Blame Nigeria's Woes on Her Elites

By: Deji Yesufu

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary define an elite class as “a group of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise much power or influence”. Therefore in a society people are divided mainly into two groups: those with position and those without; or those with education and those without; or those with influence and those without. Every society consist of the elite group and non elite. I blame Nigerian’s present woes on her elites and I hope that we can retrace our ways for a better nation tomorrow.

Edmund Obilo’s frequent lamentation on radio is that there is something fundamentally wrong with the black man. He made this position known to Prof. Niyi Osundare in one of his interviews in the now rested program “VOICES”. Osundare refuted the position by saying that the problem of Africa should be placed on the laps of the White Man that colonized and dehumanized us. Unfortunately the erudite Poet did not convince me and I suppose many other listeners as well. I cannot understand how after more than fifty years of independence from our former colonialists, anyone should still be blaming the White Man for our state today. I share Obilo’s sentiment that there is indeed a fundamental flaw in the make up of the black man. And I’m convinced that in this country this flaw can be traced to Nigeria’s elites.

Prof. Wole Soyinka explained in his book, “You Must Set Forth at Dawn”, that in the few years running up to our independence, he was concluding his studies in the United Kingdom. He explained that he met many Nigerian politicians who came to negotiate a successful transition with the British. He however noted one thing about many of them: their highest purpose was to sleep with white women. He wondered then how pedestrian the thinking of our future leaders, our elites, was. It was no surprise to him that barely four years into self rule the nation was in turmoil and seven years after, we had degenerated to full blown civil war.

Fortunately by God’s good Providence this nation survived the civil war and entered into a period of unrivalled wealth and bliss with the discovery of the black gold – crude oil. But typical of the Nigerian elite, we wasted away our resources, spending largely to build infrastructures (which was good) and numerous government institutions which no one paid adequate attention to their productivity. For after 15 to 20 years of establishment, many government institutions ought to have become self sustaining but rather government was still sustaining them. While the elites that ran these institutions fed fat from the proceeds that ought to have accrued to government pocket.

Corruption reigned not just among the leaders but in every place where Nigerian elites held sway. The result today is unemployment for the children of these very elites, since the fathers have eaten the future of their children. Many of my school mates have relocated to foreign countries, where they live and work in places as far away as Australia. The other outcome of eating the future of their children is that the children have taken to arms, kidnapping people, and involving in religious and economic insurgency, as we see in Boko Haram and the Niger Delta terrorists. There is also the scourge of “Yahoo boys” that taken over Nigerian major cities.

The way forward is for those of us with education, position and influence, the younger elites today, to begin to do the right things. Nigeria must kill corruption or corruption will kill us. We must begin to ensure that our institutions work. The police and the judiciary must wake up to ensure that we have functional laws and that law breakers are punished without fear or favor. Our religious institutions must begin to impart moral values in their people. They must set the tone themselves by not being lovers of money. We the elite must wake up!

In another few years the generation that bequeathed a failing state to us will die out. We can choose to leave a better Nigerian society behind for our own children. Those of us in the age group of 35-50 are the ones that can decide today what tomorrow will be like for Nigeria. If we don’t, we will have insecurity, war or a failed state in front of us. For those who believe in a judgement to come, know today that we all will be judged by God for what we did for or against this country.

A people with education and influence can today decide that rather than the downward slope we have been embarking on all these while, Nigeria can take a turn for the better. Let the elites take the blame for the state of the nation and let us take the responsibility to better it.

May God bless our efforts. May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Have a happy new year 2019.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/blame-nigerian-elites/

Say no to Tribal war

I have said it on several occasions that Igbo and yoruba suppose to unites,igbos suppose to follow the way yorubas handle things, yorubas are not arrogant,they are very calm, wise and intelligent, yorubas has helped igbos in the past if not,I don't think they will still exist, because yoruba knows the plans of hausa and fulani towards igbos during the civil war,if not yoruba brilliants idea that government agreed that let them surrender, if not,they would have wiped them off, because ojukwu that leads the front has already fled with his family when he realised that things are getting out of hands for his people, because there is no way they can defeats Nigeria(Britain will eventually support Nigeria) .. But igbos see what yoruba did as something else,They call them traitors,is it not yoruba man that let the government paddoned ojukwu and allow him to enter the country again...

