FOLLOWERSHIP AND THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA

lot has been written and said about
leadership and the dearth of good leaders
in Nigeria. Leadership is a big problem in
most of the black world, but so is
followership. Where are the followers and who are
they following? Are they following the money or
are they following the dream of a better nation
and a developed society? It is a known fact that a
people get the leader they deserve, and the
experience in Nigeria has not been an exception.
The people are groaning but they are not acting or
getting involved. Followers are supposed to ensure
that the right leaders are elected and that these
leaders are monitored to ensure that they deliver
on their election promises. There are several tasks
and responsibilities you will expect the followers
to carry out. Being nonchalant is definitely not one
of the responsibilities of a follower and neither is
being an onlooker, a spectator by choice or by
situation.
There is the tendency to be disinterested and
aloof about the goings-on in the political arena in
Nigeria, and then complain bitterly when things
are not going well and when basic health,
employment and social services are not available
where they should be easily accessible. A
disinterested citizen who has shown no interest in
the political process and played no role in ensuring
that the process is free, fair and transparent
should not be complaining when the treasury is
looted, roads left unmaintained, hospitals ill-
equipped, universities locked up for months, and
wrong people, including ministers with forged
certificates, are holding vital political offices for
which the citizen did not make any attempt to add
his one cent and one vote. There have been
several marches on Washington in the last two
years, several protests and demonstrations on
Wall Street, several trips to the Parliament Hill in
Ottawa by citizens who are anxious to see change
and who knew for sure that the power to make the
changes they desire possible is in their own hands
as the electorate and as the constituents who hold
the voting right to bring about change. Shall we
talk about the Arab Spring? How about the
protests of the last one week in Thailand? The
Thai people are fighting for their future. They are
sitting-in to demand change and Bangkok is
noticing and feeling the heat as we write. Change
will not be dropped on the laps of the masses who
paid no price, did nothing and made no move.
Such masses will remain victims of their own
smugness and timidity.
The federation account of Nigeria's oil business
has not been made public in over 15 years and
NNPC (through this government and past regimes)
has continued to mismanage billions of dollars in
oil income meant for the federation, yet the
people have not seen the need to demonstrate on
the front court of the most corrupt corporation in
history. Looking and acting unconcerned, being
uninvolved and unwilling to play a role sucks the
nation into deeper instability and corruption. How
many times will the inept and corrupt leaders in
Abuja increase the price of kerosene and petrol,
increases which are essentially due largely to
corruption, before the people begin to demand for
full disclosure and accountability in oil and gas
production and sales? The follower who did
nothing and played no role in the political process
has no right to complain about anything. He
should not even complain when he is asked to pay
to use a road that is a death trap. The question is:
where was he when the minister of works told the
world that the contract to rebuild the road has
been awarded to the same construction company
that did nothing the last time it rebuilt the same
road? The Arab Spring has gone on for over two
years now. Mubarak, Gadaffi, and Zine al-Abidine
Ben Ali are all gone, the three dumped into the
footnotes of history due to the zeal, determination
and direct involvement of the people of Egypt,
Libya and Tunisia. The people got tired, they got
fed up and they took charge to rid their nations of
dictators. The followership did not only
demonstrate in Tunisia, they forced change on the
nation and eased out their corrupt and oppressive
leaders. It may be true that the fruits of their
actions are yet to bear results, it is clear that the
people made the seemingly impossible change
possible.
Those who did nothing and those who sold their
votes for pittance of food, drink and a few hundred
naira notes from the candidates during
electioneering campaigns are birds of the same
feather. It may be true that the collectors of a
one-time trifle did far more disservice to the
nation and its people. The candidate who offered
food, drinks and N500 note to each voter will
recoup his money at the end of the day. He will
get his money back in multiple folds. When the
man who bought your vote last year moved out of
the area from where he was elected into office
and into a new house in the posh part of the city,
you will cry foul and wonder how he came by the
hundreds of millions naira it cost to build his new
house. But you have already received your reward
- the beer, food and N500 note. You and your co-
travelers were so cheap that this elected
representative will return to seek re-election and
be ready to distribute new N1,000 note and more
rice and drinks. Those who sold their votes have
no right to claim that any politician is corrupt
since corruption actually started from those of
them who took their own kickback upfront and
ahead of delivering their votes to the politician.
Those who deliberately chose to do nothing and
those who felt too pissed off and disappointed and
as such decided to do nothing are worse off than
the ones who sold their votes for a plate of rice or
amala. Amala politics should have no place in our
society, or tuwo politics for that matter, where the
almanjeris are gathered and used during the
elections only to be discarded shortly after and
left to do mischief around town. Every child in
Nigeria - boy or girl - deserves free and easy
access to good education. Even if these children
must learn the Bible or the Quran, they must first
be given basic education to prepare them for a
better future and life in the larger society.

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