Without intrusive digression into political philosophy, a Leviathan is understood here simply in the metaphorical context adapted by Thomas Hobbes in his foundational work, “The Leviathan”, to mean a “State” or a “Commonwealth”. In that same metaphorical sense, the Giant of Africa requires no further explanation than the “Nigerian State”.
Is there any justification for applying these metaphors to Nigeria? After we triumphantly lowered the Union Jack in October 1960, a shadow swiftly fell across Nigeria’s nascent promise. It was not merely the shadow of our colonial legacy, but also one cast by a homegrown class โ a ruling elite whose defining characteristic became pernicious avarice.
With ruthless determination, the Nigerian elite orchestrated and perpetuated a relentless cycle of dysfunction, transforming the dream of Africa’s giant into a nightmare of stunted potential. Yet, perhaps the deeper, more insidious tragedy lies not solely in their rapacious grip, but in the unsettling inertia โ the profound complicity โ of a citizenry seemingly hypnotized into enduring the landslide of national decay.
When the sacrifices of our heroes past โ their blood, their sweat, and their shattered dreams โ are rewarded with collective inaction and whispered resignation, a harrowing question arises: Have Nigeria and Nigerians, through this twin failure and impotence, rendered themselves unworthy of those very sacrifices? Are we the unworthy inheritors of the priceless legacies bequeathed by a generation of betrayed forebears?
I argue that the architects of our serial dysfunction are no mystery. We need look no further than our military despots who raped our constitutions, plundered the treasury, and entrenched a culture of impunity now normalized. They include the civilian politicians who perfected the art of state capture, transforming public offices into private properties. They are the bureaucrats and contractors enmeshed as accomplices in webs of kickbacks and inflated contracts.
Their collective avarice is systemic, creating a capital famine that diverts resources meant for schools, hospitals, roads, and power into offshore accounts, palatial mansions, and private jets. They thrive on division โ ethnic, religious, regional โ cleverly manipulating these fault lines to distract from their larceny and fragment any unified opposition into impotence. These perfidies manifest in electoral heists that mock democracy, in policies designed to enrich a few while pauperizing the many, and in the deliberate weakening of the very institutions meant to hold power accountable. This endless cycle of corruption, decay, instability, and re-looting is not accidental; it is the profitable Ponzi scheme they diligently maintain and perpetuate.
However, to lay blame entirely at the feet of a predatory elite succumbs to the dangerous temptation of absolving the other critical actor in this tragedy: the citizenry itself. Their craven indolence is palpable. It manifests not just as physical laziness, but as a paralysis of civic spirit, a retreat into cynical, self-centred individualism.
It is a resignation into despondency that whispers, “Na so e dey,” “Wetin we fit do?”, “My own is to survive.” It is the prioritization of immediate, personal survival over the long-term collective good; the reluctance to sacrifice instant private gratification for longer-term benefit of the wider society. This is not mere poverty-induced fatigue; it is a typology of cultivated cowardice โ a fear of consequence eagerly weaponized by a rapacious elite to maintain their stranglehold.
I insist that his complicity is even more corrosive. It is that parent bribing an examiner for their child’s grades, perpetuating the rot in education. It is the community leader accepting crumbs to endorse a corrupt candidate. It is the journalist self-censoring, the intellectual retreating into ddeliberate bstraction and obfuscation, the professional association silent in the face of manifest exploitation and injustice. It is the millions who, while cursing the darkness, are frightened to light even a single candle of hope through principled action or sustained demands for accountability.
This craven complicity, born of fear, misguided pragmatism, or a warped sense of benefit, provides the oxygen enabling our corrupt elite to persist in degrading the collective welfare. Our inaction provides them a shield; our continued silence empowers their entitlement and reinforces their endurance.
What must our founding fathers be thinking, looking down upon Nigeria today? A nation where their selfless sacrifices seem squandered by a kleptocratic cabal enabled by a populace too afraid or apathetic to demand better? Where the “labour of our heroes past” appears to have been in vain? The bitter and damning conclusion โ that plundering rulers and passively complicit citizens may be unworthy of their pain and sacrifice โ is a searing indictment. It suggests a fundamental failure of the national character they sought to build. Have we betrayed their dreams and our own by normalizing this abnormality, accepting this decay as our destiny?
This article is not a funeral dirge of despair, but a brutal wake-up call, a mirror held to our collective conscience. Nigeria’s redemption demands a rupture of this deadly symbiosis between a thieving elite and a complicit citizenry. It demands an unyielding citizen focus on institution-building: fiercely independent judiciaries, incorruptible anti-graft agencies, vigilant and responsible media, and electoral commissions insulated from executive capture. It requires citizens actively protecting these institutions and demanding consequences for those who undermine and compromise them.
We must shatter the culture of silence and complicity. We must exorcise the spirit of “e go better” passivity. We must organize and engage in strategic civic actions that transcend social media hashtags. We must create non-partisan movements focused on specific governance issues โ national security, health, power supply, education funding, infrastructure, budget transparency โ holding leaders accountable across all tiers of government.
The sacrifices of our true heroes past impose a universal debt. That debt is not merely to remember them with ceremonial plaques and anthems, but to honour them by rescuing the nation they bled for from the clutches of the avaricious few and the quicksand of complicity by the many.
The alternative will not just be our endless stagnation, but the final, silent burial of a dream sacrificed for in vain. The Giant of Africa must arise as the Leviathan of hope for the entire continent.
Haruna Yahaya Poloma
harunapoloma@yahoo.com
