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By Gbenro Olajuyigbe

‘the legitimate object of government is to do for  a community of people whatever they need  have done but cannot do” – Abraham Lincoln

Leaders, particularly political leaders in democracies, are problem solving persons trusted with authority by people to act on their behalf with the hope that they have capacity to envision pictures of desirable future and  with the character and competence to convince and influence followers to come along.

Leaders to create pool of victims, they build tower of victors! They move out those at the nadir of valley to apex of hills.

They do not focus on the past. They gaze at possibility of  better future. Lamentation is not a strategy in leadership. Crying over spilt milk is the worst tactics in battle because it robs one of energy for victory. Good leaders are not stuck in the mud of yesterday. They are powered by courage of conviction in a better tomorrow.

 They are not looking for victims to blame.

They are looking for victims to lift out of miry mud of life, using instrumentality of power, policy and purpose. One of such leaders in recent history is Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor! Angela Merkel, a true definition of gracious and kind representative of compassionate “womanity”! She reversed the outlook of Hitler’s Germany.

 Her bold and audacious reception to Syrian refugees and those from other climes was an example of monumental reparations.

The great woman that afforded us the platform to peep into the mind construct of ‘ze Ozza’ Room’s’ fanatical Apostle, leaves office in blaze of glory after years of exceptional service to Germany and humanity.

 Her example of humanity and compassion are proof that is past we cannot change. Future is uncharted terrain we can beautify with golden road if we do not allow the darkness of yesterday to cast its shadow on us today. Bravo, Angela, the German Amazon!

In a desperate politically motivated attempt to hang the blame of violation of traffic offence of beating traffic red light solely on hapless Nigerians, one of the partisan pro- government foot soldiers, roving on cyberspace exonerated government from any blame in respect of the perennial traffic chaos that defines our roads and driving culture.

 He eulogized motorists in the Republic of Benin for obedience to traffic light regulation, while, comparatively speaking, condemning and castigating Nigerian motorists! My response to him was simple; “you forgot to write that government officials don’t beat traffic lights in Benin Republic as the case in Nigeria. No nation rises about her leaders.

Tail does not wag the dog; dog wags the tail!  Lawless government whose arrow head and officials get treated in London hospitals while Nigeria’s quasi-consulting clinics are in dire strait and crippled by perennial strikes cannot maintain sanity in health sector nor enforce order on the road that cow boys have turned to cow routes. Stop blaming victims!”

What else do you say when even a government that has spent over six years in power in a two-term sum of eight years continue to see itself as victim of sixteen years of PDP?  Just   imagine -a government whose election rode on incompetence of its predecessor, now using the judgment of those who voted for it against them, sentencing them to misery, poverty and death with gavel of its own monumental cluelessness and primordial sentimental thoughtlessness.

 A government who promised national cohesion but created gulf among its people, a government that promised security but ended up extending the terrains of threat and expanding the space of calamity through deliberate obnoxious policy choices soaked in wine of ethnic irredentism and religious bigotry. With its next level, Nigeria is now at the new level of economic deprivation spiced with frightening insecurity and outlandish corruption tucked in sleeves of demystified integrity.

Tension among federating ethnic blocks has made pursuit of nationhood practically impossible.

 Evidence of a nation that has mentally broken down abounds in everyday communication of an average Nigerian. There is hardly a way out if we do not put in place governance model that is cooperative, co-productive and co-beneficial.

Faced with failure of nation building and  with angry population of near two hundred million people who are deeply worried about their future in their own country, there is need to pull out a new strategy for stability that guarantee freedom from want, freedom from fear and assurance of liberty.

We have a country crippled by corruption, nepotism and leadership irresponsibility. The index cause can be traced to how leaders emerge and the infectious crude mediocre governance system obtainable which treats power as meal ticket.

Who gets what determines the clan that have access to opportunities and resources. Nigeria’s fragility is not in doubt.

 The challenge of integration is frighteningly obvious.

The nation appears stuck. Conscious effort to build national consensus that can stare her away from precipice is crucial.

 A state grimed with conflicts and violence can only dream of development; not achieving it! In such state, strategy for achieving consensus, peace and sustainable development becomes imperative! In Nigeria, what happens to nations when they are fractionalized and factionalized; stunted growth, arrested development and frightening fratricidal violent conflicts are beginning to go full blown. These features don’t enable development, not to talk of sustaining it.

Wherever state is weakened by crisis of citizenship, unjust wealth, high rates of unemployment, expanding inequality and increasing poverty, challenges of development can be grimly palpable.

 It becomes worse when these militating factors assume ethnic interpretations and governance is allowed or perceived to be driven by them.

In Nigeria, these weaknesses that represent attributes of a failing state are visible and have assumed lives of their own. This makes development difficult if not impossible.

We must initiate processes of continuous dialogue in all facets of our national life as a way of building consensus, trust and cohesion.

 We may even decide to decentralize processes of dialogue to sub nationals so as to enhance opportunity to understand one another’s views and perspectives, all ingredients required to manage diversity and build virile nation.

 Dialogue, trust value and cooperation are fundamental enablers of sustainable development. In the course of finding solutions to our intractable development concerns and problems, we cannot afford to ignore issue of access to opportunities, social justice as well as power imbalance that have been explored and used by unconscionable political and power elites as instrument of group oppression and tool for furthering ethnic hegemony.

We cannot afford a nation where injustices continue to push people to search desperately for identity and clan refuge.

 It is dangerous to leave interpretation of citizenship to callous subjectivists who are dressed in borrowed clothes of Patriots simply because they occupy space in forms of political offices.

 What some sane states are doing to ward off waves of ethnicity is accepting the consciousness of deliberate nation building whose foundation rest on collective ownership.

 In achieving this, the first question to tackle is why Nigerians hate one another if truly they do? You cannot decree love. Hate is a social problem.

No law can cure it outside the dose of social justice that is withheld from a suffering people and a bleeding nation. The end result of injustice is anarchy; if not now, later!

Gbenro Olajuyigbe is the Executive Director of Emergency & Risk Alert Initiative.