When Days Become Decades -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

As a country, Nigeria’s greatest curse is that its course has long been derailed by a catastrophic succession of rudderless and spineless leadership whose leaders show loyalty to party and personal interests above the yearnings of the people whom they are supposed to lead to the promised land.

For many years now, Nigerians have seen their time in the sun postponed indefinitely and their time in darkness burnt by their leadership. In this time, countries they long considered inferior have since caught up with them, surpassed them, and become signages of superiority.

As a guardrail against the vile and often vindictive vicissitudes of power, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria prescribes a four-year term of office for all elective political offices. The constitution presciently expects that at the twilight of four years, the Nigerian voter would stand to reassess their options, weigh the circumstances, and decide whether to pull or push those they elected into office.

In Nigeria, rather than undertake this painful but momentous task as and when due, many Nigerians now prefer to make excuses for their laughably incompetent public office holders. Thus, phrases like “He has only had four years,” “ “Four years is not enough,”  even the more nauseating “ four plus four.”

Given the depths into which their country has sunk, many Nigerians have become cursed with the mentality that those whom they elect into office need an indefinite and indeterminate amount of time to fix the legion of problems. It has gotten so bad that some even go to the extent of wishing they had more time. Olusegun Obasanjo’s infamous third-term attempt in 2006 comes to mind.

This mentality has become an express way for Nigeria’s do-nothing politicians to get into office, do nothing, only to leave office and lament that they did not have enough time to effect tangible change.

The truth is that time is never enough for the indolent and indecisive. It has never been enough and will never be enough. Those who are prudent take advantage of whatever time they have to make the desired impact.

No serious leader requires an eternity to make a measurable impact. It only takes seconds to set off change.

For any serious leader, it only takes days for a vision and timeline to turn into  transformation. When leadership is translating into change, it usually takes very little time.

As for those whose dismissive and permissive justification for Nigeria’s leadership problems is to exonerate faltering public officers by perpetually singing that “Rome was not built in a day,” or that four  years is not enough,” it is important to remember that a key part of vision lies in its timing and delivery.

When vision runs late, it largely becomes  mission impossible. Ahead of the 2027 elections, Nigerians cannot afford to walk into traps with their eyes wide open. All those who seek their votes for a second term in any office must justify the time spent already. All those who cannot justify the same must be put out to pasture.

All those who are throwing their hats into the  ring for the first time must also do more than promise Nigerians—they must move from promises to assurances and then performance. Nigerians should accept no less.

Nigerians must deliberately run out of patience because unless they begin  to  demand more than empty promises and  well-calibrated lies, they will remain rooted to a spot while the rest of the world moves forward.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,

Ikewilly9@gmail.com