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About Mr. Godwin C. Nwaogwugwu

   Mr. Godwin C. Nwaogwugwu is a former World Bank Analyst/Consultant. He is a senior key resource person on Information systems, E-business Development, Youth Programs, and Africa Initiatives for many international agencies, and governments. He is the author of several best-selling publications. His writings in very simple language inspire many young readers around the world

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Nigeria's Irresponsible Leaders

 By: Godwin C. Nwaogwugwu

 Published March 5, 2007

 On coming in contact with American leaders one thing strikes you. It is their love for their country, the pride with which they defend the American core values, and the arrogance they exude in asserting America’s dominance and supremacy over other cultures. I love them for that. I also love the vigor and ferocity with which America is advancing its values in other parts of the world. That is true patriotism and nationalism.

On the other hand, sit down with the so-called Nigerian leaders the discussion is entirely different. It’s always about how to get help to move public funds from Nigeria to safe heavens abroad, where to buy luxury items, and then where to find beautiful young women for personal gratifications. I dislike the daftness, outright stupidity, and arrogance with which they do that. Whoever thought that these crops of so-called leaders have the capacity to move Nigeria forward needs to think again.

I questioned the morals behind the establishment of the various vigilante groups like the disbanded ‘Bakassi Boys’, Odua People’s Congress’ etc, that specialized in hacking off the body parts and killing of petty criminals for stealing empty purses or bag of rice. Surprisingly these death squads were established by state politicians who, thanks to Dr. Mrs. Ngozi-Okonjo Iweala (former Minister of Finance), and Malam Nuhu Ribadu of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, are the real criminals in Nigeria; yet they enjoy immunity from prosecution and protection by law enforcement agencies.

Which Governor in Nigeria has the moral impetus to condemn youths who have taken to crime such as robbery, fraud, and prostitution for survival? I once watched a state governor giving a morale dose to youths during a university graduation ceremony. I was laughing to myself. What a hypocrite!!

However, on the recent revelations by the EFCC on the shameful looting of our national treasury by politicians, what is lacking is the outrage by the public that you will have in countries like the United States of America. Rather what we are seeing is an attempt to trivialize the findings by labeling it ‘tribal’, ‘witch-haunting’, ‘political victimization’, etc, by the same down-trodden public.

Did we all watch the prosecution of the top executives of ENRON in the USA over financial impropriety that led to the collapse of the giant energy firm and the outrage by the American public that called for their punishment? So where is the outrage in Nigeria over what these ‘protected criminals’ have done to the country? Do we enjoy seeing our girls being sold into sex-slavery in Italy, our middle class disappearing to foreign countries, our youths resorting to fraud, robbery and prostitution for lack of opportunities? Do we enjoy pregnant women and accident victims dying unnecessarily for lack of adequate medical facilities in Nigeria? How about tens of thousands of lives lost in communal and religious clashes resulting from frustration and hopelessness in the country? Why do we still cheer fraud, corruption, and eulogize criminals who brought all this on a country endowed with plentiful human and natural resources?

This leads me to ask, what are Nigeria’s core values? What legacies will the older generation leave for the younger ones? I guess the criminals in office don’t have to bother because we have an irresponsible followership that improvises ways to adapt to poverty and suffering rather than lead a revolt against the forces that put them in the condition of squalor, and abject poverty.

But make no mistakes, God has a judgment day, surely there is a day of reckoning for these criminals. Look around you, that judgment is no longer after death. It is happening before death these days right here on earth, where aggrieved wo(men), and outraged public are the judges. After the ‘judgment’ then comes the horrible death of the criminals facilitated by guns they imported for suppression and stones from unfinished road contracts. Nobody should care about wooden caskets either. There will be no trees because someone has embezzled the ecological funds meant to protect the environment. We will burry them in expensive imported cars.  

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