“If Nigerians were yetto commend a leader after 53 years of independence, then we are jinxed and cursed; we should all go to hell.” These were the very words of former President Olusegun Obasanjo few days back during a presentation at the4th Annual Ibadan sustainable Development Summit at University of Ibadan, Oyo State. The ex-Head of Statecondemned the younger generation of leaders in the country, saying that they lack integrity and probity and have failed their people woefully. Ever since the formerpresident delivered his damning, magisterial verdict, public reaction to his pronouncement has been rather varied. Inthe main, most Nigerians have hailed President Obasanjo for his unfailing outspokenness and his uncompromising rendition of truth however unsavoury and disagreeable it might sound. However,what is not readily acknowledged by most Nigerians in theirreadings about some of our leaders’ comments and actionsis that appearance is not necessarily realityand that what we so hurriedly construe to mean the fact could eventually turn out to become a farce. In this treatise, I seekto add some analytic flesh to the dry bones of Obasanjo’s comment. To be sure, I totally agree with Obasanjo that our (younger) leaders have failed their people agonizingly; I agree with him that we should all take a journey to hell! Nevertheless, I seek to use this auspicious medium to imprint on the consciousness of Nigerians the fact that, in the event that we all set out for hell, no other leader – dead or alive– in the entire historyof Nigeria is more deserving of being the captain of the excursion to hell thanObasanjo himself. by the same token, no other leader merits the privilege of presenting a letter ofcredence to the devil than the former Headof State, Olusegun Obasanjo. One of the tragic demerits of the approach so often adopted by most Nigerians in assessing the performance of their leaders is the tendency to treat leadership as an isolated event rather than a continuum. At such, in decrying the shortfalls of an incumbent regime, we de-historicize our analysis by failing to establish the critical linkage between the past and the present,between the failings of present leadership and the willful (and often costly) miscarriages of preceding leaderships.It is this inclination to condemn the present by denying the past that has provided ex-President Obasanjothe ammunition to be pissing in the wind by condemning Nigerians and their leaders.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 23:00:44 +0000
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