Unless the New Crop of Leaders are Ready to Fix Things Nigerians Should not expect Miracles-Prof. Olagoke

The performance of political appointees of the President and 36 State Governors, in the last four years, is already in the public domain and Nigerians are expressing divergent views on their performances.

Even though the elections that threw up these political office holders were flawed and trailed with a lot of irregularities, Nigerians are very unhappy with the yardstick used by the Powers that be to select the Ministers, Commissioners and Heads of Departments and Agencies in the last dispensation.

Sadly, political patronage, nepotism and other self centered considerations play great roles in these appointments, just as Nigerians express fears that the yardstick for political appointments shall remain the same in the new dispensation.

In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that the readiness of Nigeria’s new crop of leaders to fix the country should start from the downward review of their salaries and allowances. Excerpts :

Nigerians complain that the yardstick used in the appointment of Ministers, Commissioners and Heads of Departments and Agencies negatively affected governance in the last dispensation, what do you think should be the yardstick to do same in this dispensation ?

Nigeria’s situation is appalling because we have since reached a stage, where all theories always fail the test of time, even though they work elsewhere.

What is responsible for this ? It is all about the attitude of Nigerians generally, towards power and service responsibilities.

No economic theory can stand the structure and distribution pattern of our wealth to satisfy the democratic demand of equity and justice, where the new national minimum wage is controversially facing the challenges of implementation and the political class in power consume almost  two thirds of the nation’s resources on their personal effects .

This is equally a nation where all professionals are dictated to and even neglected, when it comes to capital projects because of the greed of the people in power, who will benefit more from foreign partnership at the expense of the indigenous professionals, who they are supposed to motivate and encourage.

Equally, everything about Nigeria’s development is foreign as well as been fraught with fraud.

This is why little violence has been aggravated into high levels of insecurity because the hoodlums hide under the need to survive.

Instead of government at all levels coming out boldly to arrest and correct the situation, they have continued to fail in their responsibilities to protect lives and property.

With this climate of disillusion, Nigeria needs leaders who will be ready to sacrifice their lives to ensure a positive impact is made on the lives of the people.

In the light of the truth, Nigeria is yet to face the reality because majority of Nigerians are groping in the darkness of truth. For example, the Media only reports what government wants them to air, the religious community is now beclouded with blurred visions, while the political terrain is troubled by kleptomaniacs, who believe in self-enrichment through the spoils of office,rather than using the position of power to serve the nation.

Above all, Nigeria's case is shrouded in the cloud of falsehood, perhaps, one can conclude that nobody knows the truth, except the perpetrators of evil.

Normally, when you want to vote for people in positions of power, you are supposed to know each one of them, based on their antecedents of performances, but contrary is the case because we are only voting for posters and probably the sugar coated campaign promises,which would never come to fruition.

If those people in power are known to us only through their paper credentials, the implication is that the beautiful ones are not yet born.

For new newly elected power brokers, their second assignment is to choose Ministers and Commissioners as well as Heads of various service points, that is the Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs).

One would therefore expect that the choice should be based on merit, rather than tribal sentiments, but this would not happen under the culture of federal character.

What we would consider as the worst in the South West, maybe fixed as a candidate from the North, and there is nothing anyone can do under the present arrangement.

The second consideration is skill, this involves the kind of relevant professional skills that would determine the kind of portfolio the holder shall assume.

But this may not necessarily come up again under the sentiment of party patronage consideration.

In the past ex-convicts would never hold any position of power, but now they are celebrities.

If the newly emerging crop of people in government are not ready to objectively fix things for us, then Nigerians must not expect miracles from them.

This is because our major problems are attitudinal, rather than material sufficiency.

If truly these people mean well to fix Nigeria, they must start with the downward review of the wages and allowances of the political class, while the stipends of civil and public servants as gratuities and pension arrears should be revisited for prompt payment, for the voters and the beneficiaries of the 2019 elections to rejoice on the same page