Eze Onyekpere, Author at Centre for Social Justice

Nigeria is challenged on all fronts by the evident failure of leadership. This is not just an ordinary failure but a cataclysmic failure that can be most appropriately described as the collapse of leadership. It is cataclysmic because it is a tragedy, awful, terrible, a leadership void of unimaginable proportions. This discourse posits the inextricable link between rights and duties and how this is linked with the current leadership collapse in Nigeria. It asserts that there is no right accruing to any individual, group or political party to assume the powers of the state without a concomitant duty, capacity and attempt at lifting a finger to solve societal problems. Every Nigerian including the incumbent president, governors, legislators, etc., have a right to aspire to public office. Implicit in this right to offer oneself to be elected to public office is a concomitant obligation to perform the duties of the office once elected and to live up to the oath of office. There is an assumption of nobility of volition and intention for assuming public office. The right of an individual to be elected to public office cannot by any stretch of the imagination trump the rights of millions of Nigerians to good governance, access to education, health, water, energy, etc. Thus, once elected into office, the continued stay in the office after a reasonable period of adjustment is contingent upon good performance which validates the rights of the majority. A mandate freely given by the people is predicated on premises of the common good, for the official to work and be seen to vigorously and meticulously work towards the fulfilment of the rights of fellow countrymen and women. However, a scenario where persons elected into public office have shown no intention of living up to their oath of office, abdicated their duty and even when reminded by citizens they swore to serve fail, refuse and neglect to change but rather attack and insult persons who seek to call them to order, then the public officials being the mandate holders have by their actions and omissions cancelled the mandate originally given to them. There is no right to occupy an office and instead of providing solutions to the myriad of societal challenges, it complicates and compounds the challenges. The fat salaries, estacodes, allowances approved for these key officials is predicated upon their being put in a position to make life bearable for the ordinary Nigerian. To continue to claim these perks of office while doing nothing or when whatever is being done is not solving the challenges amounts to robbery. Where do we start this discourse from? We are current witnesses to the latest disgrace in the energy sector where a country richly blessed with hydrocarbons cannot produce or refine one litre of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel or kerosene for domestic consumption or for export. The extant public policy orchestrates the fuel crisis and the resulting suffering by millions of Nigerians. Where is the minister of petroleum resources, what is his plan for bringing this to an end? Busy enjoying the perks of office; he is not bothered one bit about the suffering of the people. The hydrocarbon crisis is compounded by the electricity grid that has suffered so much frequent collapse, providing darkness, unreliable and hallmarks a persistent increase in tariff where Nigerians are forced to pay for the hopeless inefficiency of the electricity cartels. Where is the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission – evidently pretending to be on duty, drawing huge perks of office without concrete deliverables? Turn a corner and the education sector is in disarray with the government failing to fulfil its commitments voluntarily entered into with the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities. It has become the yearly accepted norm for government to allow university lecturers to proceed on strike while treating their requests with contempt and disdain. Pray, where is the minister for education? Is he interested in resolving the dispute? Obviously, the answer is in the negative. He is busy setting up a panel to report back in two months after the lecturers have been on a one-month warning strike. Would you blame a man who has no stake in the system for not caring about the resolution of the ASUU strike? With children and wards in universities in Europe and America, young Nigerians schooling in Nigeria can go to hell for all he cares. At another corner is the massive brain drain going on in our health sector. Our best brains in the sector are leaving in droves whilst the minister of labour, a medical doctor, insists that it is a good development. The once derided consulting clinics have further deteriorated to confirming morgues. The hospitals were not designed to work as high-level health professionals are paid a slave wage. At least prompting, the president boards his jet and heads off to Europe for medical tourism. He has just returned to Nigeria two days ago from one of such trips. And to even show his contempt for over 200 million citizens, he failed to transmit power to the vice president when he travelled for the last medical trip. Despite official statistics which are now based on imaginary depositions, the price of food, energy, transport, etc., has virtually doubled between January and March 2022. Furthermore, the naira has lost ground to many international currencies. It is therefore imperative to state that a purported four-year mandate is not a mandate to ensure that many Nigerians lose their lives within the four years as has severally happened under the watch of the current president and his team of appointees. It is not a mandate to impoverish, punish and enslave the majority. It is not a mandate to do nothing but simply to enjoy the perks of office. It seems that ministers and executive assistants are appointed for four years certain and do not serve on the basis of their good performance. Once appointed, they stay till the end unlike the practice in previous presidential tenures. Therefore, Mr. President and members of the federal team, in the name of God, Nigerians beg of you to consider leaving us alone. Resignation is an option. Since you cannot improve our conditions from where you took over, you reserve no right to worsen our predicament. We are tired. You have already dealt us a very bad blow in the economic, educational, health, political and social sectors. The decision is up to you but history beckons.

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