The development problem of Nigeria is not corruption, the problem is representation

If you look at the least developed areas of Nigeria you will spot a pattern. The people that represent them do not live in the community. A village house you visit once a year is not your place of residence. The pattern in Nigeria is for someone living in Lagos or abroad, at the sound of the election bell to head back to his state to run for office. What does he know about the needs of that community?

He/She is merely an opportunist, there to plunder the financial vote of the community and to divert resources to Lagos/Abuja or abroad to the detriment of the represented constituency.

This is why at the end of his term there is nothing to show. So I suggest the following:

A person must meet a residency requirement and may only run for office in the state/community that he has resided for a minimum of five years and for at least six months in a year during the period.

This will also curb the feeling of a lack of belonging for people that have lived in a community and are considered outsiders as they can now run for office in that community. Imagine being born in Lagos, growing up there and when it is time to run for office you have to travel to Bauchi to seek political office because your father or his father is from there. Of what use can you be there and so what have you been doing in Lagos all your life.

Over to you…….

Not so sure bout your residency rule, but you are right about corruption not been Nigeria's main problem. But quite frankly I don't think it is representation either. The problem with Nigeria is society, due to the neglect of proper infrastructural investments and proper living nessecities, society in this nation has continued to crumble. You might say corruption is the real issue, but it is because of the crumble of society that there are so many corrupt leaders around, The reason why Nigeria has ethhnic violence is patly due to history but more recently due to society and the mentality of people in the society. What we now have is a system that doesn't function. Think about what I am saying here, If Abacha was brought back to life and he ran for presidency in the US and he won, do you think the consequences of his rule will be anywhere close to his rule in Nigeria. The problem is not corrupt leaders, the problem my friends and enemies is society. What Nigeria needs is a leader that cannot only provide the basic infrastructure but a leader that can revive and implement a proper mentality in society. A leader that can create jobs so that people do not have to result to schemes such as 419 and yes corruption. Corruption wasn't the begining of Nigeria's problems. I think the problem started when the facilties that we had in the nation, like educational faciltites, universites and schools etc. (and believe me, Nigeria had one of the best eductional systems in the continent) were neglected and ignored. The result was people leaving the country to study elsewhere, which inevitably resulted in the lack of skilled workers in the nation, Agriculture crumbled, things that weren't being imported previously now had to be imported, The economy crashed. The Government could no longer mainatain the facilties or invest in new ones. They then realised that the situation was near hopeless and the best decision woul be to fend for themselves(Corruption). So In short what Nigerian leaders have to do now is to reinstitue world class eductional faci;ities into the nation, build more hospitals and recreate the necessary infrastructure the ultimate result would be a more tenacious population and a healthy society.

Dblock, i got to ask man, i'm nothing but 26 and i remember hearing of how excellent naijas schools were but what happened? do you know? One thing i learned in stdying the United snakes is that when a broad ting/wide scale ting happens, it is often becasue of one little order or mission that got accomplised. the ket is finding out who give the orders. . .

My father was in the Nigerian educational system when it was still good. Three of Nigeria's Universities where in Africa's top ten, and the University of Ibadan was recognized as a good Uni worldwide(PS that is why it is still called prestigeous today). The situation in the universities where excellent and the highschools were affordable and had good facilities, but then the government started to pump less money into education and the facilities were not maintained Nigeria started to move backwards. My Grandad couldn't aford to pay for my dad's educational needs, but the government did they payed for him up to the end of Secondary schooling, then he got a scholarship. So any money I have today or maybe even my existence is because of the old Nigerian eductional system, but that is not why I am patriotic