Nigeria at 62 needs a messiah

In The Last Duty, one of the acclaimed objective accounts of the Nigerian civil war, Isidore Okpewho espoused, among other themes, the concepts of duty and manhood. While these concepts may be readily applied in interrogating Nigeria at 62, the article will dwell more on Okpewho’s conception of duty using the diverse characters who inhabit his fictional world in that highly detached novel. In this novel, Okpewho allowed each of the characters to tell his or her own story of the war, thereby putting together in one narrative more refreshing perspectives of the war from the point of view of a Nigerian, who was abroad during the war. Like Buchi Emecheta, who also wrote on the war, Okpewho was neither a participant nor an eye witness to the war.

Emecheta’s Destination Biafra is regarded as one of the best historical accounts of the war written from the perspective of a Mid-westerner. Even Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a novel based on the war, was born seven years after the end of the war. In his study of the novel, Eustace Palmer holds that “like most of the other war novels, The Last Duty presents the physical devastation and suffering caused by the war, but its real emphasis is on the havoc caused to human relationships and, in particular, the mental, physical, and emotional torture to which women were exposed.” Although the novel is a fictional narrative of the war, it is also historical and imaginatively mirrors the reality of the war as obtainable in most historical novels. In such a fiction, imagination meets with facts and history without losing its fictional essence. When Chinua Achebe wrote that the trouble with Nigeria is failure of leadership, he probably meant failure of duty as well as absence of patriotism or put more bluntly, the dearth of nationalism.

Nigeria at 62 is not where it is supposed to be because our leaders, the ones after the First Republic failed in their national duties. They failed to live with personal examples. Their dedication to duty was questionable. It was at the level of mediocre. Queen Elizabeth II who died recently will always be remembered for her high sense of duty, irrespective of what the critics of the monarchy said concerning her role in colonialism. During the celebration of her 21st birthday in Cape Town, South Africa in 1947, Elizabeth, who later became Queen in 1953, made a powerful speech where she clearly underlined her lifelong commitment to service and duty, “my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

Throughout her 70 years reign, the longest in the history of the monarchy, she kept to that solemn promise. That is a good lesson in leadership that political leaders in Nigeria are enjoined to emulate. The country has not moved forward because we elect leaders whose concept of duty is not altruistic. Drawing from Palmer’s analysis, different characters in the novel, like Nigerian politicians, have different conceptions of duty. While Ali, the soldier, sees duty as honour or something that has to be done, Aku’s idea of duty is being faithful to her husband. To Oshevire, duty means doing the honest and honourable thing. Later in the novel, Oshevire demonstrates that duty “involves standing up to one’s enemies in defense of the cause of honesty, justice, and truth, no matter the consequences.” While Aku could not live up to her concept of duty when it mattered most due to hunger, fear of death and moral failings, her husband Oshevire “in the face of the general anarchy could not shirk this last duty of the human being” when he saved a Biafran boy, who was suspected to be a rebel infiltrator. While there is no harm in celebrating Nigeria at 62, with or without ponmo, the edible cow skin, mostly consumed by Nigerians, especially the poor, we must reflect on the type of leaders we really want as we move towards the 2023 general election in relation to. History has taught us that it takes just one visionary leader to transform a nation. Such leaders include Winston Churchill, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lee Kuan Yew, and Paul Kagame.

At independence we had great leaders such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano and Obafemi Awolowo. There may be other good leaders in Nigeria such as MI Okpara, Lateef Jakande and others. It is sad that since 1999 when the current political dispensation was inaugurated, our leadership rating has greatly been on the slide. The rating has dipped simply because we have rent seekers as politicians and the politics has been mainly transactional. Politics has become a business where the return on investment is so high and where the ambition of every school leaver is to become a politician because the political elites live in great opulence. Some of the qualities of visionary leaders include persistent, inspirational and magnetic, open-minded, innovative and imaginative, goal-oriented and resolute, bold, collaborative and communicative, well-organized. Unfortunately, many of our political leaders including some in the presidential race now do not have these qualities. That is why the voters must not make the mistake of voting based on emotion or primordial sentiments. The 2023 general election is special in so many ways. It is an election like no other as many Nigerians have observed. It is a make or mar election for Nigeria and Nigerians. It is not going to be business as usual. Irrespective of whatever other pundits are saying, Nigeria needs a messiah in 2023 to change the course of our national history. We need a leader who will be so conscious of what duty entails, what honour means, what justice means and what truth means. Our country is in great disarray because we have lost our sense of duty, honour, justice and truth. Happiness has eluded millions of Nigerians on account of excruciating poverty that is man-made. Nigerians are daily longing for good life and happiness for generality of Nigerians. It is good that at every election year presidential candidates are made to sign the peace accord.

Even in off season gubernatorial polls, the candidates also sign the peace accord. While there is nothing wrong with such rituals, can they really guarantee peace in the absence of truth and justice? Some days ago the World Day of Peace was celebrated.  The theme of the event marked globally on September 21 was, “End racism, build peace.” The World Peace Day was started in 1981 by a UN resolution to encourage” all humanity to commit to peace above all differences and to contribute to building a culture of peace.”  Speaking on the importance of the World Peace Day, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres observed: “Racism continues to poison institutions, social structures, and everyday life in every society. It continues to be a driver of persistent inequality. And it continues to deny people their fundamental human rights. It destabilizes societies, undermines democracies, erodes the legitimacy of governments, and …the linkages between racism and gender inequality are unmistakable.” 

Although our own form of racism is marked by tribalism, ethnicism and religious differences, racism is the major cause of tensions in the world today. Achieving global peace will remain a mirage in world torn apart by differences based on skin colour, language and geography. The world can’t achieve peace without reduction of nuclear weapons and deemphasize wars and territorial ambitions. As we enter into the campaign season, let’s look for leaders with visionary qualities.  In fact, we are in dire need of a messiah, a saviour. We must be ready to vote for leaders who can truly lead the nation to social justice, equality and even development.