In his concise but revealing book, The trouble with Nigeria, the late literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe, stated emphatically that the only trouble with Nigeria is the failure of leadership, because with good leaders Nigeria could resolve its problems such as tribalism, lack of patriotism, social injustice and the cult of mediocrity, indiscipline, and corruption.
“The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership,” he professed in the book published in 1983.
Thirty one years after, Achebe’s assertion is as true today as it was then. The problem with the leadership variant we flaunt in Nigeria is its level of irresponsibility and total lack of accountability. We have leaders who exercise all the powers the constitution bestows but shamelessly take a walk from its responsibilities.
We have a leadership that is not accountable to anybody; a system where impunity reigns supreme, where any attempt to hold leaders accountable is seen as irreverence and disrespectful. Leaders become gods who must be worshipped.
In the past couple of weeks, a disastrous incident in South Korea has not only concentrated my mind but also brought to the fore the trouble with Nigeria and why it seems incapable of making progress despite the abundance of human and natural resources.
On April 16, a South Korean ferry, Sewol, with 476 people on board capsized off the southern island of Jindo. The bulk of the passengers on the 6,825 tonne Sewol were 325 high school students.
Most of the students were from Danwon High School on the outskirts of Seoul, who were on a holiday trip.
There is outrage in South Korea and heads are rolling. Leaders are taking responsibility or being forced by the people to take responsibility for the disaster.
Although all hope of finding any survivors is extinguished, there is still anger and deep frustration over the pace of the recovery operation.
In the evening of May 1, a group of irate parents stormed the Jindo office of the deputy head of the South Korean coastguard and manhandled him.
He was kept hostage most of the night, sitting on the ground, along with coastguard Chief, Kim Seok-Kyun, and Marine Minister, Lee Ju-Young. The relatives of the victims accused them of lying about the recovery operation and demanded they bring in more resources.
Police made no move to intervene and the three made no attempt to get away, reflecting a reluctance to antagonise the relatives at a time of widespread public anger over the official response to the disaster.
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won has resigned.
He said in a televised statement: “The cries of the families of those missing still keep me up at night. On behalf of the government, I apologise for many problems from the prevention of the accident to the early handling of the disaster.
“The right thing for me to do is to take responsibility and resign as a person who is in charge of the cabinet.
“There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deep-rooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again.”
The day after the disaster, Chung was booed and someone threw a water bottle at him when he visited grieving parents.
All 15 crew members on the ferry have been arrested, facing criminal negligence charges. The Vice Principal of the school, Kang Min-gyu, who accompanied the students, has committed suicide as hopes faded of finding any of the missing students alive.
Kang, 52, hanged himself with his belt from a tree outside a gym in the port city of Jindo where relatives of the people missing gathered.
Kang was not part of the crew. He was a passenger like the others and was rescued from the ferry after it capsized. He was not culpable. But his students died in an accident that might have been avoided.
What was the point of living or going to church for thanksgiving and inviting all the pastors in the country to give testimony, as he would have done if he was a Nigerian, when his students were lying lifeless at the bottom of the river, he probably asked himself.
Nobody is recommending suicide as a response to any disaster, but Kang’s action is the hallmark of leadership. None of his biological children was involved in the disaster. But what does it matter?
To him, the students were his children and he took responsibility for their welfare. So, if there was any disaster, as indeed there was, he was responsible, even if vicariously.
The implication of this teacher’s action is that if there was a choice that it was either his life or the lives of the children, he would have gladly died so the children would live.
The Prime Minister’s action is also instructive. He took responsibility even when he was not directly responsible for the accident. But the primary responsibility of any government is to secure the lives and property of citizens.
He saw the accident as a consequence of a systemic failure and the head of the government had to take responsibility. Again, this is leadership.
But what do we have in Nigeria? In late March, the Interior Ministry headed by Abba Moro organised a recruitment exercise for the Nigeria Immigration Service. Over 20 of those who came for the test died at the different recruitment centres for no fault of theirs. Moro is still in office. No responsibility.
On April 15, over 200 female students were abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by armed bandits believed to be members of Boko Haram.
As I write, nobody has a clue where they are, who is responsible for their abduction, and what is happening to them. The military high command claimed that the military had rescued 121 of the girls, a claim that turned out to be a lie.
These girls may never be found. Even if they are found, they may never be the same innocent girls who left their parents’ homes for school on that fateful day.
I watched Moro on television last week telling the aggrieved parents to be patient and show some understanding. I wonder what level of understanding he would show if his daughter was a victim.
President Goodluck Jonathan has taken the case to God. The parents whose children are in the hands of bandits have also been urged to pray to God. The state has no responsibility. And we are all waiting for the next disaster. Nobody has taken responsibility. Nobody has resigned. Life goes on.
Any other country in the world where over 200 school girls go missing without a trace will come to a standstill. Not Nigeria
Leadership without responsibility. That is Nigeria’s bane.
