We’ve had several presidents in my country so far, but then, I don’t think I can say that all of them have been memorable in the best of senses. As it stands, thinking we’ve had an exceptionally good president is kind of hard, and the only reason some feel better than what we have had in recent years is simply that things are worse off now than they were then. Note, though, it doesn’t mean that things were better off back then. They're just worse now.
And that is the conundrum we’ve found ourselves in. We’re simply a country with a bunch of leaders who are progressively worse off than their predecessors. And that’s just what we get, past leaders feeling like they were better off simply because current leaders are putting us through the wringer. But for as long as I’ve been alive, people have always been complaining about the country. We’ve always been complaining about the corruption and insecurity in the country.
It’s always been there, only that over time, it’s been getting worse. And that brings me to today. So, who has been our most memorable president so far? Most of the time, the most memorable would be the current president because right now, he’s the one on everyone’s minds. He’s making policies that don’t help the common man, and doesn’t even care at all that bandits and terrorists are killing the people in his charge. All they want, it seems, is just to make money.
But honestly, I’m sure that many more from my country writing on this topic would have made the same complaint, so I’ll focus on something a bit more positive. Another memorable president for me.
For many, one of the best administrations we had in the country was during the tenure of Umar Musa Yar’Adua. He was the most transparent, to the point that he was always willing to tell everyone everything that was going on. He had plans, and they were working. From what we knew, he really wanted to move this country to a better place and give the people a better life. But sadly, his life was cut short before he could even make any real progress.
He died while in office, and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan took over from him, kickstarting his tenure. Many say that he was also a good president, which I don’t doubt, but then the battles he had to fight during his tenure were just overwhelming, and sadly, he lacked the stones to do what he had to do. His reign also marked the start of terrorism that would plague us to this day. Although there have been talks that all that insecurity was politically motivated, and when they stopped paying dividends, they went rogue.
Honestly, it’s not easy at all. But I have to admit, life was easier and cheaper then. But does that mean that life was better at the time? Power was still epileptic, security was still in the hands of God… we had more doctors and nurses, though, but did we have adequate infrastructure to cater to them? No. We still had gross abuse of power in key places.
Now, I don’t know what to do. Whoever is willing to take the reins of this country and turn it around for the better, the person will have to be willing to go to war against the people who are benefitting largely from the state our country is in. Because it’s only then that we can truly get on the path to becoming better.
