In the history of the heavens and of the earth, God created mankind in His own image and likeness on the sixth day as reflected in the Holy Bible. The Almighty God created them male and female, blessed them to be fruitful and to multiply, and gave them authority to fill the earth and subdue it. From the moment they were created, problems entered the world when mankind, precisely Adam and Eve, fell through the ‘forbidden fruit’ they consumed. This was the beginning of corruption. It has been observed from the genealogies of mankind that human beings are the most complex corporeal created by God. Will Roger’s autobiography states that ‘The Lord so constituted everybody that no matter what color you are, you require the same nourishment’. This expression reflects the philosophy of equality which perhaps would have formed the basic premise on which democracy stands in Nigeria but imperfectly realized due to man’s greed. This is because man has always thought that the quality of life he lives is in the plethora of his possession. That is why pensioners in some states cannot be paid monthly pension, while salaries of civil servants are unpaid for about four months. And ‘over 62 percent of the 170 million Nigerians are living in poverty’ (see www.cia.gov). Yet every school certificate holder wants to be either the president of Nigeria or the executive governor of a state. What a tragedy?
According to Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not for every man’s greed.’ A man driven by greed or envy loses the power of seeing things in their roundness or wholeness and his successes become failures. It is greed that has blurred the vision of most of our leaders that what they refer to as ‘success’ has been assessed by the people they govern as a complete failure. If a society is infected with greedy leaders, they may achieve astonishing feats but they become increasingly incapable of solving the most elementary problems of everyday existence. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may rise due to rebasing as measured by statisticians at the National Bureau of Statistics, but not as experienced by most people who find themselves oppressed by increased poverty, unemployment, and insecurity, amongst others. The GDP may refuse to rise not because the NBS has misapplied technology or has been unscientific in its predictions but because of exploitation of the poor by the highly privileged few in our society. With wealth acquired in government office, politicians want to rule perpetually regardless of the provisions of the Constitution. Consequently, the conventional wisdom available to leaders is resort to violence, change election dates, condemn electronic card reader, make enflaming remarks about political opponents because they perceive all of these may help them win elections, and thus remain in office if election results are challenged by popular protests.
In international law, it has been established that the authority to govern must be dependent on the collective will of the people to express their choice of leadership through credible elections. One may wonder why there is always electoral violence before, during, and after elections in our country. Electoral violence in Ekiti, Rivers, Lagos and Oyo States as well as other parts of the country is fresh in our minds. It has been observed that electoral violence is a tactic deployed by some political leaders and their supporters against citizens, opposition candidates and political parties to stay in power. Some governments use violence to win; others use violence after election to suppress peaceful post-election protests. It must be stressed here that not all leaders who have the resources and inspiration to use election violence actually do so as they may use other means at their disposal.
After 100 years of corporate existence as a nation, we are still grappling with questions such as: how do we remain together as one united nation? How do we ensure equitable distribution of resources? How do we accommodate interests of various ethnic groups? Since the 1970s, governments in Nigeria have always promised they will ‘provide jobs, reduce poverty, eliminate hunger and wipe out corruption’. Some governments have even promised ‘prosperity for all’, while others have come up with various forms of programmes with the objective of improving the economy, security and well-being of the people. But these promises remain unfulfilled because of blurred vision occasioned by greed, amongst other reasons. There is a saying that ‘it is a foolish man who decides to gorge himself with resources that are more than enough to satisfy his basic needs’. The nation is so blessed with mineral and natural resources but, unfortunately, corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of our society. Although no country in the world today is free of corruption, Nigeria’s level of dishonesty has gone wild that even government officials accept that there is corruption. Greed has made some leaders in exalted positions in Nigeria to operate at the first layer (physiological) of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where they are most concerned with food, shelter, sex and sleep only. They have not attained the self-actualization level where they are to display morality, creativity and problem-solving capability. Leaders need to control their greed and always remember that Nigeria is greater than any individual or group of people. Our leaders and those aspiring to leadership should repent so that greed will not blur their vision. The world is anxiously waiting for Nigeria to further maintain its leadership position in Africa with effect from 28 March, 2015.
MA Johnson
