Another View on The Southerner Newspaper 

Saturday, December 13, 2025

It was Chinua Achebe in his political pamphlet, ‘The Trouble With Nigeria’ who declared emphatically that, the trouble with Nigeria is squarely that of leadership. I verily believe him. There is nothing else wrong with this country but leadership failure since independence.

Nigeria for years has suffered leadership failure, mismanagement, maladministration, bad governance and wanton looting of the treasury from her leaders.

There are some citizens who think poverty is the root cause of Nigeria’s violence but I don’t agree with that school of thought. I vehemently disagree with that. Not even with the way Nigeria has been governed by her leaders all these years.

Poverty, no doubt, can lead to crime but it is definitely not the root cause of insecurity in Nigeria. It is because our leaders failed to do the needful that terrorists invaded, occupy our territory and continue to kill thousands of our people till date.

Nevertheless, those with the mindset that, poverty is the reason for insecurity in the country have their reasons and they are entitled to their views. But from available facts, that may not be very correct. For us to solve Nigeria’s socio-economic and political problems, we must be careful not to prescribe ulcer drugs for a mere headache.

There is poverty in every society. Even in the most developed world, there are men and women who are poor. But in those places their leaders eschew politics, religion and ethnicity and, work hard and round the clock to maintain law and order to secure their country for the benefit of all.

It is the full responsibility of governments all over the world to ensure their country aspire always in the direction of greatness. The leadership of every country must pursue policies that will economically uplift their country.

No right or sensitive leadership dozes off while its country is invaded, citizens massacred and property destroyed. The leadership will mobilize the Military and other security forces and urge citizens to rise above pettiness and protect their territorial integrity. But Nigeria’s leadership plays politics, considering religion and ethnicity above national interests while her citizens are mowed down in their hundreds by terrorist groups.

Governments are elected to serve and manage the state for the good of all. It is usually bad management, wrong policies, dirty politics, insensitivity, selfish interests, greed, sheer irresponsibility of leaders and of course, looting of the treasury that have made some countries insecure and caused majority of citizens of countries like Nigeria to be disorganized, in chronic poverty and retrogression.

From available records, Nigeria is one of the most endowed countries in the world. There are abundant natural and human resources in every nook and cranny of this country that could have turned Nigeria to an Eldorado if we had leaders with honest and patriotic zeal burning in their souls. The leadership in the country over the years failed shamefully to harness the country’s rich endowment.

Since 1960, when we became an independent nation, all the civilian and military governments we have had, had plunged the majority of citizens into poverty, destroyed every political, social and economic progress and set the entire country backward.

Nigeria is where it is today because of failure of leadership. Nigeria is a country that is favoured by providence. Providence blessed this country with more than enough to reduce the height of poverty in the country and put her among the developed world.

Nigerian leaders abandoned responsible leadership and good governance for the promotion of religion and ethnic bigotry.

If Nigerian leaders had put enough money into education, made it compulsory for every Nigerian child to pass through a secondary school and artisan training, poverty and hunger would have been reduced to the barest minimum.

Nigerian leaders would rather destroy or burn the country to ashes than not to be in political control. That there is insecurity in the country is squarely because of leadership failure and not poverty. Our leaders failed woefully to act where and when necessary to stop the carnage when it rolled out its ugly head.

Insecurity can never be fought and won by being petty. The government of Nigeria through the police fought and defeated the Maitatsine sect in the 1980s. So, why not now?

Our leaders rather than look for solution, played politics, religion and ethnicism around the springing up of Boko Haram and the invasion of Nigeria by these Islamic terrorists. If the leaders had considered Nigeria first, If our leaders had united to fight the enemies, no matter their religion and race, certainly, we won’t be in this state of anarchy.

Nigerian leaders are more united and focused every attention stealing from the cookie jar. Funds meant for the development of Nigeria, educating the mass of our people and the reduction of poverty have been hijacked and channeled into private pockets.

The government of Nigeria and its security agencies have turned insecurity into a money spinning venture, thereby mortgaging our national destiny.

Soldiers in the battlefield are denied adequate financial and material support in the fight to rescue our beloved country from these vandals. It was not poverty that dealt with us here, it is leadership failure. A failed and irresponsible leadership.

No other country in the world would fold its hands and play politics, romance with religion and ethnicity while some renegades kill thousands, abduct, collect ransom, burn, rape women, forcefully marry off young girls, destroy farmlands and hold the national economy down for more than fifteen years unchallenged. In Nigeria, politics, religion and ethnicity play major roles in decisions and actions. Of course, you don’t expect any positive result.

It is the leadership failure that has enabled insecurity all these years. Assuming we had a functioning government with priority to develop the country, there won’t be this insecurity issue all over the country. It would have since been nipped in the bud.

Chad, Niger and other African countries, despite their poor status took control of the situation and flushed the dissidents out of their countries. That is how a patriotic and responsible leadership functions.

Nigerian Government failed to organize her people. They failed to build a country for the present and future. Singapore, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and others built their countries from the scratch. Today, those countries of the world are destinations for investors and tourists.

It is a country’s leadership that organizes and leads her people to a destination. But they must extinguish avarice, bigotry and focus on developing the country for the benefit of all.

A country where its leadership prioritizes religion above life and education is callous and wasteful. Singapore, Malaysia, UAE and others invested so much in education and the development of the youths of their countries. Today, these countries are doing wonderfully well in science, technology, and commerce. Unemployment among the youth population in those countries is very low.

Our leaders must realize that, they have to wake up and get the country organized for development. We cannot shift the problem of Nigeria to poverty. It is the poor organization, lack of patriotism and personal greed by our leaders that has brought us to where we are.

Those in leadership in Nigeria over the years somehow have built and weaponized poverty beyond human comprehension. They have shamefully and cruelly denied the mass of our people the basic amenities of life.

The richest man in Africa and Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote last week challenged Nigerian leaders on the need to build industries instead of buying Rolls Royce and private jets. This is part of our problems. Our leaders steal to buy state of the art vehicles, jets, build mansions, sleep in very expensive hotels all over the world, and are not bothered about the fact that, the country needs to be built.

That this insecurity has lasted this long is simply because there is complete absence of leadership and full involvement of some powerful elites.