THE NEED FOR DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP APPROACH BY PRESIDENT BUHARI-LED GOVERNMENT, OTHERS IN ADDRESSING PRESSING PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA

By Zik Gbemre

It is imperative for the political leaders in Nigeria, from the Presidency down to the State and Local Government levels, including the National and State Assemblies, to realize that as custodians of the public wealth and resources of this nation, their every actions, inactions and even body language towards national issues, have the potency and propensity to decide and shape the socio-economic, political and developmental future of Nigeria and its citizenry. Therefore, they need to realize this fact and the huge responsibilities upon their shoulders, as they carry about their statutory duties/responsibilities in their various positions in Government. That means, whatever we see wrong today in our society, these political leaders are to the take the bulk of the blame. And as such, there is need for them, starting with President Muhammadu Buhari, to see things from this perspective and realize that they really have to start doing things differently in the next four years, if we are to see any significant progress and desired changes in our polity.

With the myriad of problems in virtually all the different sectors in Nigeria, the Nigerian Government across all levels simply cannot continue doing things “as usual”, if they really desire making any positive and sustainable change across the various sectors to improve on the standard of living of Nigerians. There is need for current crop of Nigerian political leaders to start doing things “different”. It is said that; it is not wise to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. So, the President Buhari-led Federal Government, as well as all the other political leaders across different levels, need to realize that they do not know it all. They need to learn to listen to good advice from relevant Nigerian stakeholders on how to do things better for all and sundry. They need to have more empathy in addressing the deplorable plights of most Nigerians.

Recently, we stumbled into an interviewed piece of Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Actress/Activist, who lent her own suggestions for a Better Nigeria, and we felt the need to share some of her perspective. In Omotola’s words: “I’m not an economist, so I’m not going to pretend that I know exactly what to do to make sure there is money in circulation. But if there is no money in circulation in an economy, people are afraid to spend. They start holding back to their monies. They are afraid to spend because there is insecurity. You don’t know what is going to happen next. Then there is the issue of tax deductions. Why are our taxes so high, when we provide nearly all the basic amenities ourselves? I’m my own government. I generate my own light, water and pay for security every month. All the basic amenities that I should enjoy as a citizen, I provide myself. It is even so bad that people donate to fix roads in their domain. We even pay taxes for the roads they construct for us. For every item I buy in this country, you remove VAT from it. We are all burdened by heavy taxation that are not properly accounted for, so, how do you feel encouraged to do more? My advice is, for the economy to have some kind of relief, these two men — President Muhammed Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osibanjo — that we believe are men of integrity, at a time like this, should not allow history to pass judgment on them as not making attempts to save this country. My suggestion is that, they should both come out and talk to the nation. Talk to people heart to heart. Let people see their vision. A responsible government should be a father.

The government should have empathy and should be able to constantly feel the pulse of its people. You should know when your citizens are not happy, rightfully or wrongfully. It doesn’t matter. You may be working hard and they are not feeling it. Your job is to make them understand. If you don’t explain yourself, and all you do is to look at them in a condescending manner as if they do not deserve any kind of explanation, it is counter-productive. It is not all about sending your aides to issue statements. When you were campaigning, you went around soliciting votes, how come you are not talking to the same people or making yourself accountable to the people? There is need for the leadership to talk to people and that way they give them some degree of assurances. That way, people will be able to plan.”

On her statement concerning tax, it is no news that tax revenues are not accounted for by the Nigerian Politicians in power, and this has been the pathetic situation for year. We believe every Tax paid to the Nigerian Government at all levels should be well accounted for. This is the only way people would be encouraged and made happy to pay tax without any delay or trying to avoid paying tax. And we all know that tax payment is necessary because it is what the Government at all levels use to fix power, roads, hospitals, etc. In the United Kingdom (UK), a visitor who buys goods and pay Value Added Tax (VAT) will get his/her VAT refund at the exit airports, meaning he/she will get back all the monies paid for VAT when buying goods, such as clothes, shoes, etc. The reason for the refund of VAT money to every UK visitor/tourist is that he/she does not live in the UK, and he/she is not expected to pay VAT for goods bought in the UK. With this, it means the British Government is very accountable with the tax revenue within its system. The UK visitors/tourists do not need to bribe or lobby to get VAT money refunded at exit airports. All he/she needs to do is to show receipts of goods purchased while on a visit to the UK.

