NIGERIAN SECTORIAL UNDERDEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES – The Igbo Perspective (Ka Obodo Were Ga N’iru)

Prof. Chinedu Ositadinma Nebo

Former Vice-Chancellor,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

[Protocols]

It is with a deep sense of humility, apprehension and trepidation that I stand here with you to deliver the 34^th Ahiajoku Lecture, 2010. This sense of humility derives from the status of this august gathering, which over the years has become a melting pot of complex Igbo cultural and intellectual ideas. I have followed up this lecture series, begun about 31 years ago by the then Governor of the bigger Imo State, a great Igbo stalwart, Dr Sam O. Mbakwe, and have noted that even with periodical change of governments at the State House, the Government, the people of Imo State have never compromised on the depth and spread of the Lecture topics and the quality of the Speakers.  Their profiles speak for them: men of great intellectual, moral and material substance who wear on their caps colourful feathers of national and international achievements. Among these Igbo greats are Professors Echeruo, Okigbo, Afigbo, Nwabueze, Achebe, Drs Pius Okigbo and Bart Nnaji, to name this few.  To be considered among the short-lists from which the eventual speaker would be selected is itself an honour but to be finally handed over the baton to ‘anchor’ this year’s lectures elicited so much joy and prayers of thanksgiving to the Almighty. Therefore, to the Imo State Executive Council, which by this invitation has reposed great confidence in me, I remain grateful and highly indebted, and I say ekene kwa m unu; ya dikwara unu mma; Onyenweanyi gozie unu.[Thank you so much; May you prosper in the works of your hands; May the Lord bless you all]

I also stand here today in apprehension of how this lecture will turn out, how it will be received first, among the Igbo, home and in Diaspora, then within and outside Nigeria for the Ahiajoku Lecture has gained a lot of international recognition, particularly after Professor Achebe’s delivery early last year. Moreover, this is an election period, and as usual the polity is being heated up with excitement and a heightened sense of trepidation for what the outcome of both the selection of the presidential candidates will be, and which political regional divide gets the presidential nod to rule this nation for the next four or eight years, as the case may be. The same wild election fever is also reaching a crescendo in the states and both the re-contesting incumbents and the new entrants along with their supporters are all warming up for the fireworks of 2011 general elections. 

I have spent time in prayers over this assignment, as I regularly do over Nigeria, and have also spent time in meditation over this nation, asking questions as do so many Nigerians over what has become the state of our nation. I realized that it is not only the Igbo that have called on me to speak but that the Almighty God, the Lord Jehovah, will hold me responsible if I failed to speak the truth today. The theme of the 2010 Ahiajoku Lecture seems to me to have added more fire to this fever: Leadership Challenges in the 21^st Century in Nigeria, with an Igbo perspective.

THE STATE OF THE NATION VIS – A – VIS OTHER RISING NATIONS

To all and sundry, Nigeria’s chronic underdevelopment, her miasmic posture, her anemic economy, her conflagrant polity and her disastrously porous security are all blamed on poor and inept leadership.  This opinion is held, not only by Nigerians, but also by professionals in the developed economies of the world.  It has not always been like this; something went wrong sometime, somewhere and somehow to bring us to the harrowing spell of successive inept national governments. 

Before delving into the hydra-headed leadership challenges in Nigeria, let us take a brief moment to consider a few bright spots. Although there is so much to lament about Nigeria after our 50 years of nationhood, there are still so much to be thankful to God for and for which we shall ever remain grateful.

·        God’s goodness, love and mercy to us in spite of our unworthiness and misuse of His blessings.

·        Nigeria stands today a united country despite so much trials and ethno-religious conflicts that have threatened to destroy us as one people under God.

·        Nigerians are still very loving and peaceful people; our resilience as a people of faith in our nationhood, and our indomitable will to survive are exemplary.

·        We are very richly endowed with diverse natural resources in, including human resources, agricultural and mineral resources, oil and gas, etc.

·        The absence of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, landslides, etc.

·        The great men and women who have offered altruistic service and given so much to their fatherland.

·        Our youths have remained mostly law-abiding in the face of provocations from a bitterly cruel socio-economic environment and under blistering deprivations.

·         Nigeria’s big brother role in the West African sub region that has helped to politically stabilize the region.

·        The ingenuity of some of our compatriots in various professional endeavours, the world over.

·        The country’s agencies, the NAFDAC, the EFCC and the NDLEA have gained international recognition as serious institutions fighting fake medications, financial crimes and illegal narcotic trade. There are a few loopholes here and there but much more progress has been made. 

·        Our sons and daughters who are winning laurels abroad for their technological knowhow.

The list is by no means exhaustive and we need to thank God that there is so much grace amidst our woes and failures.  There is no doubt that the Divine Presence is still with us as a people, and that if we heed His voice, our hope for a strong, virile and developed country will be realized.  Although the atmosphere is that of despair and despondency and the demographics are alarming and disparaging, there is hope if we mend our ways and take on the challenges of leadership in more creative and constructive ways.  We have cried enough, but done little.  We have engaged in perpetual motion but little movement.  When we moved, it was often two steps forward, three steps backward.  It is now time to think ACTION, do ACTION, walk ACTION and fly ACTION.

NIGERIAN LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES IN THE 21^ST CENTURY

The 21^st century is undeniably the knowledge explosion age.  The information superhighway has shrunk the earth into a knowledge driven global village.  It is estimated that about 80 per cent of all the scientists who ever lived are alive today.  Globalization has now become a massive, irrepressible force that is ruthlessly trying to whip every nation into line.  Global economies now appear to be so intertwined that what happens in one economy appears to have ripple effects on others.  Environmental concerns are now occupying center stage as climatic factors appear to be distorted by the global warming phenomena.  Security issues have also been globalized; terrorists are becoming sophisticated and are constantly working out new strategies of killing as many innocent people as possible in order to get attention. The result is a growing sense of insecurity all over the world and security officials at international airports are ever busy tightening security belts, and the result has been increased distress at the checking-in and security check-points. The fear of nuclear holocaust looms and there is an additional fear that one day a nuclear war-head may fall into the hands of these rogue terrorist groups. At the other end Mother Nature is spitting out fires in many sub-regions in the form of earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, floods, etc, as man continues the unwholesome exploitation of ever dwindling natural resources.

While the developed countries worry over the management of technological breakthroughs and volatile economic landscapes, many developing and underdeveloped countries are cringing in poverty, hunger and starvation, woeful health conditions, high maternal and child mortality rates, energy crisis, youth restiveness, and high incidence of corruption, among others.

Nigeria, unfortunately, finds herself in the latter categories.  Nigeria’s failure to develop and match such countries as the Asian Tigers who started the race to nationhood with us is essentially a leadership problem, a self-imposed crisis of underdeveloped psyche that makes our leaders enslaved to primordial instincts, such as: power acquisition as a means to self aggrandizement; undoing and sometimes, complete elimination  of perceived enemies and self-propagation.  For this reason, many view the Nigeria Government system not as a democracy but as a kleptomaniocracy. 

EXAMPLES FROM WELL MANAGED ECONOMIES

GOLDMAN SACHS’ REPORT: The Rise of the BRICs [Brazil, Russia, India & China] and Emergence of the N-11

Ever since the US-based international investment bank, Goldman Sachs, made predictions on the BRIC and N-11 nations, the international community has been watching with keen interest what has been happening within the economic stable of these nations. Things have worked so fast in favour of the predictions that the bank has been churning out upward reviews of their earlier positions. You will find below what Goldman Sachs had to say in its original report (which it defended in the paper, “Dreaming with BRICS: The Path to 2050,” in 2003

The report as originally published stated that:

• China’s economy will surpass Germany in the next few years, Japan by 2015, and the United States by 2041.
• India’s growth rate will be the highest—not China’s — and it will overtake Japan (today the world’s second-largest economy) by 2032.
• BRICs’ currencies could appreciate by 300 per cent over the next 50 years, providing a big tailwind for investors in BRIC assets.
• Taken together, the BRICs could be larger than the United States and the developed economies of Europe within 40 years.
• By 2025, BRICs will bring another 200 million people with incomes above $15,000 into the world’s economy. That’s equal to the combined populations of Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

According to Wilkipedia, “However, Goldman Sachs has now become more bullish [confident] on the BRICs since it published its original report. The size of China’s economy overtook Germany’s economy, a year earlier than expected, and has over taken Japan’s in July, 2010. Goldman Sachs now believes that the Chinese economy will overtake the United States by 2027. And with India accounting for 10 of the 30 fastest-growing urban areas in the world and 700 million people moving to cities by 2050, its influence on the world economy will be bigger and quicker than was implied in 2003”. [Source: Wikipedia]

Closely following the BRIC prediction is the 2004 Report on the NEXT ELEVEN [N-11], where Nigeria is included among eleven nations warming up to also assert themselves in the global economic map. According to the original prediction, while China overtakes the United States as the greatest economic power in the world by 2047, Nigeria would become the 20^th largest economy by 2025 and the 12^th by 2050 ahead of two G-7 giants, Italy and Canada. Goldman Sachs now says China doesn’t have to wait for 37 years to overtake the US, that 17 would do it.  

