On May 29, 2023, Nigeria (arguably dubbed the giants of Africa) witnessed another change of government from President Muhammadu Buhari (who contested severally before his last victory in 2015) to President Bola Hammed Tinubu (who has long nursed the ambition of being Nigerian Head-of-State) – now is time to lead by example for the same thing being demaded from the citizenry.
Prior to his inauguration, President Tinubu (then President-elect) in his phone conversation with the Secretary of State of the United States of America, Antony Blinken, disclosed how institutional reforms, development programmes to deepen democratic institutions as well as bringing help to poor and vulnerable Nigerians would be the immediate priorities of his government.
The Media Spokesman to the president, Tunde Rahman, also corroborated the fact that President Tinubu has vowed to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy and faithfully serve the people and, again, we say it is time the government led by example for the same thing being demanded from the populace.
Bearly minutes after his inauguration, the president, while giving his swearing-in speech announced an end to the money swooping subsidy payment on premium motor spirit (PMS) which immediately through the nation into artificial fuel scarcity as a large number of fuel stations hoarded their products just to observe what would be the new pump price.
As usual and expected, the style of the announcement was greeted with wilde criticisms from all corners except party faithful who were calling for decorum because the president was just ascending into the oval office and should be accorded that pardon.
While an important feature of the Nigerian people was really brought to the fore, that Nigerians are resilient and our diversity keep us going, the attention of government representatives must be called to the fact that many of them have took advantage of that resilliency for too long but it is time they changed, leading by example in their conducts and management of public funds.
From past presidents and their vice presidents, public figures and public officials – there is always the rush to call on the citizenry to brace up for challenging times and be ready to make sacrifices (which most of the time means being ready to ‘not endure’ suffer whatever might be the resultant effects of government’s actions and inactions).
President Tinubu, just like his predecessors, has called on Nigerians in his Eid-el-Kabir celebration message to imbibe the virtue of sacrifice, whereas, Nigerians could be rated as one the people who are most resilient and adapting to changes in the world (their is no world statistics to back this up but the Nigerian people have gone through the worst of situations that had set other countries ablaze) yet, the masses remain law abiding.
It is, howbeit, glaring that whenever government representatives call on the citizenry to brace up for the challenges ahead and be ready to make sacrifices, they are simply asking the people to not complain of the hardship to follow any of their decisions but to go about their normal lives and accept the development as fate.
Unfortunately, after calling on the people to make sacrifices for the benefits of the nation, same public servants (who are being paid with citizens’ taxes) are culpable of wasteful spending without accountability and this, usually, infuriates the people.
It is appalling to see those elected and appointed into public offices to serve the populace calling for the citizenry to make sacrifices which they should be the ones making, thereby, creating an impression that being a public servant is a privilege only available to few elites and beyond the grasp of the ordinary man.
For example, after calling for the citizens to be ready to make sacrifices for the benefits of all and the prosperity of the country, President Tinubu was received and escorted by over 120-car convoy upon his return into the country on June 27, 2023 from his trip to Paris and London, a development which is purely a waste of public resources and man-hour.
It should be noted that we operate in a society where people would go to any length to show how valuable an individual is to them with an expectation of a returned-favour. This is likely the reason a lot of public servants left their duty posts to welcome the president when they should be serving the people and the nation, because the president has his slated protocol ready in conjunction with those of the Lagos state government.
The current financial status in Nigeria requires that government cuts excesses on spending as a genuine proof to boost citizen’s commitment to also making the needed sacrifices.
Without this, government representatives must know that they will have no influence, right or privilege to call on the Nigerian people to make sacrifices for the nation: the endurance of economic hardship is enough sacrifice that seeing public servants on lavish spending may only harden the hearts of many people to make further sacrifices.
World respected leadership expert, John C. Maxwell, has said “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk” – this is likely to be the case of many public servants who fail to lead by examples as citizens get wiser on daily.
Unarguably, the political awareness in present day Nigeria is not what was obtainable back in 2018 or 2015 General Elections and the awareness will only be on the rise, thus, public servants who refuse to heed this warning should prepare for a payback time in the forthcoming General Elections.
There is a need for a complete reformation of government institutions from the federal to the state and local governments with readiness to abolish the system that encourages: payment of ghost workers’ salaries, payment of dubious purchases and contracts, inflation of contract prices, diversion of government’s funds for private use, use of office imprest for personal allowance, unauthorizes spending of public funds and use of assets, making payments against uncleared cheques, the forfeiture of a disease staff gratuity and pension benefits as well as the misuse of medical allowances and reimbursements (all identified, by Ibanichuka and Onuoha 2012, as frauds in Nigerian public sector).
All said, regardless, there will be no united front and national ideology to tackle all the problems in Nigeria headlong as much as public servants are also not ready to lead by example and the president should reign on his circles of allies by directing them all to take their duty posts more importantly than coming to receive him every time he is returning from a foreign trip.
The amount of national resources wasted on such frivolities can be blocked and properly channelled to the right quarters that will contribute more to the growth, prosperity and progress of the country except Nigeria will continuously be regarded as ‘Giants of Africa’ only as an ‘alias’ and not in practice.
