By Ernest Osogbue 

While it is easy to point at decayed or nonexistent infrastructure in critical sectors, a general absence of standards and adherence to proper procedures, as evidence of leadership failure in Nigeria since independence, it has become imperative to situate the overall lack of citizen participation, or outright complicity of citizens in the underdevelopment of Nigeria. 

Nigerians are quick to criticize the leaders at different levels but exhibit the same character for which they criticize the leaders. It’s as if while regular citizens are free to do whatever they please, leaders should be constrained by the boundaries of office. Nigerians forget that it is the average citizen of yesterday who becomes the leader of today. 

Most Nigerians run the red light with impunity, collect bribes to circumvent procedures, drive against traffic without care, favor their friends and family members, and are friendlier with members of their ethnic group, and religious belief. However, when people in high office exhibit these same tendencies, Nigerians are quick to cry blue murder. Nigerians forget that a corrupt citizen ultimately would make a corrupt leader. Everyone carries their personality to whatever office they occupy.  

A public servant who retires without evidence of corrupt acquisitions is roundly mocked and criticized by members of his ethnic group. The one who returns with billions of Naira worth of property is hailed as a hero. Yet, we clamor for a corruption free society. It has come to the point where a government official is only corrupt when the corruption does not favor us.  

I have often wondered how government officials carry out their corrupt activities; do they just go to the bank and run off with public funds? Does a minister, for example, write a check in his own name, go across the counter in a bank to cash same, and walk away? I don’t think so. There are proxies and aides along the line, who aid and abet, who help to circumvent procedures and then receive a share of the proceeds. 

As I write, the debate over the implementation and the ability of most states to pay the #70,000 (Seventy Thousand Naira) monthly minimum salary is still raging. In the private sector, there is a complete disregard for the minimum wage, as salaries and wages are at the whims of employers. In this wise, a graduate would gratefully accept a #10,000 (Ten Thousand Naira) monthly salary just to keep busy. 

Despite this poor remuneration, however, the average citizen seems to be doing just fine. With the current rate of inflation in the country, it would be impossible for #70,000 to keep a family going even for one week. Yet, minimum wage earners are buying cars, building houses, or paying their rent. Some travel abroad on holidays, pay exorbitant fees for their children in private schools, and are generally living a good life. 

With the current high cost of living in the nation, one wonders how the average Nigerian survives. How does the average citizen make up the shortfall in his salary? Many citizens claim to have side hustles. However, when the National Bureau of Statistics NBS releases its monthly numbers, there’s scarcely any evidence of these so-called side hustles. It becomes obvious, therefore, that these side hustles directly feed off the pipeline of corruption in government agencies. 

The average citizen is quick to reject the assertion that the cycle of corruption has engulfed the entire citizenry. He rebuffs this notion and is quick to single himself out of this negative web, yet there is no relationship between the official income of the average Nigerian and his expenditure. This is the great dilemma of the modern day Nigerian and Nigeria; while we publicly preach and crave a corruption free society, we privately oil the wheels of corruption by our deeds.  

In recent times, there have been reports of citizens displaying high levels of integrity; Sergeant Kabiru Isa of the Kano State Police Command, who returned monies recovered at an accident scene, there was also the case of FRSC officials who equally returned a large sum of money recovered at an accident scene in Ozubulu, along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway. The case of Bashir Umar, the Air Force personnel who returned the sum of Thirty Seven Thousand Euros he recovered while on duty at the Aminu Kano International Airport Kano, should still be fresh in our minds. 

While not diminishing the honesty of these exemplary citizens, my question is; what were they expected to have done, are we not the same society which exhorts our children never to take what does not belong to them? Are we no longer the adherents of the Christian and Islamic faiths, both of which preach honesty and condemn thievery? The exclamations that followed the actions of these citizens clearly indicate that most Nigerians would comfortably have walked away with those monies had they been the ones involved. 

How did we get here? How come leaders are more concerned about their personal comfort than the development of the nation and the welfare of citizens? Howbeit citizens no longer have confidence in their president or in their governors, senators, representatives, and heads of agencies? How come citizens are willing to cheat, steal, deceive, and engage in all forms of negative activities just to get ahead? Is this the path to the egalitarian, equitable, just, and fair society that we all crave? 

Friends have accused me of always challenging the citizens instead of the leaders. While I agree with their arguments that leaders must be first to shun corruption and then the citizens would follow, my fear is that when the leaders are corrupt, the tendency of Nigerians to also follow is very high. Nigerians do not believe that the nation belongs to the citizens, and that is the biggest challenge. There is a feeling that the leaders own the country, and therefore, whatever the leaders do, the citizens must copy. This is a very wrong perception. 

Recently, in South Korea, the president Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached by parliament for propounding ideals contrary to societal standards. Also, Americans rejected Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election after he exhibited attitudes inimical to American values in his first term. In Ghana, the opposition recently swept the polls, rejecting Nana Akufo-Addo’s anointed successor over wrong economic policies. This proves that it is the citizens who set the standards in a democratic government and not the leaders. 

It has, therefore, become imperative for Nigerians to realize that the survival of the nation depends on them, not the leaders. Nigerians must understand that it is they who set the minimum standard of behavior to which leaders must abide. Any leader who fails to live up to such standards would be shown the exit door. only then can our society live up to the maxim that Power Belongs to the People.