Presidential election in the great country of Nigeria is taking place on 16 February 2019, giving the citizens the opportunity to grade the performance of the current administration or decide to experiment with a new one. If you an observing individual and have been around for a while, you will have no problems agreeing with me that the majority of the problems that Nigeria has centers on poor leadership. Nigerians are extremely intelligent and good people but somehow the leadership has not been able to leverage on this.
Anyone with integrity will also have no difficulties agreeing with me that the past couple of years in Nigeria have witnessed some discipline and relative tightening-up of the loopholes normally used for massive corruption, which most people believe typifies previous administrations. The flow of cash in the country has also been quite tight since the country started living within its means a few years ago.
However, the apparent sea of cash that seemed to flow “freely” in previous administrations is obviously illusory and unsustainable, since the country couldn’t really afford what it was spending and public coffers were been flagrantly embezzled by virtually all government officials, including ministers and their special assistants; perm secs, and directors or commissioners of the MDAs. It was a free-for-all thievery at all levels of government – federal, state, and local government. There were other lose ends: the salaries of senators in Nigeria were several folds higher than those of their counterparts in the richest countries of the world, such as the United States. Meanwhile, the average Nigerian citizen could hardly boast of a dollar per day. Honestly, this is quite obscene.
The idea here is that “free flow” of money is not necessarily a good thing for Nigeria at this time. After all, you shouldn’t spend more than you earn. When I left Nigeria in 1981, if you had one Naira, you would exchange it for almost two US dollars! Today, you need 350 Naira to get one dollar. That is to say that the exchange rate has flipped dramatically in favor of the dollar by a factor of 700. Sadly, this speaks to the apparent incompetence of previous Nigerian leaders.
One of the most hurtful and insidious aspects of the corrupt ways in which Nigeria has been run before now is the effects on the youth, who do not know any other way than the corrupt system they were born and have grown into. The youths want to be politicians – even without proper formal education – because they are convinced that it is the surest way to instant wealth. We need leaders that recognize this as a problem and are willing to do something about it. Nigeria needs well educated youth who can effectively manage the affairs of the country when the present generation is dust. We need high tech innovators and selfless political leaders alike.
So, it’s all about leadership, and we need to elect the correct one come 16 February 2019. In the 9 April 2018 article in this column, I gave a few reasons for why Nigeria has not been able to tap into the expertise of diaspora in technology, even though, by US census data, Nigerians were the most educated immigrants in the United States of America in recent years. They are more educated than Asian immigrants (from China, Korea, Japan, India) as well as the white immigrants. (The data are based on the relative populations of the racial groups.)
So what do I want from the new president, from the perspectives of diaspora and a high tech aficionado? First of all, our university graduates need employment. That is, the government needs to create, and facilitate the creation of a lot of new jobs for the graduates. Also, the government needs to secure the country. In addition, most avenues for corruption need to be blocked, just as the present administration is trying to do.
Personally, I will avoid any administration that promises a sea of cash flow in Nigeria at this time, because the country cannot afford it. Moreover, previously, cash always flowed only to the coffers of corrupt government officers.
Corruption has been buried deep into the core fabric of the Nigerian system and people. For example, you have to “play ball,” otherwise you are out of most contract biddings. So, if you are good and don’t want to bribe, you have no chance. Another manifestation of corruption shows up when the head of an MDA or a high institution is replaced: the projects he/she initiated are usually killed by the new head, irrespective of how effective the contractor might have been. In some cases the cancelled projects are re-awarded to a new contractor who may actually not be as qualified as the deposed contractor. Will your candidate be truly willing to stop this?
Finally, if I were to give you a single metric to judge whom you should vote for, it would have to be your honest perception of the selflessness of a candidate. That is, ask yourself, “Is this candidate running for an office because he or she TRULY cares for the welfare of the people?” If the answer is NO, do not vote for the person.