The Goldman Sachs Reports have changed the way many look at some of the so-called Third Worldcountries. Here in our country the Report has been the basis of the Vision 20-2020.  Buoyed by this confidence in the modest reforms of 2003 to 2005 the Government set a target of reaching the 20^thmark five years ahead of time. 

Now what is our interest in the Goldman Sachs predictions? Aplenty! We all know that the BRICs, as these four nations are sometimes called, have known poverty at a very large scale. But armed with a strong demographic profile, vast natural resources and an adjusted purposeful leadership, they have gone ahead, with vision, to assert themselves in the new economic order where demography has become a major factor in a world of increasing competitiveness. They planned for it, made it work and today are challenging the G-7 nations. None of these nations stomached corruption nor toyed with aberrant leadership.

In the pre-ICT world, economic advancement was not demographically defined; rather it came out of the level of the scientific and technological know-how each country was exposed to. The advanced countries of the Western Hemisphere hoarded as much scientific and technological information as possible leaving the Third World nations in the dust. Countries with large populations like the BRICs experienced major hiccups: we can well remember the near collapse of the Brazilian currency in the 80s, the widespread hunger in India and China [do not forget that Japan once colonized China, but today China has overtaken Japan as the world’s 2^nd largest economy] and of course the socio-economic crisis, and then the political upheaval that followed it and finally dismembered the former Soviet bloc. 

But in this new world of ICT, access to scientific and technological information has known very little restriction and these nations made the best of it, investing heavily in education, the process through which the intellectual capital is built. Theirs was a functional education and when the graduates came out there was an infrastructural platform from which they made the leap.

During the Nigerian civil war, the Biafran scientists and technologists drawn mostly from the then University of Biafra kept the short-lived republic alive for three years in the face of one of the world’s best enforced economic blockade of the then land-locked Biafra. What happened to all the exploits made in Biafra? How did we so quickly lose the massive technological momentum experienced in Biafra?

Writing in the chapter, The University and the Nigerian crises: 1966-1970, in the book “Universityof Nigeria 1960-85: An Experiment in Higher Education”, Professor V. C. Ike wrote extensively on the contributions of the university to the war efforts. An excerpt is quoted thus:

The Nigeria-Biafra war was, on the Biafran side, one of the most popular wars in history. Popular in the sense that it had a degree of mass involvement and mass support unmatched in these parts. Practically every member of staff wanted to be part of the war effort. And if the war taught academics any lesson, it was that no discipline could justifiably be dismissed as “useless”. Mathematics, Medicine, Theatre Arts, Music, Law, Chemistry, Agricultural Economics, History, Home Economics, Political Science, and English: each discipline had an important contribution to make to the war effort and to public well-being……It would be difficult to cite any field of human endeavour or national effort in which University staff, students, and alumni did not make an important contribution.

Professor Eni Njoku [the Vice-Chancellor, the University of Biafra] gave more time to public service than to the University during the war years. In addition to representing Biafra at practically every peace conference, he was also at different times Chairman of the Petroleum Management Board, the Exco Committee on Reopening of Schools, and the Biafra Examinations Board.

The Research and Production Group, popularly known as RaP, gave the scientists, engineers, and technologists at the University an opportunity not only to make invaluable contributions to the war effort, but also to surprise even themselves at their own inventiveness. Organized in “groups” (e.g. Engineering Group, Chemistry Group L/F1, Chemistry Group L/F2), and tucked away in a number of locations, staff of the University working hand in hand with professional colleagues from outside the University produced armoured vehicles, rockets and rocket launchers, mortar bombs, the dreaded Ogbunigwe [Weapon of Mass Destruction, (WMD)] and other weapons of war, refined crude oil into petrol and kerosene; made such essential commodities as soap; distilled different brands of alcohol from palm wine, et cetera. With so much new-found expertise at its beck and call, the University had little difficulty in setting up its own mini petroleum refinery at Eziachi, near Orlu, with assistance from Dr. M. O. Chijioke of the Faculty of Engineering.

Dr. B.C.E. Nwosu of the Physics Department was head of RaP. Virtually every member of the senior staff of the science and engineering faculties of the University not engaged elsewhere served in RaP.

What RaP provided for the scientists and engineers, the Propaganda Directorate did for University staff in the humanities and social sciences. The remarkable impact which the Directorate made nationally and internationally was as a result of the various inputs by scholars from various disciplines, including English, History, Religion, Music, Drama, Journalism, Economics, Sociology/Anthropology, Law, Political Science, and Education. Dr. I. I. U. Eke, then Research Fellow of the University’s Economic Development Institute, was Commissioner for Information as well as Director of the Directorate for Propaganda.

Another crucial area under the headship of a member of staff of the University was the Biafra land Army, an  organization which achieved tremendous success in boosting large scale and small agriculture down to village level. Dr. Bede N. Okigbo, then Dean of Agriculture, was the Coordinator of the Land Army. At provincial level Mrs. Adebimpe O. Ike, then Sub-Librarian, took charge of the Land Army in Awka Province.

Mr. Chinua Achebe, the creative writer, who had joined the staff of the University as a result of the 1966 – 67 national crises, served as Chairman of the National Guidance Committee, the Committee which produced the widely publicized Ahiara Declaration as part of the effort to develop an ideological framework for the young republic. Other University staff who served on the Committee included Dr. I. Nzimiro, Dr. M. A. Nwachukwu, Dr. B. E. Obumselu, Dr. E. N. Obiechina who served as Secretary of the Committee was lined up to join the staff of University at the end of the war.

Staff of the Faculty of Medicine and of the University Medical Centre joined in manning the various hospitals.

Many senior and junior staff, alumni and students of the University joined the Biafran Armed Forces and held various ranks. Many other staff members were active in militia work.

The short-lived Republic of Biafra gave up the fight on January 12, 1970. The name, Biafra was instantly erased from the map. So was the name University of Biafra, without the formality of an edict or other legal document.

But the University had reopened, with an unprecedented number of young people from all over the country anxious to study at the feet of Biafran intellectuals who performed feats during the war. If there was one lesson the war had taught the erstwhile Biafrans and the University leadership at the time, it was that no problem was insurmountable. Where there was a will, there was bound to be a way”.

May be we might need to pause at this time to ask ourselves, where this nation, Nigeria, would have been if the Biafran experiment, within context, was allowed to continue after the war. May be instead of BRIC, the acronym would have been BRINC [Brazil, Russia, India, Nigeria and China]. Perhaps if Nigerians were allowed to choose their leaders, and a level playing ground provided to allow men and women of integrity to contest elections, we would not be where we, shamefully, are today.

It is most unfortunate that while the nations of the world are putting their heads together on how to catch up with the tide of the 21^st Century evolution, Nigerian politicians are busy perfecting the art of stealing billions of Naira. We have just spent the first decade of the century and we have seen that the world has entered into a volatile stage where change and uncertainty have become the order of the day. Of course the major instrument of this change is ICT which has revolutionalized everything and is already re-drawing the economic, political, technological and military map of the world. For many nations the Goldman Sachs reports have been a major topic of discussion in many governments’ cabinet meetings and international company board rooms ever since. 

THE TRAGEDY OF IMPOSED LEADERSHIP

Since our people are not allowed to choose their leaders through a transparent electoral process, we have leaders imposed upon us by corrupt godfathers who are only interested in plundering, pillaging and looting the people’s treasury.  In the process, national development is sacrificed for self aggrandizement; national wealth converted to family wealth; education sacrificed for bogus projects and corruption enthroned as a dominant way of life.  Nigerian leadership challenges in the 21^st century are an embodiment of all these and a lot more.  

But even before the advent of massive election rigging in the post-war Nigeria, much of the post-independent Nigerian leadership structure was based on the GRA [Government Reserved Area] mentality with which the colonial Master ruled. In the colonial Nigeria, the white man who prided himself a superior race saw the natives [Nigerians] as the inferior race, and, therefore, they were seen as his stewards or servants. Expectedly, he could not live in our midst – he had to live separately, in a Government Reserved [please read, Apartheid] Area; away from any form of contamination by his subjects, the black natives. 

The result was that he knew very little of the people he was ruling. His policies were dictated by London and were drawn up by her interests, not the Nigerians’. That explained why, when the University College Ibadan was conceived it was to produce graduates in the Liberal Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities to fill Civil Service vacancies; but they would have to be sending us medical doctors, engineers, surveyors and other experts from England. But a great leader arose, a man of vision and courage, in the person of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe to oppose such lop-sided policy. He was later to mobilize the poorest region within the federation, the Eastern Nigeria, to build what became a landmark institution of Higher Learning in Africa: the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Many Nigerians till date have failed to realize that it was the UNN that set the pattern for university education in this country. That was what a constructive and purposeful leadership could do! 

Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was convinced that if the African was given the opportunity to train her own people she would be in a position to determine her own destiny, and chart a new course of life that would lead to wholesome development. But our leaders have not followed the selfless pattern of leadership set by the likes of the great Zik of Africa, hence the retention of the colonial pattern of leadership.

When the Colonial Master was dethroned, the Nigerian politician who took over found the instruments of colonization, and the lure of power too attractive to forgo and from there the concept of GRA politics got entrenched in the mind of the average Nigerian politician. He rules from a detached platform where he is completely out of touch with the feelings of his people. Yet we are practicing democracy, which is supposed to be the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Little wonder that in spite of the fact that this nation is blessed, the average Nigerian still wallows in abject poverty. What has all the petrodollars gotten for Nigerians? Once our politicians are nestled in the comfort of their GRA, their eyes become blinded to the plight of the people, their ears blocked to their cries and their hearts hardened to the pains and the agonies of their subjects. This is easily noticeable in the titles and the accolades we heap on them: The Honourable, Your Excellency, Distinguished, etc, In these, we invoke the same spirit of colonization that alienates leadership from the feelings of his people.  Ordinarily, who would pick offence with honouring our leaders? Hardly any! But when we begin to see the kind of inept and indifferent leadership structure that we now have, it makes a review of every relationship with the ruling class mandatory and expedient. 

The crisis of leadership in Nigeria today is a sad commentary to the labours and sacrifices of our founding fathers, who were harassed, beaten and imprisoned for daring to stand up to the excesses of our colonial overlords. Were the dead allowed to rise again, these patriarchs would be shocked back to their graves when they behold the Nigeria made by modern politicians, their children. No wonder Nigeria, with all her vast natural resources and billions of US dollars accruing to her every year, is still classified as a poor country; a land where millions, in the rural areas and in the urban squalours, eke out a living out of deep agony and misery. Nigeria’s situation calls for a great lamentation! When you take a critical view of the nation’s resources in virtually every area of life: human, environmental, agricultural, and large deposits of oil and gas to mention this few, it should be obvious that the poverty and the high level of unemployment in this country are all artificially induced scourges on the people by uncaring and inept leadership.

As I pondered over the problems in Nigeria, I came to the painful realization that the real problem in this country is the kind of governments we run and the people who run them. What is even more painful and distressing is that most of the ills that have bedeviled Nigerians since the advent of the oil boom have been inflicted on them by the Government. And without any fear of contradiction, I make bold to say that poverty in this land is artificial; unemployment too is a self-inflicted scourge. Under God’s provisions for this land there is no reason for such misery. The level of widespread poverty, unemployment, high incidence of corruption and insecurity of life and property in Nigeria exist only because our leaders both at the Federal, State and Local Government levels either do not know what to do or are profiting and deriving some form of psychological pleasure watching Nigerians suffer and therefore are  reluctant to do something. I make bold to say that sadism is the religion of Nigeria’s ruling class.

THE CURSE OF INGLORIOUS SILENCE

An alternative way to look at our pitiable condition is to actually believe in the myth of Resource Curse which international economists claim bedevil nations like Nigeria where extreme poverty and corruption exist alongside abundant natural resources, whose proceeds profit very few. But I know that none of us believe in any curse. No one can talk about a curse in a land where God has endowed with so much natural and human resources; these blessings are clear evidence that God has placed no curse on us. The only curse I see is a curse of bad leadership and inglorious silence from the people.  In Igbo cosmology we know a curse comes upon any elder who sees the truth and fails to speak out. This is a major reason why I believe we are experiencing the results of the curse of inglorious silence. Ekwughi ekwu mere onu, ma anughi anu mere nti.

A STRATEGIC DIGRESSION: THE BEAUTY OF A NATION GONE TO ASHES

It is possible that we as a people have failed to realize that Nigeria is the best country in this world; it is the most richly, overall, endowed country in the world with abundant natural, human, mineral, climatic and aquatic resources with a diversity unequalled among other nation states in the world. The weather is as complex as it is diverse: good for habitation, for agricultural production, for all forms of commercial activities and for aesthetics and tourism. The land of Nigeria, from the Sahel to the Delta swamps, is suited for one agricultural production or the other; for one economic activity or the other; our grounds produce the best crude oil, our waters, the best fish and aquatic products, and our forests and savanna house a vast array of wildlife and plants.  The sky above us is grandiose and the atmosphere so pure and beautiful that sunrise and sunset, leave behind an aura of inspired feeling. These have in no small way inspired many a writer and poet, that today Nigeria is a nation of great writers. Who in the literary world does not know the land of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, two literary icons that have flown the flag of this nation beyond the frontiers of politics and diplomacy? 

Do not get me wrong; we are still discussing the leadership question in Nigeria. I have allowed the wind of inspiration into our midst to douse the air of depression that often envelopes one when one discusses failed leadership in Nigeria. We are the greatest black nation in the world; every fourth African is a Nigerian; every sixth black man in the world is a Nigerian. Great number of blacks in South America and the Caribbeans are of the Nigerian stock.

So what happened? This is not the Nigeria the Creator gave us, so what went wrong? I do not have all the answers but I do know one or two. We are all cowards! Nigerians, you are all cowards!

The Colonial Master who oppressed us did not degenerate to the level of our present-day politicians and our fathers challenged them; and now our people are even much worse off than they and we are cowardly indifferent. The purpose of the Local Government structure, for instance, is to bring the government closer to the people, and every month they are given millions of naira, sometimes in excess of N20million after recurrent expenditures.  What do they do with it? How many town unions have demanded to know from a Chairman what he has done with the money given to him? How many have recalled their councilors for inactivity? How many have cast their votes and stayed back to ensure that the votes are not manipulated at the end of the day? Let’s dig deeper into the consequences of failed leadership.

Some of the things I found very painful preparing this lecture is a continual reminder that government policies and inaction are the driving currents sustaining the tides of poverty, corruption and frustration among the youths. Let’s take a critical look at Agriculture and government policies on food importation. There has not been any conscious effort to help farmers stay on the land yet every year billions of naira is voted for administrative agricultural purposes, without any kobo getting to practicing farmers. Farmers can’t get loan from banks and no extension staff to guide the farmer. Nigerian farmers are frustrated; what keeps them on the farm is the sheer resilience and the rugged determination of the Nigerian when he sets his mind to doing things. But ultimately we are paying the price: Nigerians are constantly crossing over to our neighbouring West African countries of BeninRepublic and Togo to buy or, better put, to smuggle food further depleting our foreign exchange. None of them produces the rice, poultry and vegetable oils, which are some of the major things Nigerians go there to buy, but with lower import duties and cheaper port charges they get Nigerians trooping to their country to buy food. Why should imported food be cheaper there than in Nigeria since we are all net importers of food? Ask the leadership of your country. Let us now consider some of the specific and sectorial challenges we face as a nation state. 

THE CHALLENGE OF MAINTAINING OUR STATEHOOD AND UNITY

On many occasions since our independence in 1960, Nigeria has been faced with the possibility of dismemberment.  The events leading to the Civil War are a glaring example.  The botched Gideon Orka coup of 1990 actually purported to have excised some states from the Federation.  The numerous ethno-religious conflicts, the utterances of some politicians which heat up the polity, the overbearing and intolerant military dictatorships, and so on, have at one time or another caused so much disaffection in the past, leading many to believe that the Nigerian experiment is essentially moribund.  Many of our past national leaders did not obfuscate their tribal over national loyalties.  Some openly claimed that they were better off left alone in their tribal grouping than be constrained in a geographical salad bar called Nigeria. 

The country again appears to be at the verge of cracking up because of the North-South divide with regards to the ruling party’s [PDP] zoning formula.  This is a fragile situation that demands true patriotism and patriotic leadership.  Nigerian leadership must be committed to the survival of our country first as an indivisible entity whose unity is not negotiable.  In other words, there is no room for an option B or C that could compromise our statehood.  This is a leadership challenge because good leadership would give every ethnic group a sense of belonging and a sense of fulfillment within the polity.  Only high quality leadership would succeed at meeting the needs of the various groups for relevance and development.  The cries of marginalization often rend the air and it is no secret that such organizations as MASSOB, MEND, OPC, etc, appear to have a philosophy that presumes that Nigeriaas a country is not a workable entity.  Our leadership ought to have a constructive engagement with every group that feels aggrieved or marginalized.  Leadership ought to empower the people and endear them to their country.  Leadership ought to articulate the myriad of benefits we share as a country and begin to inculcate this into the children when they are young and impressionable.  Children should be indoctrinated on why we cannot afford another civil war.

