Nigeria, a
country with more than one hundred and sixty-million people and endowed with
both mineral and human resources is today among the poorest nations of the
world. Nearly 70% of Nigeria citizens, both educated and non-educated struggle
on a daily basis to make sure that there is food on the table as government at
all levels are paying less attention to the welfare of the people. The average
Nigerian parent is faced with the tasks of taking care of his family even in
the midst of high cost of foodstuff occasioned by harsh government policies
that never favoured agricultural production, high cost of transportation, high
cost of buying fuel for generator either
for office or home use, among others. Nigerians even in the midst of plenty are
still struggling to survive in a country they call their own, as the many good
resources which God has provided for the well being of the people have
been vandalized and mismanaged by a few
people who because of greed are not bothered about the plight of others. The
essence of governance, whether democratic or not is to take care of the welfare
of the people through effective use of the available and scarce resources.
Every democratic nation of the world votes its best and credible citizens into
government so as to achieve optimum results. Good examples are China and
Singapore etc, whose selfless leaders have over time made the two Asian
countries to be among the leading economies of the world. But in Nigeria, the
reverse is the case as corruption has been institutionalized in virtually all
government sectors. The safety and welfare of Nigerians are no longer paramount
to government as the people are now faced with the problems of bad roads,
epileptic power supply, insecurity, high cost of living, unemployment, among
others.
However, the major reason for
this discourse is that most Nigerian youths, in particular, in Ika nation as a
result of the hard economic situation in the country are beginning to take as
role models, corrupt Nigerian political leaders, public treasury looters, 419 etc,
thereby, multiplying corruption and 419 in the country. Corruption would have
long been checkmated if not for the activities of youths who have chosen to act
the script of their pay masters. The slogan we now have is “my leader I am
loyal ooh,” even when such a leader is sending them to rig election, kill or
kidnap people. Corrupt political leaders in Ika land have so influenced the
youths to the extent that words of traditional rulers and parents are no longer
considered in anything. Today, Ika youths are happier remaining loyal to
corrupt political leaders than to their parents or fatherland, hence, they can
even beat up their own parents, elder or any one if they stand as an opposition
to what ever they are doing. Political loyalist in Ika land for instance are as
corrupt are their leaders as they hardly do the right things which they know
will contribute to the well being of the people. As a result of bad mentorship,
school drop outs, cultists, drug addicts and mediocres are now holding sway in
government, in politics and in the society, while the intelligent ones are
begging to be employed.
One of the major problems we are
having in Ika land and even in Nigeria as a whole is that we are not
sheaving the shaft from the grain by
showing those who have made their wealth genuinely and those who have made theirs through
dubious means thereby showing the young ones who among the two groups to
emulate. Until we truly do this, we
will continue to have problem directly on whom to emulate. And this, no doubt
that the time has now come.
The time has come for Ika nation
to think of building a hall of fame to showcase the true builder (not roges) of
Ika nation. This no doubt will inspire the youths to imitate them and aspire to
have their names written in the sand of times and not modeling the lives after
rogues, looters and corrupt leaders.
We cannot move forward no matter
the level of our effort if we do not toe the right path of life. We should at
all times and at all cost emulate good things by doing what we know that is
good for our well being. No individual group of people or country developes
with corruption as posterity will never forgive us if we lay corrupt foundation
for our children. Hence, the youths who are leaders of tomorrow should chose as
role models, people who they know have contributed positively to the
development of their father land and not money begs who have in many ways
robbed their people of the good things the government ought to provide for
them. A society that desires development is one which abhors corruption and
teaches its young ones the good things of life and that should continue to be
our watchword.
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