By Theo Adebowale

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A people who install the right persons in leadership positions soon discover that their problems have been solved to a great extent. But when by whatever means the wicked occupy leadership position it is the people who suffer. We must remember that it is a good citizen who essentially becomes a good leader.
Whereas a good leader encourages his followers to be of good behaviour, the bad one emboldens them to break the law and arm twists those in charge of ensuring compliance to look the other way. He intimidates, harasses and frightens those who voted him into power. This set of followers have no regard for the law.
They do not believe in equity or due process, they invest heavily on violence and have no time for debate or development. Their concern is how to exploit the people and their land while nepotism is their cheapest ideology. Whereas the good leader hunts for the best brain to deliver the best quality in goods and services where they are, the wicked leader can afford to delay or cancel provision of essential services to make people know how powerful he is. Such members of the political elite held the people to ransom insisting the public tap must not distribute water and the water works was not functional. They set up private water tankers to extort the people and made them pay for such poor water quality. They encourage their beloved citizens to violate public order through improper display and use of firearms claiming constitutional cover. When they are engulfed by banditry and all manners of criminality, they would still want it to become national, not restricted to any part of their country. In all these, they would not need immunity for their children to display AK47, those ones deserve education in foreign land and plenty of money to enjoy their stay in foreign lands where they are kept to keep the law and become ladies and gentlemen who can be entrusted with leadership position. But they need those who can kidnap, who can perpetrate insurgency, who can commit arson to make the territory ungovernable whenever their candidates do not emerge victorious in an election.
This is not necessarily a characteristic of a particular profession, religion, or region. Rather, it is the choice of a tribe of men to whom nationalism has no meaning or whose conceptualisation of nationalism is obscure? A couple of months ago, there went viral pictures of a shepherdess who transformed to a modern elite and eventually became foreign minister.
She could not have been nurtured or mentored by a minister or governor who preferred her display firearms about turn or otherwise constituting a public nuisance.
The spate of kidnapping in North West Nigeria that make school compounds the preferred theater of criminals who prefer to kidnap school boys and girls for a ransom, is not acceptable. It is the social responsibility of the Nigerian state to ensure a conducive environment for all citizens to carry out their legitimate business be they economic, religious or knowledge acquisition.
In the last couple of weeks, there have been some changes in the political system. Essentially, the replacement of service chiefs and some important officials must have greatly influenced such a positive development. By and large, by the time Mr President has changed his mind that things can no longer continue to work like this, the people would rejoice.