TRUE FEDERALISM

Another leadership challenge in this category is the need to go back to true Federalism, as opposed to the seemingly Unitary Government that we operate currently.  The bastardization of our constitution by the Military Regimes should not be seen as an irreversible failure.  There is need now to restructure the polity and ensure that each Geopolitical Zone is equipped to thrive. True Federalism will substantially devolve power to the regions, helping them to develop and pursue their regional priorities while leaving the Central Government (Federal) with little power to bulldoze its ways and wishes through the regions, forcing them to comply or be punished.

THE CHALLENGE OF REVIVING THE COLLAPSING EDUCATION SYSTEM

That Nigeria is operating a failed education system is not in question; that successive governments at the center have failed to address the collapsing education system holistically is also not in doubt.  The rot in the education sector is better imagined than described.  The policy makers appear to be rudderless, blown about by all types of ideas in the susceptible marketplace, gathering dusts of confusion in the process.  The outputs of our education system are as lamentable as they are pervasive.  Public education at the primary and secondary levels is a national disgrace.  The competence of most of the teachers is seriously questionable; the facilities are grossly inadequate and the workers are ill motivated and poorly remunerated.

At the tertiary level, the picture is not much different.  Students study under such pitifully unwholesome environment that they sometimes consider themselves as folks in concentration camps.  The lecturers are often ill-equipped and poorly motivated.  The Federal Government has recently improved the remuneration of University workers, but that is only one side of a coin.  With outdated, unserviceable equipment and facilities, Nigerian Universities have not left the 1960s’ era let alone entering the 21^st century.  This is a massive leadership challenge that calls for unalloyed commitment.  At the state levels, the situation appears even worse.  State Universities in the South East were recently shut down for about four months because of industrial unrest.  Our Governors need to know that the issue of parity in remuneration between Federal and State Universities is not negotiable.  It is important, however, to evolve a robust rational cost-sharing formula that would spread the cost between State Governments, Local Government Councils and Parents/Guardians for State Universities.  The Local Government Councils cannot evade this obligation, neither should Parents/Guardian shirk their responsibilities.

At the Federal Level, Government appears to be treating education with levity by the frequent change of Ministers of Education.  From the inception of my tenure as the Vice Chancellor of the Universityof Nigeria in June, 2004 to the end of 

that administration in June, 2009, I worked with six Ministers of Education! They were:

–                     Professor Fabian Osuji

–                     Mrs. Chinwe Nora Obaji

–                     Dr. (Mrs.) Oby Ezekwesili

–                     Dr. Abba Ruma

–                     Dr. Igwe Aja Nwachukwu

–                     Dr. Sam Ominyi Egwu

Six Ministers of Education during a five-year tenure as Vice Chancellor leaves them with an average tenure of barely a year in office.  This is a most undesirable picture and can never lead to any meaningful improvement in the already murky terrain of the Nigerian Education system.  Leadership at all levels must take cognizance of the fact that the 21^st century is a knowledge-driven era/economy.  The path to acquisition of knowledge is education: sound and relevant education, ICT complaint education, entrepreneurial education and functional education [a system that leads to that attitudinal transformation].  That is the kind of education we need for global competitiveness.  Our leadership must address this need.

I have spared this august gathering the stark description of the quality of a huge proportion of our school leavers.  Such an exercise would be futile, since it would merely be restating the obvious.  It is time for state and LGA leaders to ensure that every school in their area of jurisdiction is equipped with solar powered computers to introduce the children to the information super-highway. The cost of such gadgets is not prohibitive and the derivable benefits are enormous.

THE CHALLENGE OF RE-ENGINEERING OUR WOBBLY ECONOMY

Nigeria’s economy appears to have defied definition and direction.  The economy is essentially recursive and dangerously dependent on only one commodity: oil.  From a robust agrarian economy with vast potential for growth, Nigeria has metamorphosed into an economy that now imports agricultural products.  Most of the States are not viable enough to survive without Federal allocations derived from oil in the Niger Delta.

During the 1960’s, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) experienced an annual growth of about 3 percent and the contribution of agriculture to this was over 60 percent.  In the seventies, Nigeriagenerated huge income from oil and gradually and systematically underdeveloped the agricultural and other sectors.  With this seeming abandonment of the other sectors, oil accounted for over 85 percent of Nigeria’s export receipts in the seventies.  Fluctuations in the production and price of oil sent the economy into an epileptic mode, forcing a downward trend in the Gross National Product (GNP).  Nigeria’s trade balance was progressively negative as growth was stunted and imports exceeded exports.

During the 1980’s, the austerity measures put in place by the government through such measures as the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) brought much hardship on the general populace.  By the end of the eighties, the Nigerian economic outlook was so gloomy that the World Bank actually classified Nigeria as a low-income country.

The 1990’s did not find Nigeria faring any better.  The dangerous over reliance on oil and the neglect of the agricultural sector resulted in massive importation of food products.  Corruption was also eating away on the proceeds of the oil sale, leaving the masses more greatly impoverished. With the inception of a democratic Government in 1999, the economy started stabilizing in the early 2000’s.  Nigeria’s economic growth in the first half of the 2000’s was nearly 5 percent.  The economic reforms embarked upon by the Government also later reduced the fiscal deficits.  The cancellation of Nigeria’s external debt by the Paris Club in 2005 was a great boost to the economy.

Unfortunately, Nigeria remains one of the three countries (after China and India) with the largest number of poor people in the world. The failure of successive Governments to diversify the economy has kept the citizens impoverished and disenchanted.  The challenge for a vigorous re-engineering of Nigeria’s economy is a gigantic one.  The recent large scale disruption and near collapse of the financial sector also calls for re-engineering of our economy.  The real sector needs potent stimuli to pick up and thrive.  Entrepreneurship should be taught at all levels of education for wealth creation.

From a layman’s point of view, it appears that Nigeria’s economy is mostly driven by, and largely dependent upon the public sector.  Nigeria is bound to remain an economic dwarf if this trend is not reversed.  A situation in which much of the contract jobs depend upon Governments at various levels leaves much to be desired.  A situation in which a huge chunk of the national revenues goes into payment of salaries and allowances of public servants and politicians is an invitation to an eventual bloody revolution at the worst, or perennial stunted economic growth at the best.

Economic re-engineering is a sine qua non for Nigeria’s capability to cope with our increasing population.

THE CHALLENGE OF ROBUST INFRASTRUCTURE 

One of the greatest leadership challenges in Nigeria is the revamping of our ailing infrastructure and provision of a robust infrastructure to match the challenges of the 21^st Century. That the massive revenue generated during the era of oil boom and the recurrent excess oil receipts were not and are still not being massively invested in providing the country with a 21^st Century infrastructure is symptomatic of systematic failure of leadership. It indicates either that Nigeria has no strategic vision or that the country has no political will to conscientiously follow through a development plan, or both. Nigerian roads are death traps, and a cynic once said the Government purposely designed them that way to help reduce our growing population. The Railways are moribund, and there is essentially no functional national air carrier. The demise of the Railways is the greatest contribution to the horrible condition of the highways in Nigeria.  

The numerous failed promises to give Nigeria constant power supply has convinced the generality of the populace that Government is not only insensitive to their needs, but also is bent on increasing their suffering. The failure of the power sector is responsible for the progressive de-industrialization of Nigeria and the demise of most small and medium scale industries. The failure of the national telecommunication carrier is one of our glaring national reproaches. Although some of the critical agencies in the infrastructure sector were being offered for privatization, it appears that Government did not do her home work well. Many unresolved problems linger, and that to the detriment of the people.

In addition, Nigeria’s ICT infrastructure is grossly inadequate. Our educational institutions (talk less of other sectors) pay much more for internet bandwidth than in most developed countries of the world. Nigeria’s leadership must see the provision of robust infrastructure as inevitable for economic growth and national development. Efforts must be made to develop the renewable energy resources so prevalent and within our reach in Nigeria, such as solar and wind energies. Coal should also be developed to reduce the dependence on oil and gas. At the state level, Governments need to ensure that transportation of goods and agricultural products are not hindered by lack of access roads, and that potable water is available to communities. 

THE CHALLENGE OF REVERSING DE-INDUSTRIALIZATION

There is something mortally wrong about the way Nigerian leadership responds to the crises of the ailing manufacturing sector of the economy.  Some policies appear to achieve the opposite of what they were intended to accomplish.  With the epileptic power sector and the woefully inadequate infrastructure and lack of an enabling environment, there appears to be a systematic, progressive de-industrialization of the economy.  It is no secret that the problems facing the manufacturing sector have caused most operators in the sector to produce at less than 25 percent of capacity.  Some have finally closed down for good, while others have relocated to Ghana and other places where the infrastructure is supportive.

This progressive de-industrialization is throwing more able-bodied individuals into the job market, increasing poverty, exposing more people to health hazards and diminishing the number of adequately engage skilled labourers in the country.  This is a challenge that leadership needs to address squarely and urgently.  Failing to do so, Nigeria’s dangerously high unemployment rate will continue to soar, resulting in greater security crisis bordering on crime, prostitution, social upheavals, kidnapping and other anti-social behaviours.

