The Real Curse Holding Nigeria Back is Not Leadership Alone

The Real Curse Holding Nigeria Back is Not Leadership Alone

By Alh. Abdulbaki Ibrahim

From Kano to Lagos, from Onitsha to Maiduguri, the conversation is the same. Nigerians are tired. We say nothing works. NEPA has become Band A and still disappointing. Roads are bad. Schools are struggling. We are rich in oil, in land, in brain, but poor in results.

We are right to complain. Many of our leaders have failed us. But there is a deeper, more uncomfortable truth we avoid: the failure is not only in Government House. It is also in our own houses.

Government does not fall from the sky. It rises from the people. And in many ways, a Nigerian government is a mirror of the Nigerian society that produces it.

*WE HAVE TURNED POLITICS TO FOOTBALL*

In Nigeria, we have turned governance into a football match. Arsenal vs Chelsea. APC vs PDP vs LP. We wear party caps like jerseys. We don’t vote for ideas; we vote for tribe.

We vote because “he is our brother.” Because he speaks Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba. Because he goes to our church or our mosque. Not because he has a workable plan for our LGA.

We defend a thief when he is from our tribe and attack an honest man when he is not. That is why from Sokoto to Yenagoa, the story is the same. Different states, same complaints.

A nation cannot rise when loyalty to tribe is stronger than loyalty to Nigeria.

*WE WANT CHANGE WITHOUT SACRIFICE*

We want instant change, like Indomie. 3 minutes and it is ready. We want 24-hour light without paying bills. We want Dubai roads without discipline. We want a developed Nigeria without the hard work that builds it.

No country became great in one election. Rwanda came out of genocide with discipline. Singapore was once poorer than Nigeria but built itself with sacrifice and strictness.

You cannot plant a mango seed in your compound in Kano today and expect to eat it tomorrow. Yet that is what we demand from every new President, Governor or Chairman. Four months after swearing-in, we are already shouting “he has failed.”

A people who cannot endure short-term pain for long-term gain will keep repeating disappointment.

*WE LOVE SWEET LIES, WE HATE BITTER TRUTH*

Why do deceptive politicians keep winning in Nigeria? Because they understand us.

Truth offends. Lies entertain.

A politician who tells us the hard truth – that we must pay tax, stop giving and taking bribes, stop cutting corners, work harder – will lose. The one who promises to make petrol N100, dollar equal to naira, and give free money in 30 days will win.

This happens because we have stopped thinking. We don’t read manifestos. We don’t verify. We forward what excites us on WhatsApp, not what educates us. When a society becomes intellectually lazy, it becomes politically cheap. That is why fake news sells faster than truth in our markets and on our timelines.

*WE HAVE TURNED THE BALLOT INTO A NEW CHAIN*

Our fathers fought to remove colonial chains. We have created new ones for ourselves with our voters card.

Every four years, same ritual: high hopes, loud campaigns, sharing of rice and N2,000, ethnic mobilization, insults, then disappointment and complaints. Four years later, we do it again with the same mindset, expecting a different result. Albert Einstein called that madness.

We sell our vote for a token that cannot cook soup for one day, then endure bad governance for 1,460 days. We vote for revenge, not for vision. We vote to punish someone, not to build something.

The ballot was meant to be a tool for liberation. When we use it without conscience, it becomes a tool for self-enslavement.

*NO CONSTITUTION CAN SAVE A PEOPLE WHO WON’T SAVE THEMSELVES*

This is the hardest truth: No President, no constitution, no foreign aid, no EFCC, no prayer alone can save a people who refuse to save themselves.

We complain about dirty streets in Kano and Lagos, but we dump waste inside gutters. We complain about unemployment, but we celebrate Yahoo-Yahoo and shortcuts. We complain about bad schools, but we don’t check our children’s books. We complain about corruption in Abuja, but we pay bribe to collect NIN and drivers licence.

We want government to do everything, while we as citizens do nothing.

*THE WAY FORWARD FOR NIGERIA*

Nigeria does not need more spectators. It needs actors.

The revolution Nigeria needs is not only in Aso Rock. It is in our minds.

We need a revolution from impatience to patience. From tribal loyalty to national loyalty. From looking for who we know to respecting due process.

It starts in small corners: clean your street, do your government work honestly even when nobody is watching, teach your child that hard work pays, reject tribalism even when it favours your brother, hold your councillor accountable, not just your President.

Until we change our mindset, we will keep changing leaders and getting the same results.

The rescue Nigeria is waiting for will not come from America or China. It will come from within – when ordinary Nigerians in Kano, Lagos, Enugu and Port Harcourt decide to become extraordinary in their own daily lives.

We are the problem. And by Allah’s grace, we are also the solution.

Alh. Abdulbaki Ibrahim is a

Public Affairs Analyst, he writes from

Kano, Nigeria.