We just need to reason with each others, we can't let politicians destroy the country , because tomorrow, you can see Reno omokri decamp to APC, El Rufai to PDP.

hausas are very friendly people, they are very nice to yorubas because they see yorubas as a very calm, friendly and accomdating people,igbos suppose to mingle with yorubas so that they will understand how to deal with other tribes.

Please let stop this tribal war,everybody have right to vote for any party they want..

Until we revolt and kill these bastards in apc and pdp would continue to mess us up.

This is nothing but the truth. The main problem of this country and I dare say Sub-Saharan Africa is the lazy inferiority complex having antipatriotic self centered political and intellectual elite.

The day Nigeria has a patriotic elite is the day Nigeria will rise again.

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And yet some idiot wont give the likes of Sowore a chance, but would rather keep recycling those old elite theives. We are our own problem.

Ok

I rather blame the masses for selling their futures by collecting gifts from politicians, supporting them on empty stomachs (suffering. and smiling), voting based religious and tribal sentiments etc.

let's vote app and Pdp out Biko..

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Gbam

Ok

cool write up but l disagree that to influence in the state of affairs of this nation you have to be BTW 35-50yrs

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Gbam...... this guy get sense wellaaaa

All I have to say is that the man is not supposed to cook the goat alive ,because ameachi bought the goat from wikes farm ,last week.

Bl22242:
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Give us free games to prove that you're not a scammer

This is why i laugh at those criticizing Buhari..

Look at 99% of those against Buhari right from Atiku,Saraki,Dino.illegit buisness men and many more and you will see one basic similarities in all of them..THEY ARE ALL CORRUPT and are desperate to take Nigeria back to the dark days when our money was squandered.

Was it not same saraki that was wailing in a leaked tape that BUhari is no longer allowing free money to roll in? I pity Nigerians that are still canvassing for PDP.

naija

Nigeria's problem stems from a lot of things. A large chunk of it from the elites and the power mongers while a bulk of it from the citizens. We can't exonerate the common man from it as he plays a major role in the clog of the nation. Our forefathers refused to remove the stronghold of the elites and we are also shying away from doing that to save our own children. Is it politics of electing thieves that will work or going back to the foundation to review what started the country and brought us together. Naira was once stronger than the naira, have we reviewed what we did right then. Nigeria currently is full of pensioners that call themselves politicians who after have failed in business or academics had to see politics as the way out of poverty. Majority are still backward and will continue to elect gerontocrats. Let the youths get up and elect themselves that are known for probity and prudence or let us restructure.....

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this is so true

Some people will die of heart attack on February 19 when pdp must have recorded resounding victory in KATSINA state and all through Nigeria.

Somebody said Nigerian youths are lazy, shutdown our schools for the past two months with no remorse on a way forward, do we need to tell Nigeria undergraduates and educated, not to vote APC?

Joromi12:
Until we revolt and kill these bastards in apc and pdp would continue to mess us up.

My thoughts exactly, but how do you start a revolution when the youths are more greedier than the elites as the author of this piece stated...I look at the Russian, Chinese, Cuban revolutions and shake my head when I look at my own country. Some sacrifices are not worth it, especially if it's Nigeria. If we had more determined youths like Castro or Sankara it would have been worth it but no, it is Benz they want to drive after which they'll grow old and leave an anarchical society for their kids.

The elites is rather a general term to use. There is need to be specific, those that lead the country have never been altruistic and visionaries.

Europe fought two world wars, however because their leaders are forward looking, altruistic, Europe today is united and have common market and no boundaries save Britain with Brexit.

But is African united, NO. Because African leaders are self serving and not selfless like EU leaders. Thus there is a need for rigorous change in quality of leaders in Africa.

This very true. No reasonable Nigeria should celebrate the so call elites. They have failed and there politcal platforms have nothing to offer us. The dooms days are near. The nation is bleeding. God save Nigeria.

the elite theory of power ...says that the rule by an elite is inevitable... as long as there are some people who are going to take the decision on behalf of those in the society...