According to a recent report by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, about 834 manufacturing companies closed shop in 2009, owing to harsh operating environment in Nigeria. The somber report stated that nearly 50 percent of the companies still operating in Nigeria are classified as “ailing”. The Sunday punch of October 31, 2010 painted a very gloomy picture of the manufacturing sector. Experts speculated that the fallout of the closure of 834 companies may include more than 83,400 Jobs lost in one year and in one sector alone. The situation is a reflection of insensitive Government policies that appear good only on paper.   

One thing remains a puzzle to me and that is how the ruling class perennially fails to address the needs of the citizenry while creating jobs and wealth at the same time.  Take affordable housing for the masses as an example.  If the mortgage industry is allowed to take off with meaningful stimuli from the governments, millions of jobs could be created in a short time.  In some developed economies, the mortgage business takes a whopping volume of over 60 percent of the business of the banks.  In Nigeria, mortgage business is even less than one percent (actually about 0.8%) of the banking business!  It is tantalizing to see how an improvement of this figure to one half of what it is in developed countries could turn the economy around in a hurry.  For one thing, the banks will make money, the construction industry will thrive, ancillary industries will also pick up, opening doors to other downstream enterprises.

The problem of leadership failure is matched by a political class that is massively bankrupt ideologically and very poor in strategic thinking.  Else, why will political parties not mount serious campaigns on how they would provide shelter and security for their constituents? 

Another industrial area of neglect is Agricultural Development.  The agricultural sector has the potential to create large scale employment, even for university graduates, if strategically planned and managed.  With Nigeria’s population projected to be the fourth largest in the world within the next few decades, the agricultural sector needs to develop to match the demographic realities and in line with the 21^st century best agricultural practices. We appear to be complacent now, importing billions of naira worth of rice and other food items from abroad.  This brush fire or fire brigade approach to tackling our food shortage crisis is certainly not sustainable.  This is certainly a key leadership challenge in this 21^st century.

THE CHALLENGE OF GOOD AND ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP

Recently, the Mo Ibrahim foundation published the 2010 index of African Governance. The results are a shattering blow, again, to Nigeria – a country which prides itself as the Giant of Africa. The information could be obtained from the Foundation’s website, but an abridged version showing Nigeria’s comparative performance was published in the Thisday newspaper of October 4, 2010. Nigeria’s performance in the index of Africa Governance is replicated below:

NIGERIA’S PERFORMANCE IN THE IBRAHIM INDEX 

Category/sub-category	Country Score	Rank (of 53)	African Average
Personal Safety	30	47th	49
Rule of Law	55	21st	48
Accountability and Corruption	36	34th	43
National Security	72	42nd	81
Safety and Rule  Law	48	38th	55
Participation	27	35th	42
Rights	49	20th	44
Gender	38	45th	52
Participation and human rights	38	33rd	46
Public Management	67	12th	59
Private Sector	40	35th	47
Infrastructure	14	39th	25
Environment & the Rural Sector	52	33rd	53
Sustainable Economic Opportunity	43	33rd	46
Health and Welfare	40	43rd	54
Education	41	32nd	45
Human Development	41	42nd	50
Overall	43	40th	49

It is clear from the data above that good governance is still not a culture in Nigeria. Nigeria scored less than 50 percent in such categories as personal safety, accountability and corruption, gender, private sector, infrastructure, sustainable economic opportunity, education, Health and Welfare, etc. It is pathetic to note that Nigeria scored 14 percent in infrastructure and 30 percent in personal safety. Nigeria’s average score was 43% and Nigeria ranked 40/53 among African nations. Comparatively, Nigeria scored lower than the continental average (49 percent) and West African Average (50 percent). These scores are a glaring depiction of the cumulative quality of successive inept Governments that we have had over the years. One wonders whether our leaders ever read such reports. 

One reason for successive failure of Governments is that most of those who rule us were NEVER elected by the people. Most acquired leadership positions either through the barrels of guns or massive electoral robbery. Knowing that they were not elected by the people, such leaders feel no obligation towards the electorate. They couldn’t care less if they had to face “re-election” again, because the same mechanisms they used the first time to rob the masses of their votes are always available to them. This is one reason that the approved Electoral Act Reform is a welcome step in the right direction. 

We need to understand that electoral fraud is intrinsically a treasonable felony. Rigging elections is a moral equivalent of a coup d’état, except that it is much worse than a coup. A coup is often staged against a government, but electoral rigging is a coup staged against the entire population. When coup plotters fail, they are often tried and condemned to death, but no one has ever been tried or jailed in Nigeria for rigging elections – an offence more serious than a coup. The challenge of good governance cannot be adequately addressed by electoral criminals who impose themselves on us as our leaders and against our will. Electoral transparency is a requirement for good and accountable leadership.

The indices analyzed by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation are indices whose aggregation defines good governance. The 21^st Century Nigerian leadership must brace up to the challenges of complying with the tenets and demands of transparent, accountable and responsive governance.

NEGLECT OF OUR GREATEST ASSET: OUR HUMAN RESOURCES

It is no longer news that Nigerian youths are neck-deep into all sorts of criminal activities. From cyber crimes, Advanced Fee Fraud [419] crimes, forgery, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom. According to the former IGP, Mr. O. Ogbonnaya Onovo, they have even exported these crimes to many other countries where they have been to. Some of them are school drop-outs; some have finished school but out of frustration have succumbed to the pressures of these vices to survive in the face of hunger and hardship in the country. A news story in the ComputerWorld published November 2, 2010 cited a report by Internet Crime complaint Centre which said that Nigeria was the number one cyber crime country in Africa and the third in the world behind the USA and Britain.

We have lamented over these ills and have condemned them but have we taken time to ask ourselves some of these salient questions: Why the sudden rise in the incidence of these crimes? Why is it growing like wild fires in spite of the fact that long jail terms and even death await the perpetrators? What do all these crimes have in common? They are all hi-tech crimes; they require great skills and planning, great tact in execution as any little mistake could spell their doom; it requires some form of coordination and in some cases, some personnel to facilitate operation and a get-away. In other words they are ‘intelligent’ crimes perpetrated by intelligent people with high IQs.

By applying the principles of inverse interpretation – understanding the power of something by the weakness of its opposite, it is not difficult to see that these criminals are part of our great work force, some of our best brains. They are our children, victims of calculated neglect and thoughtless policies that have denied them jobs and motivations to realize their potential. 

In an article published in the Guardian, Thursday November 20, 2003 the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Cardinal Anthony Okogie lamented that bad policies and widespread corruption in the government have combined to drive the love of the country out of the minds of frustrated Nigerian youths.

According to him, Nigerian youths have developed hatred for their country because of the level of frustration they are facing which accounts for the rush to jet out of the country. Hear the Cardinal’s words,

“It is disheartening to hear and read about heart-rending stories of corruption in high places. Stories of stolen billions of naira are printed in the newspapers and magazines daily. The huge amounts of money mentioned in these reports leave one with the impression that little or nothing is left for people-oriented projects (of the government), hence our roads are still non-motorable ………… and the rail tracks are taken over by market women and miscreants” he said. 

Cardinal Okogie appears to be right because the risks taken by these young people in order to get out of the country betray a certain spirit of rejection of the land of their birth. Many have tried to stow away in ship’s cargo and airplane’s tyre compartments only for their dead bodies to be discovered at the end of the country of their dream. Officials of our Foreign Office claim that hundreds of Nigerian youths die each year in the Sahara deserts while trying to reach North African countries from where they hope to sail into Europe. Those who survive are often stranded in oasis towns in the desert as slaves and prostitutes. The US based Human Rights Watch said hundreds of Nigerian girls are sent to the prostitution market of Cote d’Ivore on the pretext that they are being taken to Europe.

These are familiar stories in our newspapers and I have taken time to recount them here to refresh our minds on the state of our nation, the most richly endowed nation in the world. In the course of preparing for this lecture I have taken time to reflect on the future of this country, and I have wondered what it would be like if these young and bright minds who risk jail times, death in the desert and uncertainty in strange lands are given opportunity to prove their mettle here. Unfortunately, though, an inept leadership has rendered our environment too hostile for many legitimate businesses to thrive.

The Forbes magazine earlier in the year reminded us once more that some of the world’s great scientists and billionaires today were school and college dropouts:  Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, etc.

Rather than shrug our shoulders in despair and fear for the worst, we should all rise up from this deep slumber of inglorious silence and demand that our leaders at all tiers of government become accountable to us, the people, and begin to rehabilitate our youths before they embark upon a bloody revolution that will make the present wave of crime a child’s play in comparison. 

