Nigeria is a nation of highly religious people who
strongly believe in the supremacy of God over all things temporal and
spiritual. Of recent, events in the country are casting aspersions on
our common heritage and value of God as a people. The ascendance of
insecurity and unrestrained violence in diverse forms like religious
fanaticism, kidnapping, ethnic intolerance, local and external
terrorism; and in great magnitudes in recorded casualties and fatalities
has negatively impacted on the people's emotional well-being,
rationality, and by extension our trust, hope and faith in the Lord.
The
recurring factor for such a national chaos is leadership deficiency
where mean, parochial, selfish and ill-bred politicians in military and
civilian garbs dominate and control the national resources which are
used for all purposes except public good. This has bred public distrust
in leadership, exacerbate conflicts of interests across social fault
lines, and thereby tearing down the national fabric of tolerance of
contrary opinions, rights and privileges of other people living in an
heterogeneous society like ours. As an illustration, let's consider the
choice of David as a King in Israel, personal attributes such as
courage, pro-social inclinations, reverence to God etc. influenced his
choice over others including his siblings. His choice for leadership
position was not by hereditary, democratic or primordial factors. In
other words, God puts premium on good characters for leadership
positions; unlike in our society where charlatans, persons of
questionable integrity aspire for and ascend leadership positions in
public and private domains.
In
a nutshell, to achieve greatness and prominence in the comity of
nations, Nigeria does not deserve unpatriotic, impudent, incompetent,
selfish, ethnic hegemonic, and devilish set of people for leadership
positions as obtained presently. Rather visionary and competent persons
who fear God, passionate for public good, committed to changing negative
narratives about the country and its citizens, adherents to the rules
of law, deficient in religious bigotry and ethnic supremacy, and most
importantly chosen by the unction of God are required to steer the
national affairs of Nigeria to greater heights.
Civil
leadership recruitment in Nigeria tended to follow the common principle
of democracy which presupposes that "majority has its way and minority
has its say" as practised in major countries of the World. In its trail,
bitter acrimonies always ensue on the fairness of such process, and the
fitness of candidates recruited via such process. In short, recruited
leaders seldom meet the expectations of the people in the long run. Why?
People's choices of leaders are most often not God's choices for
leadership positions for them.
In
conclusions, mediocrity, lawlessness and sins can never exalt a nation
in concrete terms unless righteousness and fear of God prevail. This is
lent credence in Psalm 127:1 which says "Except the Lord builds a house,
they labor in vain that build it, except the Lord keeps a city, the
watchmen wake up in vain". Nigerians need to allow God to choose leaders
for them through the unction of the Holy Spirit. How to go about
achieving this goal is left in the Hands of the Lord for guidance.