Nigeria is fraught of poor leadership, corruption and weak bureaucratic institutions. It is an axiom that since attainment of political independence, Nigeria has never been governed by selfless, truly transformational and intellectually endowed leaders.

That is, Nigeria has never selected its best sons to positions of leadership and mediocre leadership can only lead to mediocre government without any serious achievement. What has been common over the years in our governance is the enthronement of hegemony, clueless, parochial, attitudinal debauchery and uninspiring leaders, with attendant formulation of series of ill-informed and poorly implemented policies/civil service reforms which decapitated the service, leading to the exit of dedicated, competent bureaucrats and provided incentives for corruption (Ogbu, 2013)

Globally, the strength of achievable developmental strides of every country is often largely determined by the quality and selfless nature of her leaders. However, when there is a visibly apparent culture of impunity and injustice in any society and there is a wide spread of lack of leadership by example to enthrone transparent and qualitative public bureaucracy, a dwindling degenerated symptoms of underdevelopment continues to manifest as exemplified in Nigeria Public Administration. The manifestation of symptoms of underdevelopment does not imply Nigeria lacks quality and competent human resources to engender development, but the process of enthroning leaders is riddled and bedeviled with crisis and it does not provide room for morally upright, competent, visionary leaders to emerge. Imhonopi and Ugochukwu, (2013) aptly capture Nigeria’s situation thus: Nigeria is richly endowed by providence with human and material resources critical for national development and advancement. However, since gaining political independence, Nigeria has continued to meander the path befitting failed, weak and “juvenile” states.

A state that had very great prospects at independence and was touted to lead Africa out of the backwoods of underdevelopment and economic dependency, Nigeria is still stuck in the league of very poor, corrupt, underdeveloped, infrastructurally decaying, crisis-riven, morally bankrupt and leadership-deficient countries of the South. Rather than become an exemplar for transformational leadership, modern bureaucracy, national development, national integration and innovation, Nigeria seems to be infamous for whatever is mediocre, corrupt, insanely violent and morally untoward (p78). History has shown that no nation in the wide world grew and enjoyed steady development in almost all spheres of its national life without experiencing good and selfless political leadership (Ogbeidi, 2012). This is mainly because qualitative growth and development has constantly been a product of good governance. The majority of Nigerian elected office holders are product of political corruption, they got their party tickets through political godfathers and mandate through election rigging. Corruption is used to acquire and sustain political mandate in Nigeria, leading to grievous consequences of mass poverty, unemployment, corruption, indiscipline in leadership, insurgency, terrorism and insecurity.

It is beyond disputations that the outbreak of coronavirus came in company of a lot of miseries and apparent hardships to business owners, middle class and the downtrodden in the society as a result of the fervent exercise in combatting the menace of the pandemic which was characterized by several lockdowns and uncompromising orders and policies on restrictions of movements and compulsory stay-at-home to avoid the blistering spread of the virus. Indeed, Nigeria saw different phases of hardships and painful living as survival grossly became that of the fittest without more. During the containment period of the pandemic well-meaning Nigerians clothed with philanthropic gestures made several of donations to ameliorate the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the perishing masses as palliatives.

Surprisingly, the Government of several states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria inclusive of the Federal Capital Territory refused, ignored and or neglected to distribute the palliatives to the painful detriment of the dying masses. The masses especially the Youths armed with concrete information about the whereabouts of the palliatives decided to invade the warehouses where those palliatives were stored in order to help the ravaging hunger threatening their survival. This to me, is the direct consequence of bad governance and leadership orchestrated by wickedness nursed and fed by wicked set of Nigerian leaders. Nigerian leaders including the Governors of various states who refused to share the palliatives to the public should bury their heads in shame as they have lost the confidence of the people and this singular incident of non-distribution of the palliatives has really exposed the venom and wickedness in their hearts and the masses now know crystal clear that the hearts of theseselfish Nigerian leaders are far from the pains of the masses. The palliatives were hoarded, the masses kept suffering and dying on daily basis without succor and any known help, yet this government keeps parading itself as fighting the menace of corruption, what could be more corrupt than hoarding food meant and earmarked for distribution to the poor and vulnerable in the society? This to me is the height of apparent manifestation of corruption.

True leaders in any nation are the key to a new world. It is practically impossible for any nation to improve, change, and develop without true leadership. True leaders are selfless, they think more of the next generation. If Nigeria is going to be successful we need true leaders. Leadership is not measured by how many people that serve you but how many people you serve and impacted positively. True leaders do not seek followers, but followers are attracted to true leaders. Leadership is not a right of the leader but a privilege given by the followers and the leader must respect the followers. Leadership success is measured by the success of your successor. No matter how great a leader may have been if he could not produce a successor, he is a failure. This is true of a parent, a teacher and a politician. A true leader must be able to mentor those who will succeed him so that his legacy will not be destroyed. True leaders do not have seat-tight syndrome. Thoughtfully,leadership crisis manifests in any nation when the leaders are characterless, clueless, self-seeking, greedy, parochial, focus-less, visionless, mission-less, uninspiring, attitudinal debauchery, unwilling to relinquish power, thoughtless, unfair, high-handed. Regrettably, these are the qualities of Nigerian Leaders.

In all honesty, no sane government or Governor would ever go about hunting the Youths anywhere who forcefully took some of the items meant for them as palliatives warehoused in obscurities and none of them should be prosecuted in any competent court of law for such reasons. The Governors who refused to share and or distribute those palliatives should bury their heads in shame for perpetrating the ungodly. Our leaders are self-seeking, wicked and merciless in their dealings and the wrath of God will befall all of them that refuse to respond to the plights and hardships of the masses. Let our leaders know that, the Youths of today are more conscious of their rights than the Youths of yesterday, do not mess with them.