THE CHALLENGE OF SECURITY – PERSONAL AND COMMUNAL SAFETY

Again, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s index of African Governance scored Nigeria a shameful 30 percent on personal safety, which gave Nigeria a position of 47/53 in Africa. The African average score of 49 percent makes Nigerian Government a most insensitive, uncaring, most negligent government with regards to the life and safety of her citizens. In addition, such rampant communal crisis, as in Jos and other places, and the Boko Haram episodes and kidnapping in the South East indicate massive failure of intelligence network in the country, and the leadership’s indifference to issues of personal safety.

Armed robbery events have continued to multiply, as kidnappers are having a heyday raking in millions of naira from hapless and helpless victims. Meanwhile, many Government officials and a huge percentage of politicians move about with heavily armed escorts to avoid facing the same threats that those who “ elected” them to office face on a 24/7 basis. Although the Nigerian police can boast of some of the finest officers in the world, the bad eggs among them are so numerous that their activities and unholy exploits drown the good work of the noble ones. Nigerian Police Force is now used as the ultimate yardstick for measuring corruption. Most crimes go unreported because people are afraid that the police will reveal the identity of those who report crimes to the criminals. 

The challenge of personal and communal safety is a great one, since it also affects the business environment and wealth creation. Many businessmen have folded up their businesses and retrenched their employers as they flee for dear life. Some have been kidnapped more than once and are looking for friendly neighboring countries to set up their businesses. In Igboland, many wealthy personalities have even moved their aged parents to Lagos and Abuja to keep them away from kidnappers. Even the integrity of our Igbo culture has been impugned by the hosting of “ Igba Nkwu” ( traditional marriage) in Lagos and Abuja because of personal safety challenges. The gradual depopulation and de-industrialization of Igboland because of the activities of our own sons and daughters is a grave safety challenge.

For the Nigeria leadership to key into the 21^st Century global knowledge economy, the challenge of personal safety must be addressed squarely. Since some communities have fled their traditional homes, the issue of communal safety ought also to be placed in the front burner of priorities. 

Another leadership challenge under this subtheme is the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis. The Federal Government has taken some commendable steps in this regard, including the amnesty deals struck with the militants. It is important, however, to follow through with the program to ensure proper rehabilitation of the militants. It is also very important to ensure that the issue of Resource Control is addressed squarely and the Revenue Allocation formula reviewed to ensure that areas that lay the golden egg get a good chunk of the revenue derived from their catchment area. 

THE CHALLENGE OF CORRUPTION

A few days ago, a friend forwarded a text message with the following words to me, unedited,

“May u live longer like corruption in Nigeria, May your blessing increase life fuel price in Nigeria, May your generosity spread like poverty in Nigeria, May your enemies fall like Naira against the Dollar, May your happiness rise like unemployment in Nigeria, May you move freely like criminals in Nigeria, May you never fail like PHCN, and may all your prayers be accepted like election rigging in Nigeria.” 

Although that piece was a rib cracker, and I succumbed to the inevitable bouts of laughter that ensued, I couldn’t help but take time to analyze the implications of the text. A good deal of the unfortunate humorous sentences could be easily linked to corruption. A few years ago, Nigeria celebrated her movement from the world’s most corrupt country to the fourth and then the sixth most corrupt country in the world. That was hardly anything to celebrate, because by Transparency International’s account, Nigeria remains one of the deadly most corrupt countries in the world today. It appears that we eat corruption, play corruption, inhale and exhale corruption and live corruption until death do us part.

It appears that the institutional framework established by the Nigerian Government to deal with corruption has not made any appreciable change in the corruption industry. The anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC and the ICPC appear, as in the Igbo adage, to be sent on an errand with a basket of salt while the sender sends along a torrential rain to beat the salt and its carrier. The agencies are trying to cope in a situation where even the judiciary appears to revel in frustrating them. The work of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) is quite commendable, having saved the Federal Government hundreds of billions of naira. The EFCC has also reportedly recovered billions of naira stolen by public officers. In spite of all this, however, corruption continues to thrive as if it is a genetic problem.

Corruption is driven by greed and avarice, oiled by pathological selfishness and self-centeredness, fanned and watered by society’s eulogizing of those who have  “ made it” through any means, celebrated by relatives of masters of corruption who give them such titles as “ Aku lue uno”, and tolerated by a Government whose essential ware-in-trade is corruption, and who needs such crooks to aid them in the rigging process. The alarming observation is that our children in primary and secondary schools have imbibed this culture of corruption. Several years ago, I asked a little primary school pupil whether he did well in the common entrance examination and his reply shocked me when he said, “Emerom  Ofuma, mana daddym n’awork ya”, meaning, “ I didn’t do well, but my daddy  is working it out”. Whether it is working it or sorting it, our institutions from the cradle to the grave are battling with corrupt practices. At the university level, corrupt practices hold sway in some circles. Grade sorting, sexual harassment, misappropriation of student union dues, cultism, prostitution, plagiarism, examination malpractice, etc, are regular features in our tertiary institutions. These corrupt practices are inconsistent with Nigeria’s rebranding project.

What we need at every level is leadership that is transformational, proactive, responsive, accountable, transparent and exemplary. Nothing less than whole scale attitudinal change from top to bottom, leadership leading by example, would bring about a drastic reduction in corruption. As long as criminals are eulogized and given juicy traditional titles, so long will corruption continue to rule the land. As long as electoral thieves and robbers earn such titles as “ your Excellency” , “your Honour”, Distinguished senator”, “Honorable members,” etc, so long will victory over corruption remain a mirage. Corruption goes beyond the physical and material. It is the failure or death of the conscience. It is the slow mortification of the voice of God in the heart and soul of man. It is the mortgaging of the soul to the spirit of darkness. Corruption is simply rebellion against a just God who will one day hold everyone to account for their stewardship on earth.

Corruption enslaves her practitioners and never lets go. No corrupt individual can kick corruption out of his life without divine assistance. The war against corruption in Nigeria is a huge leadership challenge. Let us embrace this challenge squarely and, remember, “ may you live longer than corruption in Nigeria!”

THE CHALLENGE OF MEETING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)

Another critical leadership challenge of the 21^st century is meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2000. Nigeria’s commitment is to ensure the realization of the MDGs by 2015. Unfortunately, and notwithstanding Nigeria’s huge human and natural resources, Nigeria appears to be on a very slow track towards meeting the MDGs. This is because of such obstacles as corruption which makes Nigeria out as unattractive for investors and donor agencies; poverty, which is mostly the result of poor and visionless resource utilization; uncertain economic environment, as a result of the epileptic price of oil, Nigeria’s main income earner; and lack of well articulated database for monitoring the effects of interventionist programs geared towards achieving the MDGs. 

The Federal Government has made notable progress in several areas towards achieving the MDGs such as:

          Establishment of Universal Basic Education program 

Establishment of such agencies as NACA and others to fight the HIV/AIDs pandemic, and bring about malaria control

Enhancing of the Health Sector Reforms to create enabling environment to check high maternal and infant mortality rate

Establishment of the National Poverty Eradication program (NAPEP) Creation of the Midwives Service Scheme to take the benefits of the health sector Reforms to the rural areas, etc.

Although the foregoing programs are in place, their effects on the populace have not been established because of paucity of a functional database and the creation of awareness among the people. A serious leadership challenge is the establishment of such a functional holistic database that captures all the relevant bits of information and makes them easily amenable to monitoring, updating, comparative analysis and information dissemination. No meaningful assessment of Nigeria’s efforts at achieving the MDGs can be made without such a database. This calls for urgent attention, unless the real intention is to obscure the facts and therefore make room for massive failure without accountability.

The health sector is only peripherally addressed by the MDGs. Nigeria’s Health Sector is in need of a drastic overhaul. A situation in which our hospitals at all levels are so ill equipped that many citizens now go abroad, if they can afford it, for simple surgical procedures is most pathetic. Nigerians now troop to India, Pakistan, Dubai and even Kenya for surgical procedures. This is by those who cannot afford to travel to the USA or Europe. The situation is a sad commentary on the development of Nigeria’s health sector, especially because some of the surgeons that perform these surgeries abroad are Nigerians by birth. A gigantic leadership challenge is to make our hospitals and diagnostic centers life-worthy and health-sustaining to save our citizens the huge costs and embarrassments of traveling abroad for surgical procedures. 

Achieving the MDG with regard to poverty is another huge leadership challenges as Nigeria faces creeping poverty which threatens our national security. It is time to address such issues as power, health, industrialization, education, etc. that have the potential for poverty eradication and wealth creation.

THE CHALLENGE OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP 

The challenges covered so far may be regarded as hardware parameters because their outputs are essentially empirically determined or measurable. The issue of servant leadership is a software parameter because its output and character are easily discernible but not directly empirically quantifiable. Both the hardware and the software parameters are critical, symbiotic and indispensable. Where the software is good and elegant, the hardware produces results that are desirable and lasting. Where the software is faulty or inelegant, the hardware produces less than desirable results. The challenge of servant leadership is a software parameter that has the potential to revolutionalize the entire hardware system to produce optimally. The result is transformational as opposed to mere transactional leadership.

