate corruption in the country and say it’s a
tradition. We make bad choices all the time and we make bad choices out
of Political apathy every day we say Politicians are the same and
Politics doesn’t matter, and then allow persons of questionable
characters to hold positions of trust for us. We have really made a lot
of bad choices in Nigeria
But then, we can
decide to either continue dwindling in bad followership choices or we
can decide to restructure, reconstruct, restart and rework Nigeria by
starting to make hard choices today. Making hard choices requires
sacrifices but the question is ’’Do we have the will for Sacrifices’’?
When some of us left our Jobs in Europe
and across the world to come home to support Comrade Tony Nwoye for the
Governorship of Anambra state in 2013,we came, being mindful that even
if the electorates have not yet acquired the will to make good choices
for themselves and that even if we may not believe in the system
anymore, we still believe in Comrade Tony Nwoye having known from his
antecedents that as long as there is a single breath left in him, he
will not stop making hard choices for Anambra State. Hard Choices
requires sacrifices, giving up of personal interest for the best of the
country. Let us start learning to love one another and above all, let’s
imbibe the spirit of Patriotism
We are all guilty
but it’s not yet late to make amends. The sky is still blue. We can all
get going by starting to make hard choices today
Once more I salute
Senator Hillary Clinton who has been a source of inspiration to people
like us who will never stop at making the much needed hard Choices for
Nigeria
Pharm Ikeagwuonwu Chinedu
Anambra State PDP
Stockholm, Swede
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