The Mao Zedong Model

 

Mao Zedong, popularly known as Chairman Mao, was successful with his noble goals for China through despotic means.

His leadership was severe, dictatorial and personalized.

For as long as Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution lasted, thousands of Chinese died of starvation and inhuman labor.

Mao and his co-travelers argued that the same was the price their people had to pay for re-education.

This brand of governance ensured the extermination of the heroes of the civil war and the old party chieftains by the President's armed squad.

Chairman Mao is perhaps the role model of those who hold sway in Nigeria today.

Indeed, some state governors, are  among several other political office holders, who adore the President.

Those in support of this argument insist that on a number of occasions, kneeling  down to greet and/or consult with the President are common place. 

They maintain that this is only a sign of respect in the traditional African setting.

However, those against this order of things, stress that the underlying factors revolve around hypocrisy and boot licking.

Nigerians are yet to stop complaining of constitutional breaches and the unabated trampling of the rule of law in the dust, without noticeable changes by the powers that be.

From recent events in the country, the economic reform programs of the All Progressives Congress(APC) led government at the center and in the states, are modeled along the thinking of a free market economy.

It is doubtful if the government, in most recent times, has managed the economy for the benefit of Nigerians.

Of worry is the state of manufacturing industries, which could be said to be epileptic, even as food security is a mirage, insecurity is the chorus everywhere, while crude oil remains the major hope of the present administration.

Interestingly, the future growth of the Nigerian economy rests comfortably on diversification and focus on visionary and creative people-friendly economic policies, although the government still over-relies and over-depends on crude oil to fund its programs.

Can the present administration turn around the troubled economy ? Nobody knows.