“How on earth was somebody not thinking about the possibilities of a train attack happening in Nigeria with all the security challenges that has bedeviled this nation in the last decade.”
These words have crossed my mind umpteen times since the news of that train attack broke out some days ago in Nigeria. Who should we blame for this error of omission; the bandits, the innocent citizens that felt travelling via the train should guarantee them some level of safety? Of course not. We will blame the leaders, those who have been saddled with leadership responsibilities of protecting lives and properties in the nation.
Being a leadership consultant that I am, part of my training is to first see every failure from a leadership standpoint first and foremost before bringing to the fore other factors that may have given birth to such failures. The reason is because leadership provides solution, it provides direction and leaders are expected to see beyond what an average follower could see or couldn’t see. Like I have said many times in the past, one of the primary jobs of a leader is to see what no one else is seeing.
Nigeria as a nation is lagging behind when it comes to infrastructural development. Many developing nations today are fast leaving Nigeria behind and if care is not taking, Nigeria may slip into the zone of an underdeveloped nation in no time from now, considering the myriad of problems that is confronting the nation at the moment. When the idea to bring back to life the railway infrastructure came into the fore under this administration of Muhammadu Buhari, it was a laudable development. Many Nigerians greeted the idea with an open arm, believing that with the resurrection of the railway system across the nation, economic activities would boom and the lives of the people once again, would be better.
Moreso, the level of insecurity and wanton destructions of lives and properties, kidnappings along major highways in Nigeria; especially that of the Abuja-Kaduna corridor by bandits and terrorists, also makes the idea of a train passage laudable. As a matter of fact, many elites who would rather travel by road now have an alternative, as the rail lines connecting Abuja to Kaduna would provide a succor. Little did anyone realize that one day, this dream would be shattered on the altar of insecurity and banditry, and no thanks to our leaders. The reason is because everything rises and fall on leadership. How on earth is Nigeria and its leadership thinking of expanding infrastructure without putting into consideration the security challenges in the country?
Many Northern states in Nigeria are currently battling one form of insecurity or the other. Kaduna state for example, have been in the news for many insecurity problems this year alone. Banditry and terrorism in the state have taken its toll on the citizens as well as those who visit the state for one legitimate reason or the other. There are also state actors who have, at one time or the other, defended the activities of these various terror groups, thereby exposing the culpability of some Nigerians in the thriving activities of these deadly groups in the region. Nigerian leadership has proven to be weak, over and over again; and it has also shown its inability to protect lives and properties. And this weakness cuts across all the tiers of government; Federal, state and local.
Thomas Hobbes once posited that “when there’s no authority to set and enforce the criteria for what is right and what is wrong, every person would take for themselves whatsoever they want, and human existence would become solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” This I believe is the current state of many state actors who believe the bandits and other terrorist groups in the North have any justifiable reason to engage in these dastardly acts killing innocent Nigerians. But it still boils down to the weakness of leadership that I am talking about. Even though Hobbes further opined that we ought to submit to the authority of an absolute—undivided and unlimited—sovereign power, this absolutely does not still absolve our leaders of their failures, although many of them have asked Nigerians to pray to God for their security and safety in the past. Prayers does work absolutely, no doubt, but we still need leaders to take their place and do what is expected of them.
For Nigeria to truly make progress leadership-wise, I have proposed the following solutions. And until we begin implement these solutions nationwide, the country may continue in this line of retrogression for a long time to come. Firstly, the matter of leadership in Nigeria must not be politicized. I have discovered that almost everything in Nigeria is politicized. For example, getting a federal government job is politicized. Becoming the head of a government agency is politicized. Nothing seems to be appreciated on the basis of merit anymore, everything is on the altar of politics and godfatherism. Our leaders must realize early, that certain things should never be subject to politics and leadership is one of them.
You cannot be a political puppet of your political party and still have the wherewithal to be able to lead the way you ought to. A leader is supposed to have an independent mind and be able to think through certain situations he or she may find himself or herself. I know the intricacies in Nigeria though, how party politics ultimately gives birth to most of our political leaders. However, a leader must learn to put the interest of the nation and the people first before their political parties. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. And if this continues to be the norm, we nay end up not getting so much direction from our political leaders in the near future. And this is where we must also look inward as a nation and allow the constitution to support independent candidacy.
Secondly, both the states and federal government must jointly collaborate to end insecurity and insurgency in Nigeria. The idea of the federal government alone trying to tackle insecurity across the whole federation cannot work without an effective collaboration with states and other actors. This should start by revitalizing Nigeria’s security apparatus. There has been clamor for the creation of state policing, and this idea should be looked vigorously into. The idea that all the security agencies are domiciled with the federal government and the president should be revisited. As a matter of fact, this has been the major reason while insecurity thrives in our country more than ever before. Let each state run its own policing system. Let them have, in addition to the state police, neighborhood security and let this system be replicated across the states and local governments. This system would greatly reduce crime and insecurity, if not totally curb it.
Lastly, how can these ideas above really work if we don’t restructure this country? The earlier we restructure this country, the better for all of us. Nigeria in its current state isn’t working, and even a blind man can attest to the fact that Nigeria needs restructuring in order to make progress. To restructure does not necessarily mean to tear the nation apart into pieces. But at least, in the interim; let us practice a true federal system of government that we boldly display on paper, but in practice; far from it. May God help our leaders and guide them into the truth always.
Amen!
