WE ARE ALL NOT CORRUPT: WAY FORWARD FOR NIGERIA.

No matter how abundant a Nation is, if the leaders live in extravagance, the wealth of the Nation will dry up and the people will bear the pain whilst the leaders enduring to survive with the wealth they have stolen in times of national abundance.- Akande Akin Sanyaolu.

Many a time, daily, I get angered over the continued effort of this government to ensure that the blame of our present economic situation be shifted on gej alone. Was GEJ the only leader in Nigeria? Did he run the government alone?

Think about it, the adjudged smallest states in Nigeria, like Lagos and Bayelsa, are bigger than Republic of Benin in land mass and population. Are they not equal to a Nation ? All states in Nigeria have governors who one way or the other in their microcosm unit have almost same power as the president of Nigeria and they are the commander of their respective States. The whole governors in Nigeria during the financial rainy era of GEJ received an equivalent measure of allocation from the sharing formulae of the federal government. If GEJ did not save , did they saved?

While in the University, of all the things I learned, the greatest among them is the ability of a leader to take responsibilities either negative or positive. If the blame game is critically looked into since last year May 2015 that GEJ handed over power, one would realised that Jonathan had been living his life quietly without making any coercive utterances that may pollute the polity but rather, it is this government , it's corrupt cronies who were part of the gej's government and the shameless officials of gej that have been making corrosive statements till now. To me, that counts a lot to know who is really clueless and direction less, if blaming last administration is all we could point to for the past 1year and 3months.

This government has been making one promise or the other to create employment, build industry and diversify the economy for the past one year without a single soul being employed legitimately into the civil service or an industry built talk less of economic diversification. Monetary and fiscal policies have been without any direction leading to economicSummersault and recession. Please, what have the jobless citizens being eating since then? What have the poor and the homeless been living on? Do you care to know? Sorry!! You are still planning and this tenure remain just two years and nine months.

I know that bureaucracy is the style of democracy in fulfilling its duties in service to the people but is bureaucracy supposed to be brought into ensuring that the people are well catered for?

Except we want to deceive ourselves, our people are really suffering. People are dying! The living are living like being in hell in a blessed Nation. It is high time we shun mediocrity and call a spade a spade. How sensible is it for you our leaders to tell the people to endure economic pain that you cannot endure? Your people are living in penury and you in opulence wealth and you call yourself a servant leader. For God sake, public service is not for personal enrichment and aggrandizement but a call to service to develop the country and harness its raw materials for the betterment of the people as a whole not personal family.

Everyone busy pointing accusing fingers yet 90% of the present crop of people leading us presently were in the last administration of gej. How sensible is it then for you to point fingers instead of getting busy with the assignment on ground so that the people will not continue to suffer?

Sustainable leadership and governance is achieved with focus on the part of the leaders and the followers because it takes two to tango and it takes the effort of the two palms to make the hands whole. Presently, the economy is porous and corrosive without focus. Everyone in the government is daily looking for cover and searching who to cast blame upon. It may take the whole four years of this regime to achieve that instead of achieving the dividends of democracy that the people crave for.

Governance is a system that can be effective through policy formation by planning, organising  programmes and embarking on projects not propaganda. Enough is enough!!!! The blame game should stop after all, we all knew the state of the economy during the political campaigns and promises were made during manifestoes delivery only that we didn't hear them well marshalled in a debate.

The way out is to establish a cause through paradigm shift away from the usual practice of probing as it is time wasting and resource consuming. Make our laws strong by strengthening the judiciary, by respecting the rule of law and it's autonomy in the affairs of government. Embrace the separation of power as we are not being led by an emperor. Establish an act that will be a reference point to deter people away from corruption from now because trying to lay hands on one person as corrupt may end up at your door post too that you are corrupt. Let us for once and for all say that we are not all corrupt and let's begin from there according to the law of the land with stringent and adherent measure to discipline fresh cases of corruption. Let's take the welfare of the people paramount as the reason for the existence of government.

Without the people the government can achieve nothing. Let us build trust on our people and respect the constitution of Nigeria in appointing people to fill public positions. Personal discretion cannot solve constitutional matter or declaration, that is why the constitution is in existence to ensure national harmony, as any act against it is tantamount to not trusting the sanctity of the constitution.

The past is history. The present is the most important as the future dependent solely on it. What can we make out of the present to have an enduring future as a nation and as a people?

Let the blame game stop and get focussed!!

Thank you.

Akande Akin Sanyaolu.
www.aasanyaolu.blogspot.com