CORRUPTION AND VISIONARY LEADERSHIP: WHICH IS NIGERIA'S BIGGEST PROBLEM? by Olarewaju Olaniyi Precious

Corruption as big as it is in our Nation's life to me is not the biggest of all the problems that face us as a people. Infact, it is a problem which can be easily overcome if only we have leaders with big and realistic ideas and the ability to think and find solutions to our many challenges which corruption is one. Corruption is a systemic-problem; it is a problem created as a result of failure of the system.

I believe to solve the problem of corruption, all we need to do is, look inward within the system in other to address it, because for every systemic-problem, there is a systemic-solution. What is needed in tackling corruption in Nigeria is, amending the outdated and ambiguous laws, so as to guide against corruption and strengthen the anti-corruption institutions in other to adequately implement and enforce these laws. With these done, corruption will be drastically reduced and with time, it will become a thing of the past.

 

As big as the economies of China and India are today, there is still corruption, but their Institutions are being continuosly  strengthened, there is a sense in these countries that if you succeed in perpetrating the act of corruption, you can not always get away with it and when the long hands of the law catch up with you, sufficient punishment will be meted out to you irrespective of who you are or the influence you wield, this is how the problem of corruption is being tackled in these countries. 

Hence, today, we can say the danger corruption poses to these two countries is gradually reducing, when compared to what was obtainable about a decade ago. Adequate laws to discourage corruption and punish corrupt officials must be put in place in Nigeria, it is only a matter of time this ugly menace will be flushed out. This will be a product of quality thinking and sound vision on the path of the leaders, this is why i see corruption as less a problem compared to the absence of visionary, intelligent and thinking Leadership.

 

The biggest of our problems are lack of vision, sound ideology and quality thinking, it is unfortunate that our leaders are not thinking, they cannot see beyond their nose, or how else will one describe a leadership that is contented sitting on a budget of just $30billion for a year. A leadership that lacks spark and the will to explore outside the comfort zone, leaders that are bereft of intelligent ideas and quality thinking on how to first address the issue of under-funding of the Nigeria public system by astronomically increasing income generation; these are our biggest problems. 

Let us assume there is zero-corruption in Nigeria and there is hundred percent accountability, probity and transparency in goverment spending, what can $30billion (#4.9trillion) a year REALLY do in the life of a country as big as Nigeria, a country with a population of over 160million people. This amount to an average Nigerian, who does not understand the enormosity of government spendings, believes $30 billion is a whole lot of money, but the truth is, we are under-budgeting.

 

I have always emphasis that Nigeria is not a rich country, but a lot of people have contested this with me, i will also reinstate this fact in this piece. A country with a total government expenditure of $30billon for 160 million people is not a rich country. In the year 2000, during Bill Clinton's visit to Nigeria, he said "Nigeria is too rich to be poor, and too poor to be rich". Many of our leaders today do not know what that means, we countinue to erroneously believe Nigeria is a mega-rich country.

The belief has been inculcated in us right from our elementary Social Studies teaching, we were taught Nigeria is rich, but these teachings fail to draw a clear line of dinstinction between "rich" and "having the potentials to be rich". If you say Nigeria is abundantly blessed, and have the potentials to be rich bearing in mind the abundance of Human and Natural resources, i will AGREE with you, but i beg to disagree that Nigeria is rich because we have vast resources which are yet to be put into economic use. We only have the potentials to be rich.

 

Having resources that have not been economically utilised does not mean one is rich, it is like going around town saying you are rich, all because gold and diamond were discovered on your farmland; you only have the potentials to be rich. The gold and diamond have been lying fallow right there on the farmland long before you discover it on the farm, and that will not change anything about you until you have started extracting these precious stones for economic gains. 

This simple illustration best describes the case of Nigera today, we have both human and natural resources in abundance, it is until we economically utilise these vast resources and more income is generated from their utilisation that we will witness massive economic boom which will bring about increased income generation, then we can talk of Nigeria being a rich country. It is with this same potentials that we set out on this journey of nationhood on October 1st, 1960. Fifty-three years after, we are still wallowing in a vicious cycle of poverty, needs and confusion.

