Vultures As Leaders

By

Gideon Ahiaba

ahiabag@who-nigeria.org

 

Vulture. Flesh. Death. These three words are very close to each other to the extent that they can almost be used as synonyms. Wherever and whenever there is death, flesh also becomes visible; and if one observes closely too, some vultures must be lurking around the corner to feast on the flesh. Indeed, vultures are evil birds; if not how could one possibly explain away the fact that they are always available, and are at their best, nodding their ugly heads in sadistic happiness, only when the news is about death and the resultant availability of flesh? No sane human being deliberately fraternizes with them unless that person too is evil. Enough about vultures since they are not the real focus of this write up; but much more seriously, the article is aimed at drawing out some striking similarities between these evil birds of prey and the peculiar kind of leaders Nigeria, and indeed the whole of Africa, has been saddled with for a long time now. Before doing that however, let me philosophize randomly for a while.

 

Just take a look across Africa: from North to South, East to West; what can you see? The answer is nothing else but disease, poverty, squalor, hunger and decaying institutions, which are the ultimate signposts of underdevelopment. One may also be prompted to probe further by asking: how come other nations of the world – from China to South Korea, Malaysia to India etc - not to even mention the fully developed world – are making steady, daily, progress and have almost fully succeeded in banishing all the above mentioned denizens of backwardness from their societies but their counterparts in Africa are rather sinking deeper and deeper into extreme misery and squalor? The answer, my dear reader, lies in the quality of leadership. Let it be mentioned here that modernity or rapid economic growth and development in all spheres of life is not brought about or attained by mere chance or magic. It is rather carefully or meticulously worked and planned for by visionary leaders.

 

The countries of the West that are today regarded as fully developed and those Asian countries earlier mentioned that have now almost attained the status of “developed” nations worked and planned – and they still do – for their present respectable/enviable status. These nations have all along ensured that only high quality leaders are allowed to assume leadership positions in their respective countries. Those qualities that are the hallmark of good leadership anywhere in the world are outlined as follows: Pragmatism, Patriotism, Charisma, good vision, diplomacy, tact, wittiness, wisdom, selflessness, personal discipline, adequate knowledge in the art of modern economic development and management and high level of spiritual development. A careful observation would reveal that all the countries that have attained, or about to attain, full development have consistently been having leaders that are imbued with the above qualities. By bringing these qualities to bear on the art of governance, these countries have been able to harness their natural resources and process them into various attractive finished products, organize their societies and institutions in near perfect working order, build land mark industries and solid engineering infrastructural base, establish high quality institutions of learning encompassing all fields of human endeavor. Also, through research and development, including the application of the art of science and technology, these nations have been able to transform such fields as: Agriculture, Medicine, Trade and Commerce, Communication, Military hardware, Space exploration, Electronics/Electrical Engineering etc, into veritable fields of excellence.

 

In Nigeria and indeed the rest Africa, the exact opposite is what obtains. Quality leaders have, since independence, not been able to assume central leadership positions in most of our countries. The few quality leaders that fought for independence in most nations of Africa like Awolowo, Azikiwe, Aminu Kano, Nkrumah, Kenyata etc, were not allowed by the retreating colonial forces to assume real leadership positions and where a few of them managed to, they were checkmated and mowed down shortly after.

 

 Today, what we have all over Africa are vultures in positions of leadership planted by the descendants of the same white colonial Serpents in alliance with some negative internal forces feeding fat on the flesh of the masses. These so called leaders are even worse than vultures since they feed only on living human flesh. They mercilessly corner the resources meant for the development of the entire society for themselves, their families and friends, while the helpless poor masses of Africa are left to waste away, dying needlessly of hunger, avoidable/curable diseases and extreme suffering. These shameless and empty leaders of Africa are ruled by extreme greed, short sightedness, deep folly, Corruption and other base considerations like tribe and religion.  They lack the knowledge, foresight, patriotism, tact and diplomacy needed to build a modern, organized society. They have become totally besotted by extreme luxury and other paraphernalia of office. They enjoy using the best industrial products of the developed world and like moving about in their fine/well planned cities, but would never think of replicating the good things they use, see or observe in these places in their own societies. Yet, Africa is well, if not better, endowed with all the relevant natural resources than the so-called developed world. They fail to realize that true and lasting greatness or modernity lies in the ability of any nation to harness and process its natural resources into various fine end products that can be sold at competitive prices in the international market. Selling or exporting these natural resources in their raw form can never take the nations of Africa anywhere.

 

Will these leaders ever realize that the root of modernity or wealth accumulation lies in the application of the art of science and technology in every production process? As long as we cannot produce leaders that would realize that a nation’s real independence lies in establishing solid engineering infrastructural base, sound/quality institutions of learning, meticulous planning and management of available resources, sound organization of the entire society with the aim of positioning the members well in order to bring out the best in them, paying special attention to research and development institutions and recognizing and putting our geniuses in them etc, so long shall we continue to grope in the dark while our societies will continue to move in the backward direction.

 

Let it be sounded loud and clear here that our progress or development can never be found in going to beg Western leaders for debt forgiveness or appealing to them to come and invest in our nations. It is a well-known fact that the same white serpents that provided the loans in the first place would normally be the ones that would dictate exactly what these vultures, masquerading as leaders, would do with the funds. They covertly encourage these carnally minded people in the corridors of power to steal and deposit sizeable portions of these same loaned funds in the vaults of their powerful banks. The remaining amounts usually disclosed as spent would normally be used to import over priced finished products from the creditor nations made from the same raw materials which were earlier cheaply exported or sold to them by African nations. A sizeable Part of these borrowed funds is equally, usually, used in paying the so-called white expatriate workers at costly rates. In the end, the whole loaned amounts are cleverly retrieved through the above fraudulent means while still leaving huge, questionable, principal amounts plus the ever increasing interests to be settled or paid back. In this way, the resources of Africa which should have been used for the development and up-lift-ment of its poor masses are forever channeled into perpetual debt repayment.

 

The whole thing is sickening and has become a source of constant frustration to any informed observer of this our shameful and pitiable condition among the comity of nations today. The matter becomes even more painful when one realizes the fact that good quality leaders abound all over Africa and that we are endowed with adequate natural resources while capable/intelligent manpower are also available that can transform the sorry state of affairs in our nations. The real challenge facing the whole of Africa now is this: how do we get those individuals in our nations who are imbued with the earlier mentioned leadership qualities into positions of authority? Until we are able to find an answer to this all important question, there can never be any real hope of Africa moving forward. Until then, a dark continent shall Africa ever remain.

 

  Sincerely yours,

 

Gideon Ahiaba

WHO, Yaba Lagos.