Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said that the problem of Nigeria is not in the constitution or the law, but in the rulers who rule without exhibiting the true attributes of a good leader.
He further stated that there is no president of Nigeria who has not exhibited nepotism and sectionalism in appointments.
Jibrin, who took to his X handle, wrote, “The problem of Nigeria is not in the constitution. The problem is not in the law. The problem is our disregard and disrespect for law and order. There have been agitations in Nigeria as to the proper rotation of power.
“The Igbo nation wants power. The Yoruba nation wants power. Hausa/Fulani wants power to remain with them. In all of these, no one sees the inherent dangers in these agitations as being in breach of the constitution.
“There is nothing in our constitution that says power must reside with these three nations. It is one classical example of constitutional discrimination. Let us take for a moment that these agitations are legitimate and good. Have we pondered for a moment why these three nations want to be the one to hold unto power in Nigeria.
“The reasons are simple.The cheapest means to get wealth in Nigeria is by being in power. But let me ask. Are these agitations not discriminatory. From available and empirical facts, Nigeria is made up of not less than 240 ethnic nationalities.
“Why must it be that only 3 out of these 240 nationalities are quarrelling to control and rule us. My humble view is that if Nigeria wants to develop and we must build Nigeria as a nation, then we must de-emphasize the idea of who rules and leads us.
“Our emphasis must be on capacity. Our emphasis must be on vision. Our emphasis must be on patriotism and nationalism. Our emphasis must be on the development of basic infrastructures across the length and breath of Nigeria.”
Jibrin advocated for a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s governance, stressing the urgency of prioritizing leadership over mere rule. He highlighted the abundance of talent in the nation and further lamented the prevalence of nepotism and favouritism over meritocracy.
“We must look for leaders and not rulers. We must allow sovereignty of the people to prevail over gunshots democracy. Talents abound in our nation.We have concentrated too much in name instead of ability and capacity. We have concentrated too much on who you know rather than what you know. We have concentrated too much on abnormalities instead of normal ways of doing things.
“We have to stop operating on the basis of the rule of convinence and go for the rule of law. We have neglected sanctions against deviant behaviour in our public and private institutions. We have become a nation of talking and talking without practical actions.
“Many conferences and constitutional conferences are gathering in historical archives. The problem of Nigeria is in leadership. We have produced many rulers. There is no leader yet. We may have had regional leaders in the past, but we have no leaders yet.
“Leaders lead by examples. Leaders don’t engage in corruption, nor do they condone corruption and corrupt practices. Nigerians have no true allegiance to Nigeria. Our allegiances seem to be to our ethnic nationalities. There lies the reasons for violent agitations for power rotations.”
He added, “The problem of Nigeria is not in the law. The problem of Nigeria is not in the constitution. The problem of Nigeria is in the rulers who rule without exhibiting the true attributes of a good leader.
“There is no president of Nigeria who had not exhibited nepotism and sectionalism in appointments. We also have followership problems. So, for me, let good leaders emerge. Good leaders can produce good followership. Nigerians can follow good or bad examples. That is the real issue.”