There is no one sentence definition for servant leadership.  As is often quoted, “the taste of the pudding is in the eating.” Servant leadership is primarily a principle of leadership that believes that the leader is first and foremost a servant of his people or followers. Servant leadership sees leadership as a trust that should never be betrayed. It sees leadership from the perspective of influence and not that of coercion, intimidation, bullying, threats, dictatorship, etc. Servant leadership sees leadership as an opportunity to serve, using one’s giftedness and acumen to bring about the greatest good to the greatest number of the people. Servant leadership embraces the principle that the leader is a primus inter pares and not a commander. Servant leadership has little room for ego wars that undermine the needs and welfare of the people.

It is obvious from these remarks that I believe that servant leadership is more a matter of the heart’s disposition than the mind’s manipulative ways. The reasons are not far-fetched. First the issue of integrity is purely a function of the heart’s disposition, it doesn’t come by reading, studying or even wishing. Integrity is a function of the hearts determination to think right, act right, walk the path of truth and transparency and remain accountable at all times. Servant leadership is integrity personified. As a servant is always accountable to his master, a servant leader is always accountable to his people. He doesn’t consider accountability as an impingement on his authority. After all, power belongs to the people and authority belongs to those the people have called to lead them. Obviously, the challenge of servant leadership is a grave one in Nigeria. The model servant leader is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In one clear example we saw Him washing the feet of His disciples with the instruction to His followers to follow His example.

Servant leadership also is a call to the pursuit of excellence. As a result, servant leaders have a passion for excellence in performance and service delivery. Servant leadership does not engage in the “use and dump” philosophy of pedestrian or even transactional leadership. Servant leadership mentors, and is amenable to mentoring. It raises up other leaders and does not feel threatened if a subordinate is more gifted. Servant leadership cherishes people of excellence and relishes working with them, giving them opportunities to grow and exercise their skills without feeling envious, jealous or threatened. Servant leaders see altruistic service as a requirement and so eschew corruption. Although servant leadership is considerate, compassionate and empathetic, it is also firm, resolute, diligent, and law abiding. It has little tolerance for mediocrity, it rather models excellence. It is always proactive, accommodating and tolerant of constructive criticism. 

Servant leadership considers the compromising of the people’s need and welfare for personal gain a betrayal of trust and a treasonable offence. It places the people’s needs always above selfish goals and desires.

Are servant leaders made or born? Can we find such leaders anywhere? There are no easy answers. Servant leaders are not perfect, but through practice of servant hood in leadership they grow to maturity. In that case one who invites divine assistance for conversion of the heart to the heart of a servant, one who commits to the principles outlined above; one who is humble, teachable and eager to do right has a good chance of becoming a servant leader. God is waiting for those who so desire to approach Him and He will give them a new heart. Nigeria is in dire need of servant leaders. This is the greatest leadership challenge of Nigeria today.

THE IGBO PERSPECTIVE

The Igbo nation is doubtless the most visible, most significant and most ardent believer in the concept of a united Nigeria among the federating units.  No other ethnic nationality is so massively dispersed within the geographical confines of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the Igbo.  No other ethnic nationality has invested substantially in the economies and business life of other geopolitical zones as the Igbo.  From Sokoto to Nembe, from Maiduguri to Lagos, they line the market places, the transportation business, and the artisan market as hardworking and peace-loving citizens of one-Nigeria.  There is almost no village in Nigeria where the Igbo do not live and contribute their quota to its economic output.  Wherever they settle, unlike most other ethnic nationalities, they build their homes according to their age old saying that “Ebe onye no ka on na’wachi”.  They also carry the banner of Christianity and their culture along with them as they traverse the nations in search of greener pastures. The problem here is that the greater portion of the wealth of the Igbo nation is, as a result, domiciled in Diaspora, making the contribution of their geopolitical zone to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria much lower than that of most other zones.

In spite of their unalloyed commitment to the building of one strong, indivisible country, Nigeria, the Igbo are the most antagonized, most persecuted, most vilified and most traumatized ethnic nationality in Nigeria.  They have been and continue to be victims of violent physical attacks in Nigeria and quite often their properties are looted or confiscated.  They have remained politically marginalized, even though they remain the most visible signs of unity in Nigeria.  These problems notwithstanding, the Igbo have continued to believe and hope in the unity of Nigeria.  There is something about the Igbo that made them objects of envy, hate, malice and persecution by some other ethnic nationalities. 

The Igbo are resourceful, intelligent, industrious, sociable and hospitable.  They are bold, courageous, proud and self-sufficient. They have an indomitable spirit and will, a strong republican orientation balanced by time-worn democratic and egalitarian values that predate most of other civilizations.  The Igbo are creative, gregarious, accommodating and tolerant of other nationalities.  They are irrepressible travelers with an adventurous spirit, driven by boundless optimism about the future.  That is the real Igbo character, known and admired and, at the same time, loathed and envied by others.  That was the Igbo who survived the ruthless assaults, the dehumanization and enslavement of the imperialist colonial masters; they survived the traumas and dehumanization of the civil war; overcame the imposition of systematic starvation, used as instrument of war; overcame the condemnation to perpetual poverty at the end of the civil war, when families were given only #20 pound sterling to start life again. Shortly thereafter, the Indigenization Decree was promulgated when they had no money to buy any shares in any company or conglomerate.  The Igbo survived all that, but then, something snapped.

It appears that the loss of the civil war and some unwholesome conditioning during the civil war had mortally wounded the Igbo psyche and distorted our worldview.  Those sterling qualities that identified us as a people of divine providence and favour are now being sacrificed on the altar of selfishness and self aggrandizement.  Those who were imposed on us as leaders were traitors who successively beget others like themselves.  Our present leaders are mostly characterized by unbridled selfishness, blind egocentricity, voracious appetite for ill-gotten wealth, Machiavellian orientation, boundless corruption and shameless opulence.  We now have a political class that is largely ideologically bereft, morally bankrupt, socially irresponsible, politically barbaric, intellectually fraudulent, and spiritually anemic.  There is, indeed, a huge leadership crisis, a gigantic 21^st century leadership challenge for Ndigbo and Nigeria. Thankfully, there are pockets of excellence amidst the prevalent decay and decadence around us. A few of Nigeria’s Governors are performing, while most of the others are examples of inept leadership. Unfortunately, the performing ones suffer the greatest attacks by charlatans and political jobbers out there to flaunt their egos.

The aftermath of the sordid departure from our virtuous heritage is the intensification of hatred of the Igbo nation by other nationals and the depopulation and de-industrialization of Igbo land by our own sons and daughters who resorted to doing with guns what our politicians do with pen.  As a result, the Igbo remain criminally marginalized, loathed, distrusted, demonized and reduced to a beggarly people.  They are functionally disfranchised, alienated and enfeebled to the point of political and economic impotence.  This situation is a glaring leadership challenge that must be addressed as vigorously as a life and death situation.  Failing, the Igbo nation risks extinction, even as the Igbo language is predicted by experts to become extinct in the next few decades. The Igbo are in need of servant leaders to bring the Igbo nation out of this quagmire.

The Igbo must come together and articulate a vision – a vision for survival and massive development of Igbo land.  The Igbo nation must identify what the Igbo interests are in Nigeria.  We need to evolve leadership that should guide us in the art of strategic thinking so as to develop a robust strategic plan for the Igbo nation.  Something has to happen, and that urgently, to protect our unborn children from eternal reproach.  We must now arise and reverse the tides that make us out as a culturally lobotomized and disfigured, politically marginalized and disfranchised, economically disadvantaged and displaced, educationally stranded and socially alienated people.  We need servant leaders to show us the way forward.

It is time to also define what the Igbo want in Nigeria in terms of development and power sharing.  We must be blunt about our demands that issue from strategic thinking and broad consultations.  The issue of Igbo Presidency of Nigeria in 2015 is not negotiable.  What is negotiable is the process to actualize this.  It is for this process that we must seek consultations with and, where necessary, sign contractual agreements with other key geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Again, this is a leadership challenge. The Good Friday Conclave has articulated the Igbo stand on the state of the Nigerian nation and on Nigeriaat 50.  Because I am an intimate insider and member of the Good Friday Conclave, I would like to refer to the released statements as they affect the topic under review.  The following are the suggested Igbo stand on various facets of the challenges faced by Nigeria from an Igbo perspective and issued by the Good Friday Conclave:

TOWARDS A NEW NIGERIA, WHERE IGBO AND ALL ARE FREE

To achieve objective freedom for the Igbo and all within Nigeria, the Igbo will strive to ensure:

1.                 The integrity of the Igbo nation; put an end to policy of alienation and de- Igbonization of boundary Igbo or Igbo outside the Southeast zone in order to make Igbo artificial minorities in Nigeria.  A proper census of Nigeria, monitored by the United Nations, is imperative.

