By Dr AUSTIN ORETTE

This is not an endorsement of any leader in Nigeria. I have observed that Nigerians have formed a subculture of always complaining as a means of coping with the realities. My observation is that the blaming of leaders is a veritable past time in the country. I am beginning to see these complaints as a quarrel amongst accomplices. They robbed a bank and the leader of the gang drove off with the loot in their getaway car and left them stranded. They cannot call the police so they are left with the infighting which they consider as protest.

They start plotting who will hold the key in the next operation. The plot to be the driver in the next robbery is the cacophony we are witnessing daily. They put the blame on the leadership and exempt themselves from the rot within. In this confusion, they blame the wrong people for their woes.

Most of the people complaining don?t know the role of their governors, senators and local government chairmen. As soon as anything goes astray, they call Tinubu. This ignorance has allowed the governors and LGA chairman to operate under the radar.

What has Tinubu got to do with a house fire in Lagos or Kaduna? The governors and the state assembly and local government chairmen are those responsible for policy implementation at the local level. This ignorance is costing the nation a lot.

Some of these critics don?t even know the kind of government we are running. They still think we are in the military regime. The president and the senate have not done anything to enlighten the people. Some of their actions like suspending governors and senators by fiat have given the impression that we are still in a military dictatorship.

Every Nigerian wants good leadership but none wants to aspire to be good citizens. All the negative things perpetrated are done by regular people in Nigeria. These are the people who complain everyday about hardship in Nigeria. These people are those who show extreme wickedness when they are given a little opportunity to intercede in the affairs of their local communities.

Any encounter with these folks will lead you to the field of tears. They could be market women, police, Customs or regular soldiers; they become gods in their little domain. In this domain, they are very dictatorial, callous and imperious and exercise power with vehemence in their various jurisdictions. They make sure they inflict pain on you during any interaction.

From the trader selling fake goods at exorbitant prices to the policemen at the checkpoint, the rule is to dish out as much pain as possible. There is no sense of brotherhood. There is no sense of ?we are in this together, let us help each other ?.

Dishing out pain is the culture. You must pay before being served even when you have paid. This is the ugliness that hides behind these excessive criticisms of leaders. Anytime a Nigerian comes in contact with a government agent, it is time to be punished. There is no agency in Nigeria where those employed there don?t make the abuse of the citizens the metric of their productivity. Trying to get a driver?s license, you must jump through hoops, trying to get a passport is almost as bad as trying to obtain a visa to another country. In most cases, the visa ordeal is friendlier and there are no inducements involved. Trying to clear goods from a Lagos port is like squeezing through the eye of the needle. There are no rules and regulations, just chaos and cruelty that numbs the mind.

A lot of people choose to walk away from the abuse of the Customs and other various governments and their agents leaving their goods behind. Flying into Lagos airport is the worst ordeal. Every government agency is there including the touts from Iddo Park. They are trying to tell you they are there to hurt you. There is no cordial welcome.

There is nowhere in Nigeria the citizen does not try to erect his own obstacles. A visit to any government office to collect a document to verify you are still alive will lead to your death. You must pay before you die. This is Nigeria; don?t ask for a death certificate if you cannot afford to die. This is very sad.

Do we need many checkpoints with menacing police touting Ak47s on our roads? Are we at war? Why so many checkpoints? What is the relationship between checkpoints and crimes? Why are Nigerians criminalized and humiliated daily by agencies that are supposed to serve them?

The ordeal of being a citizen in Nigeria can drive one into a mental institution. Nigerians are resilient and quietly watch their country being turned into one huge mental asylum. The madness has become cultural. At the end, the extortionists get together and blame the leaders who are the product of their thievery. This is the problem. People who have no sense of good citizenship are crying daily for good leadership. You cannot get one without the other because if they meet, they will not recognize each other. Let?s learn to recognize that the microcosm must be organized to care for each other in order to harmoniously evolve a macrocosm that is habitable.

Imagine that police don?t harass and shake down farmers bringing food to markets. Imagine that the employees at the poultry company don?t steal all the eggs and poison the chickens. This may lower the price of food and prevent the decay of food due to loss of time at checkpoints. This will lead to full employment and reduction of inflation. Let us learn to care, maybe one day we can have someone who cares to assume leadership. Then we can be proud to say: that is one of us. The ratio of the naira to the dollar is not a measure of the Nigerian economy. It is a measure of the lack of productivity of the Nigerian. Nigerians produce nothing and they expect everything.

Let us start by producing harmony. Blaming the leaders is a subterfuge that subtracts leadership from the people. How many unemployed people are willing to do an honest job, when given the opportunity? Do these people have the ethical compass that reflects honesty and dedication to their employer?

I am pushed to be equivocal here because of my observations. The employer may stumble into that employee who will steal all the eggs and poison the chickens and the business is bankrupt. There is no penalty for the offender and he moves to reenact the scenario in another organization. Should we blame Tinubu for this? An enterprise cannot grow in a sea of perfidy. Leadership is always a reflection of the consciousness of the people. Bad people can only produce bad leaders. Good people, good leaders. You cannot have one without the other.

Let us begin the process of removing the logs in our eyes. This is the only way we can have the vision to point to a better path for our country. This new road will lead us to love ourselves and our neighbors. Our self-hatred is what is manifesting as hatred and cruelty to others. We find it easy to destroy and humiliate and extort others because we are miserable due to lack of self-esteem and self-love. No legislation can make us love ourselves. We must learn how to fight these battles within. We must evolve a system to isolate those who violate community standards, ethics and morality.

?Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas, USA.

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