Nigerian Hypocrisy: How Can Today's Slaves Become Tomorrow's Leaders?

By Msonter Anzaa

It is a popular lie that has been recited so often by people in authority that though everyone knows it to be false, we seem to accept it as reality. I consider it psychological bribery. People in authority - especially those who fail in their responsibilities – fear that the youth may rise and send them packing. So they have succeeded in making the youth believe they are leaders of tomorrow. Until the youth take over the nation’s leadership, they shouldn’t bother when public funds are stolen or when public services deteriorate. After all, their turn to “cut the national cake” would come tomorrow.

Nigeria is a phenomenon that continues to present interesting puzzles in the study of human behavior. We love slogans. We hate reality. Nothing happens here until it happens. Whenever fellow young men allude themselves to this falsehood about being leaders of tomorrow, I laugh. And I have a good number of reasons to laugh it off as a joke. First, tomorrow does not come to a country like Nigeria . If you doubt it, ask the politician who said he must be voted for president now or else . . . You can see this in the behavior of Nigerians. Whatever they want, they want it today and now. Another proof that we don’t believe in tomorrow is that we do not plan for it. Tomorrow is not going to come after all, so why plan for it? We have refused – no, our leaders have refused – to invest in our youth for tomorrow; they have also refused to invest in Agriculture for tomorrow. There is oil and it will finish tomorrow, but luckily there is no tomorrow. There is only today, and today, oil has not finished. Yes if you don’t provide gainful employment for your teeming population, you can not be safe tomorrow. That is true but there is no tomorrow, so why worry? Since tomorrow does not come to Nigeria , our leaders dwell in the past – our present is deteriorating; so we fall back on the past as reason to celebrate the present. If you doubt this, ask Brother Ebele why his government celebrated 50th independence anniversary and he will tell you what we achieved in the past.

Second, it is difficult imagining how slaves of today will become tomorrow’s leaders. Even PDP cannot perform this abracadabra and I have the Ekiti gubernatorial rerun elections, in mind. Yes? The Nigerian youth is a slave in his homeland. And I think I like it when Asha captures that in Mr. Jailer: “I’m in chains; you are in chains too. I’m in uniform; you are in uniform too. I’m a prisoner; you are a prisoner too…” We are all slaves. Our slave masters are the leaders in high and low places that deny us our rights and exploit us dead. Our oppressors are he lecturers who publish “textbooks” every semester and “give” to students at exorbitant rates. The officers that will not append their signatures where they should until we have paid them; those who collect N700 and issue N200 receipts; the Heads of Department who devise numerous ways of “making money” from students; they are the masters and we are their slaves. What of those in authority who take decisions on our behalf ad then do not care what the effects are? Those representatives who fight for their interests only; they are the masters. The people who order he acquisition of three presidential jets; the hosting of a summit on Nigeria’s independence in London and those who budget 6.6 billion naira for a day’s celebration at a time three hundred and sixty-six thousand of us who have scored 180 and above in the UTME have no place in any of the tertiary institutions because of lack of space; those people are our slave masters. They make sure there is no education for us, then some of them turn round and suggest a high academic qualification as the minimum for holding leadership positions. So, how can we become leaders? In fact, there is no way we can become leaders, even leaders of yesterday, let alone those of tomorrow.

Like Asa sings, “what you don’t know: you are a victim too…”; these people may not know but they are slaves too. Their masters are the fears they have. I think it si Abraham Lincoln who said a society that cannot help the many who are poor cannot save the few who are rich. If you doubt it, take a look at the list of those who have been kidnapped. Kidnapping is not good agitation strategy, but how many people want to use a “right” strategy which does not exist any way? Our slave masters behave this way because they fear tomorrow. They fear tomorrow because it promises change to the people of Nigeria . Tomorrow promises nation where few people would no longer be able to hold an entire country hostage to suffering. They, like their other African contemporaries who have over-stayed their welcome, prefer to dwell in the past. They prefer to dwell in the past where they were heroes; a past where they made things happen. They think they are able to stop change, but it will come. One American president is quoted to have said: “Change is the rule of life. And whoever make peaceful change impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” if they doubt this, let them ask the American people. It was after so many years stiff resistance to change that president Obama came and declared that; “…change has come to America ”.

Finally the stereotype, that we are leaders of tomorrow, is just that - a stereotype. We must therefore stop fooling ourselves and begin to take leadership positions as a compulsory option for setting ourselves free from our slave masters. Those who fail in their responsibilities must begin to give way for people who are ready to move on and prepare for tomorrow. And whatever happens, this nation under God shall be free.