Reflections, consequences of poor leadership, failure of national consensus, by Michael Olatunbosun |

The book for this week is titled Reflections: A Collection of Short Essays, written by Wale Olaitan, and published in 2019 by Winepress Publishing Ibadan. Wale Olaitan holds a Masters in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Griffith University, Australia. He writes passionately about politics, especially about the need to improve the people’s living standards in Nigeria. Wale’s other book, Ideas for Socio-Political Change: A Collection of My Social Media Commentaries was published in 2015, in Australia where he lives.

Reflections, Olaitan’s second published work, is a collection of essays written between July 2015 and June 2019, grouped into 13 chapters. In the author’s introduction, we read that this collection of essays offers the author’s “broader insight about the political situations in Nigeria” and highly personal thoughts on political issues in Nigeria with mirror references to a few global news headlines. The author wonders about the perpetual subjectivity of truth in today’s political discourse, and the fact that it is especially aided by the preponderance of fake news. For him, it is disturbing that today, alternative truth reigns in political discourses despite there being no substitute for truth. What reigns now is the tendency for people to interpret the truth based on the political party whose card they carry. 

The author begins on a hopeful note by stating that, although creating a new Nigeria is possible, but that it “requires urgency and it is a task for all Nigerians, those at home and her millions in the diaspora.” But the author proceeds to lament the various evils that dog the nation, including the unpardonable socio-economic indices, the unbridled population and gross mismanagement which are direct functions of mis-governance and alarming lootocracy. The author wonders aloud why or how it is possible for people who were stupendously rich before they served in government, would continue to accumulate wealth illegally at the expense of extremely poor Nigerians. He avers here that “there must be something fundamentally wrong with many politicians in our part of the world which requires proper diagnosis…” and he  asks: “why do wealthy politicians steal from their poor constituents?” 

Still preoccupied with the poor governance that holds sway in this part of the world, Wale Olaitan embarks on a hysteric listing of the consequences of poor leadership in Nigeria and Africa. The scores of Africans that embark on perilous journeys across the Sahara Desert and the attendant deaths of many in rickety boats, all in a bid to escape from their fatherland and get to Europe, in search for better life. The thousands trapped in prostitution rings in Europe. The thousands trapped in modern day slavery in the middle east, the many on death row for drug trafficking in Asia and thousands in different prisons across the world. 

Of course, it is not all doom and gloom. The author claims that the journey to a new Nigeria has started. He mentioned the election that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power as the beginning of the change. He also states that to make that new Nigeria possible, we must look beyond the APC/PDP dichotomy when we discuss issues of national significance, we must shift our allegiance from parties to Nigeria, look beyond ethnic and religious affiliations and combine energies in creating a new Nigeria with limitless opportunities. 

In Reflections: A Collection of Short Essays, Wale Olaitan believes that the business of governance requires bringing together the best brains a nation can assemble, and that the country has millions of competent people to choose from. He also agrees with the verdict that many African leaders are corrupt. In fact he thinks that it is criminal for them to loot the resources of their countries for onward stashing in foreign accounts under bogus names, especially in Swiss banks. But he also castigates the West in this pillaging of Africa. He believes that it is wrong for western accomplices to initially ignore the obvious irregular circumstances of these transactions until the demise of the ignorant dictator and then move swiftly to freeze the accounts and other assets. For the author, this is a moral issue to which the West is blind, or pretends not to see.

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In a similar vein, he castigates the United States of America for a 2015 refusal to assist the Nigerian government to defeat the dangerous Boko Haram group based on allegations of human rights violation, but would support Israel’s occupation of Gaza, or the war atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the rest. For the author, this is tantamount to allowing Boko Haram to continue with its reign of impunity. In fact, it reeks of hypocrisy!

In the book, Reflections: A Collection of Short Essays, Wale Olaitan also discussed the key issues at stake for the nation during the days of President Buhari’s health uncertainties. The author, writing in a piece in 2017,  challenged the nation’s double standards, especially regarding how people in the ruling party and those in government handled the health of the president. He thought that since the president’s health issues then had somewhat affected governance, the president should have just resigned. He castigated the northern power brokers for selfishly and deliberately wanting the president to complete his 8-year tenure at the expense of his health and that of the nation.

In the book, the author also interrogates the absence of a national value or philosophy. In one of the write ups titled A Nation Without a Set of Unifying Cultural Values, the author writes: “Nigeria is a country without a set of unifying cultural values among its different tribal and ethnic groups. This explains why different tribal and ethnic groups hardly agree on how to address the multifaceted challenges confronting Africa’s most populous nation. When the new government decided to fight the endemic corruption, which without a doubt has been the bane of development in Nigeria, a section of the country chose to adopt a sensational narrative hinged on “persecution” and “witch-hunting” of their political leaders and party members.”

The author in this piece calls to remembrance the heroic welcome that Delta State’s former Governor James Ibori received when he returned home after serving jail time in the United Kingdom. 

Essentially the author’s concern is that Nigerians see or interpret issues from the lenses of tribal and ethnic leanings, or in many cases, religious. There is therefore no national consensus about what is good, bad or desirable, and what is good for the nation.

At a point in this book, the author resigns to fate by musing regrettably that the 2019 election was once again a two-horse race. According to him: “From all indications, it appears the transformational messages of young presidential aspirants have not resonated with most Nigerians. And sadly, the hype that heralded the emergence of a new generation of politicians is gradually fading away, as the politicking deepens among the key players…. They say a people deserve its leaders, Nigerians know what to do when they are ready to elect visionary and energetic leaders.”

In this book, the author has a broad collection of essays about politics in Ogun state, about June 12, and socio-economic elements of electioneering campaigns in Nigeria, and a collection of tributes for some departed persons, including Stephen Keshi and Pius Adesanmi. 

The book is a worthy contribution to the perpetual conversations about the Nigerian state and its search for national consensus and clarity.

. Olatunbosun can be reached by 08023517565 (SMS & WhatsApp) and [email protected].

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