In the last few weeks, I have been watching on YouTube Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship that will take humanity to Mass being built before our very eyes in their launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. I have also seen videos of the award-winning Chinese team that sent a payload to the unexplored side of the moon. Recently, the space agency of the United Arab Emirates and China also sent rockets headed for Mars. The last 20 years have experienced unprecedented changes in the world. Nations like China that are on track to colonize us with the loans Nigeria’s most corrupt government is accumulating have succeeded in demoting poverty in their domain. Citizens of many Arab states have used their crude oil deposits to create other sustainable sources of income and promote peace and prosperity. Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia who were on the same pedestal as Nigeria are now far ahead in everything positive while Nigeria is ahead in insecurity, poverty, political instability, inadequate infrastructure, among other negative attributes. The president and his family seek medical attention for common cold or neck pain. His appointees routinely use state funds to enrich themselves without persecution. And when they are pressured to conduct a probe, no one is persecuted. We have been sliding down for a long time, but our current slide is on steroids.

Past administrations achieved a few milestones like reducing our debt burden with our loan forgiveness facilitated by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her team during the Obasanjo administration. Goodluck Jonathan helped to grow the Nigerian economy to become the largest in Africa in his 6 years at the helm of affairs that also saw the establishment of ore federal universities for our fast-growing youth population. He also succeeded in creating a better electoral system. Today, no sector of our polity has experienced any improvement. On the contrary, everything is getting worse. From the security of lives and property which is one of the basic functions of government to corruption which was already endemic but is now pandemically endemic. The irony of this is that some of those who sincerely voted for Buhari thought his military background would enable him to create a safer Nigeria. Many also thought the popular War Against Indiscipline during his short reign as head of state can be bettered to combat corruption. Unfortunately and unknowingly to them, Buhari has always been incredibly incompetent. His incompetence has escaped public scrutiny because of capable lieutenants who did his job in the past. Unluckily for him and Nigerians, he has surrounded himself with herdsmen who have a history of not adding tangible progress to their locality.

We cannot afford to continue like this. Because in another decade the world would have increased the economic and technological divide that is already herculean to bridge. Nonetheless, we must not be hopeless and fail to try to overcome all the hurdles that stand in our path to emancipation. For us to start our journey of bridging this huge gap that already exists, we must identify the most fundamental causes of our retrogression. For me, it boils down to leadership. And every one of us is a leader in one capacity or the other. We have always blamed our political leaders for being the root cause of our problems, yet when an election comes, you see the most “enlightened ” among us playing the fool. If you take a roll call of those that campaigned directly or indirectly for Buhari you will know we need so much work to reverse our underdevelopment. But we must not lose hope, because in the midst of all these, without government support, Nigerians created Nollywood that is growing admirably internationally. We also created a banking sector without foreign influences that are worthy of note. In music, literature, and sports our youth within and outside Nigeria are also keeping our hope alive, that what we have on our inside is better and brighter than the picture our political leaders have painted over the years. So, we must continue to fight the good fight of making elected and selected officials to be accountable to Nigerians. We must continue to seek peaceful means to remove corrupt and incompetent men and women like Muhammadu Buhari, and men like Rotimi Amaechi who will not stop borrowing until Nigeria becomes a failed state completely. #ENDSARS is the beginning of the reawakening of our consciousness. We must fine-tune it to effectively serve our cause of getting the leadership that can enable us to be on the same pace with the progressive nations of the world.

Ata Ukuta, Editor – www.towncryyers.com