Our Dysfunctional Nation

THE problem we have as a nation is that we are not thinking and our leaders are not guiding, our poor mentality of leadership and followership is our undoing, Nigeria is rich and blessed as a nation better than even the western world many of our youths “Japa” to but we are like termites destroying everything good, and our greed and avarice is solidified in our quest for corruption, acquisition without conscience or thinking of others, our corrupt decimal is opportunity meeting our greed and that is what has ruined this nation, lead­ing to all sorts of crimes, immorality and insecurity, it is what has destroyed the temple of justice and every facet of our society, it is what has encouraged tribalism in place of nationalism, that is why morality is rebuked and immorality celebrated even in national televisions, it is what has led to our youths dressing indecently including married women walking naked on streets without conscience to question such an immoral and ungodly act.

We have destroyed this country because today youths of generation doesn’t know anything value system, our mentality and system is flawed, history is lost in our educational system and majority children of the poor today don’t attend schools because it’s too expensive, parents are sending their young children to unorthodox learning centers on how they can use the computer through the internet to defraud “yahoo schools” because to them wealth is the cynosure of success not education and that’s where we get the quotation “Education is a scam”, today generation are copy cats in everything bad in western culture, our cloths, dressing and even mannerism has the imprints of western culture, we copy anything foreign clubs and argue which is the best forgetting that we have local leagues here in Ni­geria, when a population doesn’t know its history and culture, it would not know where it is going and when it doesn’t know where it is going it cannot know where its coming from.

We cannot build a prosperous, stable country on cor­ruption and immortality, democracy can only strive in enlightened citizenry, wealth generation not poverty but these are lacking, Democracy is stagnated in these limitations and that the problem with Nigeria, there must be direct policies to get to every segment of so­ciety and we can but because today leaders have lost sense of history, they could not tap from the wealth and experience of the late stage Obafemi Awolowo and Mallam Aminu Kano then leader of the “Talakawas” in Northern Nigeria. Today leadership has failed to study past leaders to understand where they failed, excelled in using that to project today and the future and this is our greatest undoing, as we have poor leadership so it is with poor followership because most of the populace is ignorant and uninformed so they cannot even help themselves not to talk of government. When you have leadership mentality that thinks of consuming rather they service, a leadership that claim monopoly of wis­dom rather opening up to fresh air and ideas, with a fellowship that is ignorant and strives in profligacy and sycophancy, the entire cycle becomes polluted and we cannot get anything but confusion and this is our bane as a nation today, policies are not only wrong but castrated and never achieve their good intentions.

Recently in August 2024 the Rotary Club International rolled out free medical examination and treatment to the indigenes of Edjeba Warri, it was a well thoughtful, good intentions to get to the aged, poor, vulnerable in that community but the programme never get to those it was supposed to, the aged in the community could not maybe because nobody could bring them there but the majority beneficiaries were the civil public servants in that vicinity, some immigration staff who shamelessly with uniform could not restrain themselves, mechanics and others but not those the programme was meant for, on the part of the organizers too they were not strict and the greedy nature of most Nigerians could be seen as they after medical treatment cued up to collect cloths and also food items. Why should a privileged Nigerian cue up to benefit from a programme tagged: “under­privileged, poor and vulnerable persons” if not praying to be demoted from where he\she is down where he\ she has subjected himself\herself?

This is the reality in all facets of our society, our greed is exceptional and this mentality hunts our being. This is the dysfunctional society we live in and until we see leadership as tears, pain and displeasure, until we be­gin to see leadership as burning of the night candle to find solutions, until leadership understand the essence of Democracy and how to achieve goals, and until we have a citizenry that is aware of their roots and how to translate good values to benefit all, until Democratic leaders think to use education and food production through Agriculture for generation of wealth economic development and gainful employment and be able to sustain zero tolerance in corruption, until we seal many pitfalls bedeviling development and each citizen have love for our neighbor and the nation, we may not get our potentials as a nation and people.