It is an indication/evidence that the UK Government will not just collect tax without using it to fix infrastructure, especially since the UK tourists/visitors do not reside in the UK, then they should not pay for VATs because the money for VAT is used by the UK Government to fix public facilities like roads, railways, electricity, airports, hospitals, e.t.c.

In lending her voice concerning the role of the Media for a better Nigeria, Omotola said: “I also want to appeal to the media and people who are influential, especially on social media. Sometimes also, we are the vanguard of the discussion. When you highlight negative posts and all of that, you defeat the purpose. Though some people have reacted negatively to my post, I’m actually surprised at the amount of support the post has elicited. I have been told that I was going to be alone, but I am shocked that some people have actually come to my defence and it shows that people are actually tired and are ready to face the consequences. That is one reason I believe government needs to listen now and do something. My appeal again is to journalists, especially bloggers; your headlines matter. We are all in the fight for our lives. I’m not just fighting for myself. I’m fighting for my children and for my grand-children. If I say today that I have money and I shield myself from what is going on, can I shield myself from my driver or maid or even the streets that I’m going to be driving on?

If the country suffers, we all suffer, whether we like it or not. It will touch all of us one way or the other. The solution is that there should be a conducive and empowering environment for people to do legitimate business. Nigerians will love to do legitimate business. I come in contact with lots of Nigerians. We are the most productive and innovative people on earth. We are unstoppable. So, we need an empowering environment. We need security. We need a friendly environment.

I think we need to come back to human rights. I mean the bottom of the fabric of human rights. We need to ask ourselves the simple question of the value of a Nigerian life. We need to start to ask ourselves that question, which will now take us to our Constitution. Is our Constitution even right for Nigeria? We need to revisit these things. If we are truly honest about saving this country and prospering it, we need to go down to the bottom, to the foundation of this nation and say, when this Constitution was handed to us, was it written by us or for us? Does it serve us? Has time changed and is it serving today’s time? How do we make it better and most especially, how do we respect the life of every Nigerian? America is regarded today because the life of every American is really valuable”.

There are a whole lot of issues we can pinpoint here and talk about, but we believe everyone reading this should have an idea of what we are trying to highlight with this piece. And that is the fact our political leaders need to start doing things differently if they are to make any positive change in this country.  Truth is, all we have witnessed in Nigerian politics as far as we can remember, is nothing but political leaders and their Advisers who have made themselves “Public Masters” rather than “Public Servants”. We have learned to judge Nigerian politicians by “what they do” and not by “what they say” – this is because often times, what comes out from the mouth of most Nigerian politicians never commensurate with what they eventually do in terms of actions and initiated/enacted policies. As it is in Nigeria, so it is in the whole of Africa, hence, we have remained a country/continent that is underdeveloped, stricken with poverty and lack, and always needing aides from developed societies. And this deplorable status of Nigeria and Africa, is caused by political leaders whose primary aim of being in politics is to become rich overnight.

Another point is that the issue of nepotism, favouritism, ethnicitism, religion and political affiliations have been the attributing factors that have made the nation not to have political leaders that ought to be elected/appointed on merit and qualification to effectively and efficiently lead the country to great heights. These issues, have “blinded” both the government and the governed from making sound and good judgements in the appropriation of public resources for the good of all and sundry, particularly by those in authorities, and in demanding such when they are not getting it right by those being governed. In other words, it is as if our multi-cultural bearings have over the years, made us to be more self-serving/self-centered when it comes to governance and the appropriation of our collective wealth as a people in the entity called Nigeria.

We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes as if Those Were Our Causes