 

I remain of the opinion that an annual budget of $30billion dollars cannot catapult Nigeria with a population of 160million people to her dream Eldorado, comparing how fast other countries we are in the same league with are moving. We want standard and world class Education system, Healthcare system, Roads, Electricity, Water System, Electric Rail system and so on, all to be finance by just $30billion, and the worst of it all is, a large chunk of this budget ends up in private pockets through embezzlement. 

The Republic of South Africa with a population of about 53million people budgeted R1.1trillion (about #17.6trillion) for the year 2013, this means South Africa with just a third of Nigeria's population has a budget that is almost four times our budget. Egypt with a population of 86.3million people expects her 2013/2014 budget to reach 689.3billion Egyptian Pound (about #15.5trillion). Going to the advanced world, Australia with a population of 21million people has a budget of about A$393.3 billion (1 Australian Dollars = #150), this shows Australia has a budget that is about 13times our budget. The United Kingdom with a population of 67.3million people has a budget of £720billion (#160trillion). The United State Department of defence alone has a budget of about $546billon.

 

It should be noted at this point that the Republic of South Africa budgeted about R268billion (#4.28trillion) as her consolidated spending on Health and Social Protection, this amount  is close to the entire Nigeria's less than #5trilion 2013 budget, another R233billion (#3.8trillion) was budgeted by South Africa as spending on Education, Sport and Culture. From the budget statement of South Africa, a sum of R20billion (#320billion) was budgeted as transfers to Higher Education Institutions, this amount is just #106billion less than the #426billion budgeted as Nigeria' entire spending on Education. Yet, our leaders are contented with a budget of less than $30billion (#5trillion) and we go about town saying Nigeria is rich.

 

Idealistic thinking and sound vision will bring about a boom in our Agricultural sector, there is a lot of potentials in this sector bearing in mind we are blessed with vast land resources and favourable climatic conditions. We share some similarities with Brazil, our vegetational distribution are quite similar. Today, Brazil is generating as much as $6billion annually from Meat Export only, meat production is a sub-sector of the Livestock Sector which is a sub-sector of the Agricultural Sector, just imagine how much the entire Agricultural sector generates for the Brazilian economy. No wonder the economy of Brazil with an estimated worth of $2.5trillion is the 6th largest economy in the world, leaving the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France as the five countries in the world with economies larger than Brazil. What makes the difference is that leaders in that country are thinking.

 

Quality and visionary leadership will turn things around  in Nigeria, we need exceptional leaders who had taken time to reflect on the numerous challenges confronting our Nation, the biggest of our problems is the absence of such leaders, leaders with the big ideas and visions, leaders who will be able to transform the woes of this country to success, and the differences between woes and success is the bigness of our vision, the quality of our ideas and thinking. 

I have always emphasised the need for sound, ideological and thinking leaders who can bring about a new model that would boost income generation for this country, upright leaders who are very intelligent and alive to their responsibilities of bringing innovations to the process of governance, the day we have that kind of leadership, solutions to most of the problems we have today will start surfacing.

 

A solution to the problem of absence of good and sound leadership means solution to corruption, under-budgeting, decaying educational sector, ailing health sector, bad roads, unemployment and all the myriads of other problems that exist in our country today. Our economic woes will be transformed, the educational sector will be resuscicated, policies targeted towards revamping our Agricultural sector will be put in place, our health-care system will be revived. 

A visionary and thinking leadership understands how important investment in basic infrastructure is, a thinking leadership that will reform the Petroleum Industry and re-position it towards productivity by means of policies, a leadership who will take giant steps towards reviving our Mining and Extractive Sector, and above all leaders who had taken time to dwell and reflect on one of Williams Shakesphere most popular quotes. "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown". 

We don't have to wait for 200years to get it right, Singapore did not wait for 200years, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and South Africa did not wait for 200years. Now is the time we must know our onions, roll up our sleeves and wake the sleeping giant of Africa up from its long sleep, we all see the Health-care system, Educational system, Bus and Rail transportational networks in the UK, Germany, Hong Kong and others, do these things look like what was built with a yearly budget of $30billion? I don't think so. We must shift our focus to finding solutions to the problem of absence of visionary leaderhip in our political sphere, corruption as big as it is today is a problem that can be taken care with right thinking and visionary leadership in place.

God Bless Nigeria!

Olarewaju Olaniyi Precious 

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