The inability or blatant refusal of many of us Nigerians to accept any responsibility whatsoever; even when it is clearly presented to us is part of the problems
Lwe are facing and that must change.
Even Prof Tomori whose emotional submission and tears has triggered this discussion did not pretend to exonerate himself. Neither did he double down on pointing fingers at ‘leaders’ or solely at the system; even as the system is very defective.
He indicted all of us; including himself and that is the way to go and the way to find a solution. That is what responsible citizens do – they own up to their failings and deal with the consequences.
Predictably, many have watched that video and ran off with what they want to hear, not what they ought to hear and take away from it. I have read so many folks solely blame the system and I ask:
1. WHO IS THE ‘SYSTEM’?
Who built the system and or made it so dysfunctional and or helped sustained it so?
Spirits or us human beings who are Nigerians?
2. WHO OPERATES THE SYSTEM?
If it is not you and I or if we do not know who does in Abuja, what about in our various families, neighbourhoods, communities, offices, work/business places, places of worships etc?
3. WHO IS EVEN A LEADER?
We are all leaders in our own individual rights. All our religions and cultures demand from us to do the right things always even when no one was watching. There are leaders in family, community, traditional, academic, religious, business, peer, work, political etc.
Therefore to always reduce ‘leaders’ to only political leaders as so many of us Nigerians do is merely self deceit and playing the ostrich game. Sadly many of us have perfected that art of ‘it wasn’t me’ according to Shaggy the musician.
HEAR THIS
The greatest of all leaders is the family led by parents and I can say without prevarication that they are the worst failures today.
If all of us as parents give our children the proper upbringing and orientation, there would be less of terrorists, armed robbers, bandits, thugs, bullies, ritualists, corruption, indiscipline, immorality, mismanagement, insecurity in Nigeria.
This is the time to honor and practice our custom, tradition and culture without which there will be no solution to crisis in our country.
Now that it is crystal clear that we are all leaders in our individual rights and respects; before you have the moral right to point fingers, do a deep soul searching to convince yourself if you are indeed contributing to the moral decadence in the social by not living to your basic responsibility in your families and the society at large.
If you are not, start with the speck in your eyes before getting to the log in another’s eye. Anything less would amount to hypocrisy.
We have a leadership and followership problem in Nigeria and we must address and solve it together for a prosperous nation.
By Uche Diala
