In Nigeria, there are hardly any leaders but too many Ogas. Perhaps, we should take a cue from the corporate world where there is always someone to praise for results and someone to blame for a lapse. More often than not, when you are blamed, you are shown the exit. No excuse!
Everything is wrong with Nigeria, infact, as Ayo Sogunro argued, “everything in Nigeria is going to kill you”. The way leadership is demonstrated in this country is compelling enough to believe that the asylum has been taken over by lunatics or how else does one explain a nation where public office holders are either not accountable for activities under their supervision or often times not responsible for their actions and inactions.
If a senior executive of a brewery walks into a bar to order for a drink and he is told by the attendant that his brand is out of stock but he should jolly well make do with a competitor’s brand. What do you think would happen next? The executive will put a call through to the area manager of the brewery, who will very likely put another call through to the sales executive covering that district to demand an explanation for why their brand is out of stock in a local outlet where a competitor’s brand is available. In such a case, somebody usually ends up with a query. It is such responsibility and accountability that builds great businesses and great nations.
In the last couple of days, meningitis has been responsible for the death of hundreds of Nigerians across a few Northern states but this is how a governor, under whose watch over 200 people died, responds to the tragedy: “What we used to know as far as meningitis is concerned is the Type A virus. However, because people refused to stop their nefarious activities (fornication particularly), God decided to send the Type C virus which has no vaccination”. Those were the words of Governor Yari of Zamfara, a man who presides over the affairs of a state with the cardinal responsibility to ensure the prosperity and welfare of his people. Yet he blames God. Let us even assume for a second that we were actually incurring the wrath of the Almighty, how is it then that only the poor die for sins the rich also commit brazenly. Zamfara has a poverty rate of over 70 percent and is one of the poorest states in the country, but who cares, afterall it is God who maketh some rich and others poor.
Rather than accept responsibility for this monumental disaster and avoidable tragedy, the school authorities have shown no remorse for their complicity in this and little respect for the bereaved. They have continued to insist that there was no epidemic and are only a victim of a smear campaign. How epically stupid can people get!
When news broke out about the death of two students in Queens College, Lagos, a couple of videos were circulated online showing the water tank in the school and the water that came out of it. What I saw in that tank was as good as sewage waste, and in another case a dead cat was found in the tank. The PUNCH reported that no less than 50 students have been admitted to various hospitals and are receiving treatment for food poisoning and diarrhoea. Rather than accept responsibility for this monumental disaster and avoidable tragedy, the school authorities have shown no remorse for their complicity in this and little respect for the bereaved. They have continued to insist that there was no epidemic and are only a victim of a smear campaign. How epically stupid can people get! Three students reported dead and over 50 hospitalised, yet the authorities under whose watch this calamity occurred are sitted comfortably on their executive seats.
Will you blame them? Here is a country where over 300 Shiites were killed and buried in mass graves and no one has been held to account. Over a hundred unarmed young Easterns were also reported to have been gruesomely murdered by security agencies (in an Amnesty International report) and not a single dust has been raised. Bombs are dropped on innocent IDPs with over 200 killed, and sadly no one is talking about this anymore. A certain governor gives an outgoing commissioner of police five million naira to fuel his car, along with landed property said to be worth about 25 million naira, as reported in the Vanguard, and the members of the state’s House of Assembly are yet to demand an explanation for these from the governor. How could they have, when a colleague of theirs in Benue who demanded accountability from the governor of his state was made to kneel before his excellency and issue an apology.
In Nigeria, there are hardly any leaders but too many Ogas. Perhaps, we should take a cue from the corporate world where there is always someone to praise for results and someone to blame for a lapse. More often than not, when you are blamed, you are shown the exit. No excuse!
Ayodele Adio is co-host of a Lagos radio programme.
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