HOW TO DEAL WITH CORRUPTION AND BAD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Military rule is the worst aberration we can get into.  Our experiences in the past show that clearly.  Anybody calling for military rule is one of those who do not have enough logic for living and want to use the force of the arms to rule.  What we are going through today is the stress of greatness. 

Photo Credit: Photobucket online

Military rule would set the hand of the clock backward and we when we return to civilian rule, we would start learning afresh and would necessary return to this level again.  Corruption is a phase in all political and democratic experiment.  We have to live with what we are going through today, pay the price of our wrong attitudes towards wealth and greatness before we could grow up, before we could reject corruption and poor leadership.

The British, the Americans, and all who today enjoy social order and development went through the same thing we are experiencing today.  Francis Bacon, British philosopher, politician and scientist was imprisoned for corruption in his days as a politician. During their growth years, there were no CNN and Al Jazeera to expose what was going on as we have it today.

Mr. Festus Odumegwu who has been heard asking for Military rule, could not run the National Population Commission so he does not even have a locus to point fingers at politicians. 

We would outgrow the present low level of kleptomaniac politicians when we the citizenry also grow up above being kleptomaniacs.  The average Nigerian is corrupt and is looking for how to cut corners and quick access to unmerited riches.  It is the same us that become politicians.  So what we need is to wake up ourselves, reject corruption as individuals and before long, our present day roguish governors, senators, representatives and ministers would have no place in our system. 

The change starts from our hearts and each and every citizen.

It is our lifestyle that drives our politicians. The politicians can only get better if we get better.  It is an antithesis to expect the roof of a building with a weak foundation to become strong enough to withstand a storm.  Many Nigerians feel and would have us feel otherwise, but that is not going to be because it is against the law of nature.

Taking a swipe at President Goodluck Jonathan seems to be the sweetest pastime of most a Lilliput.  The truth is that President Jonathan is the exact epitome of the Nigerian.  In my opinion, he is a better version of all the leaders we have had so far.  He is the only leader who has the capacity to take our criticisms without sending out someone to get our heads on a platter for him to ensure that we are really dead and unavailable to criticize him again. 

If you point one finger at President Jonathan on any element, you have more on yourself.  So long as we are only struggling to change him so that we are the ones there or for the mere fact that we do not like him or for the fact that we would rather be the ones controlling the wealth of the country, we miss the point. 

The only way we can deal with corruption and bad leadership and governance is to be better than our present day politicians. 

Every one of us can make ourselves worthy and fit to lead this country, but we first must lead ourselves, our families and justify our current estate or we have nothing to offer better than our current crop of crass rogue politicians. 

The change we need today starts with you.  It starts with me.  No one else would do it.  And it is not sudden.  It is always evolutionary and seems slow in the eyes of the impatient.