A Nation Held Hostage by Cronyism While Merit Bleeds Out
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B.
NIGERIA IS ON FIRE.
Not metaphorically. Not as rhetorical exaggeration. Literally ,economically, socially, and institutionally , this nation is burning, and the man entrusted with the national hose appears more preoccupied with watering his private garden.
The comparison many within the corridors of power would prefer Nigerians never make is this: Atiku Abubakar, as Vice President under President Olusegun Obasanjo, reached across continents and oceans to pull some of Nigeria’s finest minds out of London, Washington, Houston, and Toronto, and place them at the service of their country.
Many of them were strangers to him personally. They owed him no political debt. They had built comfortable lives abroad. Yet they were invited home, not because of loyalty, but because of competence. Not because of proximity, but because of capacity. He recruited them on merit, on reputation, and on demonstrable intellectual value, and integrated them into the engine room of Nigeria’s economic reform.
By contrast, Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s governing architecture has reflected a different organising principle. Familiar names. Long-standing associates. Political loyalists. Individuals whose greatest credential, fairly or unfairly perceived, is longstanding proximity to power.
That difference in philosophy is not cosmetic. It is consequential.
THE ATIKU MODEL: MERIT WITHOUT SENTIMENT
The record is clear. As Vice President and Chairman of the National Economic Council, Atiku Abubakar embraced an approach uncommon in Nigerian political tradition: he prioritised what individuals could deliver over what they had done for him personally.
Technocrats, economists, and policy specialists, many from the diaspora, were brought into public service to help design and execute reforms that would later underpin Nigeria’s period of strongest economic expansion in the democratic era.
This approach was not without political risk. Leaders who reach beyond their loyal circles expose themselves to dissent, disagreement, and even betrayal. But great leadership has never been about comfort. It has been about results.
Atiku understood a truth many political establishments resist: when loyalty becomes the primary currency of recruitment, performance becomes the first casualty.
THE TINUBU SYSTEM: WHEN LOYALTY OVERSHADOWS COMPETENCE.
Since May 29, 2023, Nigerians have witnessed a governing structure shaped, in large part, by political familiarity and long-standing alliances.
At the same time, Nigerians have endured severe economic strain. The naira has depreciated dramatically. Inflation has eroded purchasing power. Food prices have surged beyond the reach of millions. Energy costs have multiplied. The cost-of-living crisis has become the defining experience of ordinary citizens.
Correlation does not automatically prove causation. But leadership philosophy inevitably shapes leadership outcomes.
Governments built primarily on political obligation often struggle to deliver national transformation.
When competence is secondary, consequences are primary.
THE CONSEQUENCES ARE NOT ABSTRACT.
Leadership decisions do not live in policy papers. They live in the daily reality of citizens.
They live in the trader in Onitsha whose capital evaporates under inflation.
They live in the graduate in Kano whose degree gathers dust.
They live in the family in Ibadan forced to choose between food and fuel.
Leadership philosophy is not theory. It is lived experience.
Atiku’s demonstrated willingness to recruit broadly, to search globally, and to empower competence represented one governing model.
Tinubu’s current governing structure reflects another.
Nigeria is living the difference.
NIGERIA’S FUTURE REMAINS UNWRITTEN
Nations are not prisoners of their present. They are products of their choices.
Nigeria’s current hardship is not inevitable. It is the outcome of decisions. And decisions can be revised. Leadership can be reimagined. Direction can be corrected.
There remains, in millions of Nigerians, a stubborn refusal to accept decline as destiny.
They remember that governance, while never perfect, can be purposeful. That leadership can prioritise national advancement over personal networks. That competence can still triumph over convenience.
And they continue to believe that Nigeria can yet be led by those who ask, first and always:
Not “Who stood with me?”
But “Who can lift this nation?”
The distance between national stagnation and national progress is often determined by a single leadership choice: whether to reward loyalty or to reward competence.
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Director-General,
The Narrative Force
