Bad leadership and it's negative effect on the people who are oppressed gruesomely by Lene Ododomu

BAD LEADERSHIP AND IT'S NEGATIVE EFFECT ON THE PEOPLE WHO ARE  OPPRESSED  GRUESOMELY BY LENE ODODOMU

In the words of our eminent African novelist and father of modern African literature, Chinua Achebe: The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or  anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders . The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders 

to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the  hallmark of true leadership (The Trouble With Nigeria,1).

Without doubt, this perfect observation by Chinua Achebe, arguably one of the world’s  teeming and resourceful population, abundant natural, agricultural and mineral resources,  various countries got their independence from colonial rule. Ours is a continent with a consistently plagued the Nigerian and, indeed, the African political landscape since the  most erudite literary scholars and social commentators, captures the cankerworm that has  yet mired by misrule and glaring mismanagement.

In fact, leadership, in all its ramifications, has actually been the bane of our  kinds of humiliation and human degradation of the citizenry, especially the poor masses 

independence African society, there is oppression, hunger and starvation, and the  intolerance, victimisation, betrayal, sabotage, exploitation, ritual/wanton killings, and all  collective existence, such that today, most African countries, especially Nigeria is reference points of  tyranny, oppression, power mongering, official corruption, electoral malfeasance,  and those who advocate a functional model of society.Thus, everywhere in the post looming shadows of unmitigated greed and egregious ostentation in the face of crushing poverty, tyranny, betrayal and alarming insecurity have reduced Nigeria to an everyone for-himself and God-for-us-all society.

There are loud grumblings about the yawning gap between the rich and the poor.  competition for development. Unfortunately, there is conspiratorial silence on what is to  oppressed, the deprived, the exploited, the wretched of the earth—on the strength and  Serial failure of leadership has crippled the continent on the racetrack of global  be done with power so as to make the conditions of the vast majority of the people better,  distributed. The leadership class has not thought it wise to woo the masses—the  especially in the search for an egalitarian society, a society where resources are evenly  conviction of their vision for their societies to be optimistic of a better future.

To them, the African people should be quite easily exploited and oppressed, as  the whites did to them under colonialism. Power failure, oppression, exploitation,  indifference, betrayal of hope, bad roads, poor healthcare, inadequate housing, declining  an urgent reminder of things to do in post independence Africa. And the very first things  standards of education, massive unemployment, corruption, disillusionment, lack of basic necessities, safety, etc. have become the bane of the continent. In fact, this systemic rot is  to do is to change the way we have been doing things.

We need a change of system; a paradigm shift in our thinking, vision, values and  diminishes and dehumanises their people; a system that oppresses and exploits them; a  against itself cannot stand, Nigerians should not continue with a system that divides them, system that stifles creativity and discourages even distribution of resources and  actions. Indeed, there is no gain saying that the present system, which promotes the selfish  interests of a select few to the detriment of our common good of all in post-colonial  Africa, is an additional burden to the challenges of nation building. Since a house divided improvement in living standards. But, sadly, as Joseph A. Bassey says in “The Challenge  become a harrowing tale of great expectations and scandalous disappointment. A fairy  tale of several missed opportunities and unpardonable squandermania which have given  of Change” (Sunday Sun,Sept. 5, 2010),“the big story of post-independence Africa has  rise to glaring cases of oppression” (16).

Oppression, in this instance, is treating someone or a group in a cruel and unfair  making them sad. It is an act of maltreatment, a stifling situation, a denial that puts one or  a group in a state of despair. To Adebayo Ninalowo in “Not Yet Hurray”(Saturday Sun,  necessities of life as “free formal education to at least post-primary level, health facilities,  statuses and opportunities in the society” (33). He, therefore, advocates that the leader  these are parameters for measuringfailed states of which Nigeria and most other African  Dec. 22, 2012), “it has to do with structures of unequal distribution of power, privileges,  employment, equal opportunities, citizenship rights, etc”(33). To him, the absence of  welfare of the citizens is ever to be appreciated” (33). Ninalowo classified the basic  should “lessen the levels of structural inequalities, be transparent, be accountable, and  also ensure that municipal facilities or, rather, the basic necessities be provided if the  manner by not giving them the same opportunities, rights, freedom, etc. as others, and  countries are, going by the standards of life of the citizens.

Oppression entails injustice, abuse of power, position and office. It entails taking  power or for some personal advantage. It entails exploitation, deprivation, inhuman  public gains, public rights and ascribing them to oneself or a select few for peddling of  treatments, denials, favouritism, tyranny and despotism, etc and their attendant evil  consequences. It manifests itself in all spheres of life, even in our homes, at the lowest  levels. The oppressed, therefore, is one who feels dejected, exploited, denigrated,  deprived, hopeless, frustrated and humiliated. This gruesome narrative can only be changed by giving power to the good leaders who have human feelings.