Nigerians are Really Suffering, but Have You Wondered Why?

Nigerians are Really Suffering, but Have Wondered Why?

By John Dara 

Have we really seriously considered why our people are still suffering in the midst of abundant resources?

We are suffering as a result of years of leadership failure and incompetence. Our past leaders left Leadership Development and Recruitment to chance. Where they raise new leaders at all, they are only interested in compromised and low capacity puppets. The result is the emergence of spectacularly corrupt and incompetent leaders that have given governance a bad name in Nigeria.

In our recent history, some irredentists who believe that they own Nigeria, decided that the best way to recapture political power in Nigeria was by importing and arming terrorists against Nigerians. It worked, they got the power, but the misery of their people and the rest of the country increased exponentially.

Unfortunately, they have not learned, they still think that the way to discredit and defeat Tinubu in 2027 is to increase insurgency, banditry and terrorism. Sadly, the victims are mostly our fellow Northerners.

Nigeria was recognized as the poverty capital of the world years before the inception of this Administration. In spite of efforts to reduce poverty in Nigeria, it will continue to get worse as long we continue to promote violence and chaos.

Another group, in the name separatist agitation, think the best method to achieve their goal is by introducing violence, anarchy, stay at home and such pain inflicting tactics confined to their own region and primarily affecting their own people. Thus, they are reducing the productivity of an otherwise enterprising people. They have also become the foremost in de-marketing Nigeria and her leadership on various platforms and at every given opportunity. They are using their international expertise and connections to undermine Nigeria’s reputation and progress, and thus slowing down the pace of national development.

Some of them said it is because they want one of their own to be given the opportunity to become the President of Nigeria. The truth is that there no one or group that is in a position to give the office of the President to anybody. Tinubu planned, spent, worked and fought for it, and finally got it. Atiku has been planning, spending, working and fighting for it, but has not gotten it. Any individual or people group that wants to produce a President must plan, spend, work and strive for it. They must build bridges and invest in people and communities across the nation. Moshood Abiola did it and it worked (though he was denied the coveted job by the then Military Government).

I really wish that a Northern Christian would succeed President Tinubu in 2031. After an uninterrupted 24 years of having a Muslim President in Nigeria, the next President in 2031 ought to be a Christian. However, we must have a viable and sellable Christian Presidential Aspirant, who will be financially and politically strong enough to win the primary and general elections. Once again, there’s no one or group that can give the Presidency of Nigeria to anybody. Only God has the power to do that. Those who want to become the President of Nigeria, and people groups that want to produce a President, must avoid unnecessary hostility and disrespect of any of the hundreds of the people groups in Nigeria. Political campaigns are mainly about winning trust and cooperation.

How would there not be poverty in the land when we willfully messed up our Human Capital development system (Education, Health and Welfare of the citizens)? We now have the highest number of ‘out of school children’ in the world, and some people in Nigeria are still claiming that the failed Almajirinci is an education system that they want to patch up and prop up? Instead of promoting formal education, science, technology, mathematics and modernization, some sections of Nigeria have made religious extremism the priority policy of their respective States. Millions of our people are now internally displaced because of some people’s destructive political, economic and religious agenda. More poverty and suffering will surely come into our country if we don’t change.

We live in unplanned cities, unplanned States, unplanned regions and an unplanned nation. We seem to love the chaos in our communities and nation. We have slums, ungoverned spaces, and decaying infrastructure everywhere. Our Regional and Town Planners can bring design and order to our settlements and development process. The Nigerian Society of Engineers have the capacity to give Nigeria world class infrastructure if they are mobilized and equipped to do so.

We messed up our Electricity Supply, yet we have all the resources required for adequate and surplus production of electricity (Gas, Petroleum, Rivers, tropical Sunlight, Coal and more). All we need to achieve full electricity supply are visionary and determined leadership, a good blueprint, strategic mobilization and attraction of investments and loans, a systematic construction of needed infrastructure, and ‘law and order’ to protect the investors and the infrastructure. Without electricity we can neither be sufficiently productive or prosperous. The alternatives are poverty and suffering.

We messed up our military industrial capacity. DICON is a disgraceful failure, still at infancy after many years of budgetary handouts. We should be exporting some categories of military hardware by now. The insecurity bedeviling our nation cannot be contained effectively without a deliberate encouragement of PPP in our Military and Security Industry sector. Apart from the job and wealth creation opportunities in this sector, we cannot be a medium power without a very strong Military.

In addition to our Oil and Gas resources, we have enough arable land to feed the whole of West Africa. With security and the right Agriculture and Livestock rearing methods, we can be richer than Netherlands through Agriculture.

We also have abundant solid mineral resources in this country. However, instead of investing in modern legitimate mining, some people are orchestrating chaos in mineral rich areas to facilitate illegal mining and theft of our God-given resources. We will eliminate poverty when we begin to see kitted miners working in companies and corporations that are practicing sustainable and accountable mining activities.

Our potential for tourism development is incredible, but who will visit a country with poor infrastructure, endemic insecurity and scant regard for law and order? Let’s get serious if we want to make Nigeria to take her rightful place in the comity of nations.

Our people are suffering now from the consequences of bad choices of the past and recent times. Our wages and incomes are generally low because we have become adept in creating problems that reduce our productivity. Even if we share available revenue to all workers and citizens, it will only serve as temporary palliative and subsequently worsen our poverty and humanitarian problems. What we need is a concerted effort to increase productivity in our nation.

More than any of our past leaders, and certainly more than the opposition leaders who had failed in the past, President Tinubu has demonstrated that he has the will, courage and ability to lead necessary reforms. We need to cooperate with him to effect the necessary changes within the next five years. He needs our support and goodwill for better outcomes. We actually need some continuity for our policies to have the desired impact.

However, the present Administration must do much more, through the humanitarian agencies, to mitigate the suffering in the land. We need to empower the weak and vulnerable people. We need to resettle the internally displaced people back into their respective ancestral homeland. We may have to redesign those communities to accommodate sustainable mining, and or modern mixed and intensive farming. We need to prioritize the development and support of Small and Medium Enterprises. We need to aggressively pursue a better life for our people.

If we as citizens and leaders get serious, we can stop this culture of continuous bickering and recriminations. This continuous fueling of anger and hatred in our nation has to stop. ‘The anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.’

We can better redress our security problems, our humanitarian and development challenges through cooperation and collaboration. We are the ones sabotaging ourselves, no foreign interest can stop us. We can have security, peace, progress and prosperity in Nigeria. We can truly regain our status as the happiest people on earth. Let’s get real and get serious.

Pastor John Dara is the Chairman, Governing Council of FLED International Leadership Institute, Abuja. He is an Elder statesman, politician and businessman.