Until we cure the national malaise called povertyphobia Nigeria will remain under-developed

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Nigerians are fond of blaming all their problems on poor leadership but for me, that is just a kop out. It is an intellectually lazy way of trying to explain a wider malaise that afflicts the world’s largest and most prosperous black nation. A handful of bad leaders cannot misrule 180m people for 60 years without their consent and full acquiescence

(2) One sentence that always echoes in my head when I think about Nigeria’s plethora of socio-economic woes are the words Radovan Karadzic’s mother said to him when he was elected as the leader of the Bosnian Serb Democratic Party. She said to him: “Even if you want to be an honest man, do you think they will let you be an honest man?”

(3) Mrs Karadzic could well have been talking to a Nigerian politician because we live in a society where fair play is simply not appreciated. We have this national malaise which I call povertyphobia, which governs all our actions and prevents us from doing what is right. This morbid and unhealthy fear of poverty makes us do so many irrational things that end up having a long term debilitating effect on our development. A Nigerian politician will be derided as a mumu and with derision if he leaves office penniless

(4) For instance, when a senior civil servant or politician steals $100m, it is not because he or she needs the money but because they have this morbid fear of being poor. Just look at it, a middle aged man with grown up kids and two houses with maybe about 40 more years to live, most in the quiet of his country home, will probably not spend more than $1m before he passes on as he has made all his investments already. However, he steals $100m which he is never going to spend. That is a mental illness and I think it is time corruption gets covered by the Mental Health Act. We should send these guys for psychiatric evaluation and treatment before trying them

(5) If you also look at the way our contractors think, you will wonder if they are mentally OK. If for instance a contractor is asked to construct the Kano to Rano Expressway, opening Rano up to commerce, he will do a shoddy job, meaning the road will be impassable in the rainy season, making a lot of short term money or maybe just take off with the cash and not handle the project at all. Let us say that after giving Ganduje his 30% cut he was ends up with $1m, does he not realise that if he opens Rano up, it would mean the construction of housing units, markets, feeder roads, schools, hospitals and local government facilities? He could end up making $20m during the governor’s tenure but alas, he can only see the immediate cash

(6) This fear of poverty is what makes us so vain and ostentatious. Why for instance does Dino Melaye need 30 classic cars, his own special Champagne and designer clothing? Dino Melaye is actually a mirror reflection of the average Nigerian. We simply want to be respected and wealth is considered the best way to earn respect. Everyone wants to show they “have arrived.”

(7) We forever complain about how Nigeria is a mono-economy and wholly dependent on crude oil. We forever lambast the government for not diversifying into other sectors like tourism but then when we want to hold parties we go and have them in Dubai. Why on earth would foreign tourists come to Nigeria when Nigerians themselves would rather hold old school reunions, weddings and birthdays in Dubai?

(8) Those of you who end up spending millions on parties in Dubai rather than at the Obudu Ranch, the Ibom Golf Course, the Lekki Podium Events Centre or Abuja’s Peral Arena are just as guilty of destroying Nigeria as the public thief who pockets $100m of our commonwealth. Can you not see that you are preventing our tourist industry from growing? Dubai was once barren desert but its people had faith in it and turned the principality around. Unless you are prepared to similarly stick your neck out for Nigeria, you have no moral right to complain about our under-development

(9) As a people, are we really interested in moving our nation forward? All I can see is that my people want to make quick and easy money to cushion them for life. They then build churches and mosques next to their mansions to placate the local people and to assuage their guilty consciences. If our big men and women were genuinely concerned about their environments, they would build a school, provide drainage or tar the road. These are more urgent and pressing needs than a hypocritical faith house

(10) Now, the problem is how do we treat this national malaise called povertyphobia which has reached epidemic levels because until we do, Nigeria simply cannot develop. Take the need to show off wealth away and end this unhealthy fear of poverty and I guarantee you that corruption will reduce by about 80%. I look forward to the day it will be seen as perfectly normal for a commissioner to travel to work in a Lastma bus or for governors to go around the country by train. That will mark the genesis of our march to greatness