2.                 Return of Nigeria to true federal state, based on the 1963 constitution, to which all Nigerians subscribed, as against the current unitary arrangement imposed by sectional interest, whose singular interest is control of the federal treasury, for the purpose of looting, with impunity.

3.                 Constitutional restructuring of Nigeria into six federal regions/zones; to balance three minority against three majority ethnic zones, as well as three southern against three northern zones, as proposed by the Igbo during the 1994 constitutional conference.  This is the surest way of avoiding the domination of any groups by others, in a true federation.  

4.                 An end to policy of de-industrialization of Igboland, making eastern Nigeria a “resource-farm” for industries based outside the region.  Eastern Nigeria that was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world by 1965, but has been, by malignant policy, transformed into an industrial desert, creating mass youth-unemployment, and social chaos.

5.                 De-criminalization of political leadership in Igboland.  Imposition of criminal elements as surrogate leaders on the Igbo, by outsiders in control of federal government power, has been a potent weapon of destruction of Igbo people and culture.

6.                 Urgent repatriation of the hundreds of billions of dollars of sorely needed oil money, from Eastern Nigeria, stolen and stashed away in foreign banks by elements, from mostly outside eastern Nigeria, that control a pervert federal power.  At least a hundred billion dollars of this money is due share of the Igbo nation.

7.                 The Igbo shall maintain pan-Africanism with Igbo survival as center-piece of the external politics of the Igbo nation.

Other positions canvassed by the Good Friday Conclave are as follows:

1.       Rebuilding Igboland:

The rebuilding of Igboland can best be achieved under an organized robust zonal platform such as the South East Nigeria Economic Commission (SENEC) which will have the capacity to handle infrastructural challenges that cannot be effectively handled by individual states such as power projects, refineries, transport systems, security, etc under a public private community partnership model.

2.       Political control in Igboland:

It is fundamental that Ndigbo should take full control of the political structure of Igboland (South East Zone) so as to bring the era of imposed candidates and godfatherism to an end.  Stooges can have no role in the government of a free people.  There has also been a collapse of our institutions and our value system resulting in moral decadence and a lack of focused leadership.  Our political office holders at all tiers should realize that their re-election will depend on their provision of diligent leadership and democracy dividends to their constituencies, not on external power brokers. 

3.       2006 Census:

Ndigbo reiterate our rejection of the 2006 census figures for glaring irregularities and falsification of figures.  A situation where the South East recorded negative growth is very ridiculous since there was no earthquake or tsunami to have reduced the Zone’s population while the population of other Zones increased.  We ask all patriotic Nigerians to condemn this apartheid.  We demand that steps be taken to remedy the situation, if not Ndigbo shall feel obliged to seek redress at the International Court of Justice, if justice is denied us by Nigerian courts.

4.       MASSOB:

In the spirit of national reconciliation and equity we demand that amnesty should also be extended to all MASSOB activists.  If the Federal Government could grant amnesty to the Niger Delta militants, it will be another case of marginalization not to extend the same spirit to the non-violent MASSOB activists.

The foregoing adumbrates the Igbo national stand as canvassed by the Good Friday Conclave. It is clear that the position adopted by and being canvassed by The Good Friday Conclave is a healthy one for the Igbo nation. I call on Ndigbo to accept this position as a blueprint on our road to self discovery and recovery. We need to recapture the glorious days of our authentic Town Unions, adopt a group of a few altruistic men and women of integrity as our legitimate leaders, whose antecedents are unimpeachable and whose character are impeccable. When they speak as a group, we must commit ourselves to going where they deem to be in the best interest of our Igbo nation.

IGBO PRESIDENCY PROJECT

With regard to the Igbo Presidency project, the following table shows the tenure in office as head of government by each zone.

Zone	S. east	S. south	N. east	N. central	S. west	N. west
Name of Head of State/Time spent in office	Aguiyi-Ironis (6months)	Goodluck Jonathan (8months and ongoing) 1 year 3 months by May 2011)	Tafawa Belewa (5 Yrs and 3 months)	Gowon (9yrs + )Babangida (8yrs) Abdulsalam (11 months)	Obasanjo (11yrs) Shonekan (4 months)	Shagari(4yrs)+3m Abacha?? (5yrs )
Total time spent by zone in office	6 months	8 months and ongoing (15 months by may 2011)	5 years and 3 months	17 yrs and 11 months	11yrs and 4 months	9 yrs 3 months

Since zoning or rotation was put in place to ensure equity, fairness and justice, it is only fair and logical that the zoning sequence should be such that the zone THAT HAS HELD OFFICE AS Head of Government (Military or Civilian) for the least duration should go first.  It is obvious that the South East is the zone with the least tenure (6months), under Gen. J. T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi.

It is only fair therefore that by 2015, a citizen of Igbo extraction should be the President of Nigeria.  This demand, again, is not negotiable, but the process is.  This calls for an intelligent Think Tank that should guide Ndigbo in their negotiation with the North and the South-South to ensure that the 2015 Igbo Presidency Project is realized.  The Igbo should reject any arrangement that denies them (or has the potential to deny them) the presidency in 2015.

Although the Igbo Presidency is not negotiable, it is not the most elegant and fail-proof way for a massive holistic development of Igboland.  An Igbo Presidency of Nigeria will give the Igbo nation a true sense of belonging to Nigeria and also obliterate the psycho-social devastations of the civil war.  The path to lasting economic emancipation and development, however, remains the route charted by the proposal for the South East Nigeria Economic Commission (SENEC).  Unfortunately, our Governors have not taken concluding actions on the formalization of this potentially viable and formidable instrument for the development of the South East.  This is also an authentic Igbo perspective on the 21^st century leadership challenge in Nigeria, and we cannot afford to be complacent when other zones are forging ahead. The South South equivalent of SENEC, BRACED Commission, is already on the roll. We are very pleased that they bought the idea from SENEC and their Governors are deeply committed to it.

In concluding, I need to stress that the Igbo nation is in a most precarious political situation now. Our age old maxims Igwe bu ike and Onye aghala nwanne ya must now be invoked and become our clarion call for survival. We must get together and tell ourselves the naked and ugly truth that we have betrayed the dreams of our forebears. We have sacrificed a whole generation of the Igbo nation, and are at the verge of mortgaging the future generations to a position of weakness, political irrelevance and economic servitude on the altar of dubious selfishness and lack of strategic thinking and planning. We are our own worst enemies, plundering and looting our commonwealth with impunity. We have created so many cracks in our union that we have become a laughingstock to the other nationalities in Nigeria. Our leaders will be judged by God, but we must stop them from further decimating our nation or be accountable to God for allowing the vilest among us to buy their way to the top only to steal, plunder and pillage until nothing is left. We must stop these miscreants from squandering the future anymore. Those of them who fight good administrations must be regarded as the greatest enemies of the Igbo nation.

Unless we wake up now, I predict that one day none of those criminals who have left us pauperized and disfranchised will be around to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth. Our youth will at a point decide that enough is enough, take the law into their hands and do the type of cleansing that we all dread, but are too enfeebled to forestall by speaking out when we should. Today, the commoners are being robbed, dehumanized, kidnapped and assassinated. Tomorrow, those who have the power to stop these things but have refused to do so will be the victims and their children will pay dearly for their indiscretion. I am not being alarmist; I am only prophesying that unless we repent of our colossal sinfulness and corruption, we will first get a grave measure of punishment here on earth before facing the wrath of God in hell fire. We must henceforth hold our leaders accountable. They must be made to massively industrialize our land and provide an enabling environment for our youth to build for the future. The farm settlements and other wealth-creating enterprises must be revived, with government giving the stimuli for the citizens to get going. Let us not forget that a barrel of crude oil costs about #12,000.00(Naira), whereas a barrel of palm oil (the same quantity) costs about #40,000.00 (Naira). Why can’t we go back to the golden days of palm oil, cocoa and groundnut pyramids in Nigeria?Malaysia collected palm seedlings from Eastern Nigeria and acquired the technology for its production from here. That country now rules the world of palm produce technology, while Nigeria now imports palm oil. It is time to insist on choosing our own leaders. Administrations that have not made the people’s lot better must be voted out of office and those who support them should be regarded as Igbo socio-cultural lepers. They should not be allowed to speak for us or represent us anywhere.

The day is far spent and the night is at hand. May the unfolding dawn be the wake of a new, revived, energized and glorified Igbo nation of our dreams. May we rise beyond the present state of despair and despondency to become a nation of prosperity and accomplishments! May God turn our ashes into beauty, our sorrow into joy, our shame into fame and our marginalization into respect and superior reckoning! We pray this in Jesus’ name, AMEN

May God bless you all.

Professor Chinedu Ositadinma Nebo