Nigerian writer, political economist and professor Michael Ogueke believes that having a president from a particular part of Nigeria has done nothing for the people of that region. The author has taken to his social media to call out people who blindly support a presidential candidate only because he belongs to the area.
With the elections in Nigeria drawing closer, Professor Ogueke shared a post on his social media in which he made several observations regarding past leadership. He stated that since independence, no president had turned his state into anything near the rural areas of Dubai. The presidents never manage to lift their region or tribal areas above other regions in infrastructural & socio-economic development.
In the opinion of Michael Ogueke, presidencies are never beneficial for the people of the regions. In contrast, it is the elite of the region who benefit the most from having a president of their region. These profits come from federal appointments, federal elected offices, & federal government contracts. In the meantime, the general masses wallow in poverty and struggle with socio-economic crises and insecurity.
He observed that the people’s support for a leader from their part of the country is strong. They can even fight another individual for their choice. However, he added that this ardent support is not for any developmental opportunities or for the region’s development but only for ethnoreligious rigidity.
The people of the various states chose their leaders based on their prejudices and ethno-religious or tribal narrow-mindedness. Meanwhile, the ‘elite’ of the region use gullibility, ignorance and lack of vigilance of the people to their advantage.
Professor Michael Ogueke believes that the elite of every region of Nigeria keeps recruiting the general people from their tribes or religious groups for peanuts & pathetic promises to fight their greed battles.
These elites who benefit from federal appointments, federal elected offices, & federal government contracts, are hardly concerned about the upliftment of the masses and their standard of living. However, they continue to play the politics on the emmotions and gullibility of the general masses and use them for their own personal gains.
