Nigeria: A nation governed by vague promises

First-world countries are excellently being governed by well thought-out plans accompanied with both smart-work and hardwork while third world countries are being poorly governed by vague promises. From Kano to Kaduna, from Oyo to Ondo, from Benue to Borno, from Sokoto to Zamfara, the story is the same—Nigeria is being daily governed by vague promises since 1960. Why do politicians make use of vague promises as a tool to paddle the canoe of Nigeria? It is because they do know that too many of our people are very ignorant and uninterested when it comes to governance.

Nigeria is probably the only nation where people do not ask intelligent and probing questions. They have been wrongly told by their religious leaders that it is a sin to ask public-servants questions. They see bad-roads and power-outage as God punishing them for their sins. And they see fuel-scarcity as the will of God for themselves and their children. So they are daily asking God to come down to fix the issue of power-outage. They are also waiting for some angels to come down to construct good roads for them. And they are likewise daily waiting for a day that they would wake up to the warm embrace of a nation that is gorgeously dressed as Singapore.

Last week, the President of Nigeria said that he would take Nigeria to the next-level and all what those who were present did was to clap for him. When I heard about it, I knew it was just a vague promise. The first question is: where are we as a nation? We need to know where we are as a nation. Those who do not know where we are cannot know where we are headed as a people. Nigeria is a nation that does not have a vision, national values and she does not know the number of her citizens, so how can anyone take such a nation to whatever level just as she currently is?

Two, how does Mr. President intend achieving that? I am sick and tired of vague promises. I have gone through every speech made after every military coup in Nigeria and I can authoritatively say that they were mere promises. Also, I have read through speeches made by every political leader in the history of Nigeria and I can unequivocally say that they were empty promises. For the umpteenth time, from 1960 till now, we are only being governed by vague promises.

In 2019, on the condition that Nigerians do not ask intelligent questions from those who step out to lead us; then I would be forced to believe that Nigeria is an irredeemable country. When insensitive (business men in politics) men begin to step forward, promising that they would make Nigeria the best country on earth without understanding the ABC of leadership and governance and you refuse to ask them (soon-to-be political leaders) questions, then some of us would be forced and enforced to believe that Nigeria has been destined to remain as it is forever.

In recent times, Mr. President has been saying that he would solve the problem of insecurity in the country, but he is yet to tell us HOW. We have gone beyond empty-promises as a nation. Whoever is going to lead us beyond here must be able to tell us HOW we are going to move from here to where we desire to be. I do not want a leader—who would be telling me to be religiously praying for a great tomorrow. I do desire a leader—who would strategically lead all of us to a great tomorrow as a nation.

Babatunde Raji Fashola said and I quote: “…a serious government will fix power in six months.” We were too keyed up to ask him about how he intended to fix it in six months. Since Fashola got to power, he has not been impressive at all. Also, the APC government as a whole—will soon become three (3) years in power, but till now, power-outage is still our closest ally in Nigeria. All we were told when those in power now were campaigning against those in power then—was that we should just vote the PDP out. We were told that voting the PDP out is all we needed to make Nigeria a great nation, but we were too naïve to ask intelligent questions. They saw that we were so naïve and uninformed, so they capitalized on it, riding on the ‘collective-back’ of our idiocy and thoughtlessness. We were so unwise not to penalize the man in power for not coming out to tell us how he would govern us differently. We trusted him blindly! Today, Nigeria is obviously shoddier on the watch of President Buhari.

As far as I am concerned, it is too late in the day for anyone to start reeling out another set of empty promises. It is not formless promises that have made Japan to be what it is today. And it is not vague promises that are fast transforming Rwanda before our very eyes. If Nigerians allow themselves to be fooled again in 2019, then I would be compelled to believe that we are the dumbest people on earth. For the umpteenth time, Mr. President should not just tell us that he would take Nigeria to the next-level; he should show us how he would take us to the next-level. We forgot to ask about the APC’s definition of change, so Mr. President, what is your definition of next-level?