The real curse holding Nigeria back is not just leadership

The real curse holding Nigeria back is not just leadership

By Alh. Abdulbaki Ibrahim

From Kano to Lagos, from Onitsha to Maiduguri, the story is the same. Nigerians are tired. Let’s say nothing works. NEPA has become Band A and continues to disappoint. The roads are terrible. Schools are in difficulty. We are rich in oil, land, brains, but poor in results.

We are right to complain. Many of our leaders have failed us. But there is a deeper, more uncomfortable truth that we avoid: the failure is not just about Government House. It is also in our homes.

Government does not fall from the sky. It arises from the people. And in many respects the Nigerian government is a mirror of the Nigerian society that produces it.

*We turned politics into football*

In Nigeria we have turned governance into a football match. Arsenal-Chelsea. APC vs. PDP vs. LP. We wear party hats like jerseys. We don’t vote for ideas; we vote for the tribe.

We vote because “he is our brother”. Because he speaks Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba. Because he attends our church or our mosque. Not because he has a workable plan for our LGA.

We defend a thief when he is from our tribe and we attack an honest man when he is not. That’s why from Sokoto to Yenagoa the story is the same. Different states, same complaints.

A nation cannot grow when loyalty to the tribe is stronger than loyalty to Nigeria.

*WE WANT TO CHANGE WITHOUT SACRIFICES*

We want immediate change, like Indomie. 3 minutes and it’s ready. We want light 24 hours a day without paying bills. We want Dubai streets without discipline. We want a developed Nigeria without the hard work that builds it.

No country has become great with just one election. Rwanda emerged from the genocide with discipline. Singapore was once poorer than Nigeria, but it built itself with sacrifice and rigor.

You cannot plant a mango seed in your paddock in Kano today and expect to eat it tomorrow. Yet this is what we ask of every new president, governor or president. Four months after the swearing-in we are already shouting “he failed”.

A people who cannot tolerate short-term pain for long-term gain will continue to repeat disappointment.

*WE LOVE SWEET LIES, WE HATE THE BITTER TRUTH*

Why do deceitful politicians continue to win in Nigeria? Because they understand us.

The truth offends. Lies entertain.

A politician who tells us the hard truth – that we must pay taxes, stop giving and taking bribes, stop taking shortcuts, work harder – will lose. The one who promises to produce N100 petrol, dollar equal to naira, and donate money for free in 30 days will win.

This happens because we have stopped thinking. We don’t read posters. We don’t check. On WhatsApp we broadcast what excites us, not what educates us. When a society becomes intellectually lazy, it becomes politically cheap. That’s why fake news sells faster than the truth in our markets and on our timescales.

*We’ve turned voting into a new chain*

Our fathers fought to remove the colonial shackles. We created new ones for ourselves with our voter ID.

Every four years, the same ritual: high hopes, noisy campaigns, sharing rice and $2,000, ethnic mobilization, insults, then disappointment and complaints. Four years later, we do it again with the same mindset, expecting a different result. Albert Einstein called it madness.

We sell our vote for a token that can’t cook soup for a day, then endure misrule for 1,460 days. We vote for revenge, not for vision. We vote to punish someone, not to build something.

The vote was supposed to be an instrument of liberation. When we use it without conscience, it becomes a tool of self-slavery.

*NO CONSTITUTION CAN SAVE A PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT SAVE THEMSELVES*

This is the hardest truth: no president, no constitution, no foreign aid, no EFCC, no prayer alone can save a people who refuse to save themselves.

We complain about the dirty streets in Kano and Lagos, but we dump waste into the sewers. We complain about unemployment, but we celebrate Yahoo-Yahoo and shortcuts. We complain about bad schools, but we don’t check our children’s books. We complain about corruption in Abuja, but we pay bribes to collect NIN and driving license.

We want the government to do everything, while we as citizens do nothing.

*THE PATH AHEAD FOR NIGERIA*

Nigeria doesn’t need more spectators. It needs actors.

The revolution Nigeria needs is not just in Aso Rock. It’s in our minds.

We need a revolution that moves from impatience to patience. From tribal loyalty to national loyalty. From finding people we know to respecting due process.

It all starts in the small corners: clean up your street, make your government work honestly even when no one is looking, teach your son that hard work pays off, reject tribalism even when it favors your brother, hold your advisor accountable, not just your president.

Until we change our mentality, we will continue to change leaders and achieve the same results.

The rescue Nigeria awaits will not come from America or China. It will come from within, when ordinary Nigerians in Kano, Lagos, Enugu and Port Harcourt decide to become extraordinary in their daily lives.

The problem is us. And by the grace of Allah, we are also the solution.

Alh. Abdulbaki Ibrahim is a

Public affairs analyst, where he writes

Kano, Nigeria.