To my Nigerian followers. I appreciate all your wonderful comments, including the negative ones, regarding my write-up on GEJ. It will be impossible to respond to all individually; hence, this generic response.

I always distinguish between African leaders/governments and the PEOPLE. Chinua Achebe said it best in his book, The Trouble With Nigeria. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian character, culture or water. The problem lies purely and squarely with the leadership.

I have always admired Nigerians in the past -- resilient people, bustling with energy, dynamism and entrepreneurship. You will still find these admirable traits in some spots such as Onitsha Market. But the Nigerians of today are of a different stock – broken spirits, battered souls and trapped in cocoons of fear, mistrust and despair. Decades of reckless misrule and total government dysfunction have corroded the fabric of Nigerian character and society. When trapped in such a mess or maze, it is difficult to see the way out. When you engage a Nigerian in a conversation, the first thing s/he wants to know is which tribe or religion do you belong to? It never used to be like this.

The Ashanti have a proverb which says, “The one cutting a path through the bush does not see if it is crooked or not. Only those who stand afar can determine this.” What I write about Nigeria comes from this perspective. I am not Yoruba, Ndigbo or Hausa. I have no political axe to grind in Nigeria. I cannot even be president of Nigeria. In fact, I am not interested in the presidency of any African country. I call it the way I see it without fear or favor. The advantage and the service that I provide to the people of Nigeria is that I can say a lot of things which they are afraid to say. That doesn’t mean everything I say about Nigeria is true but at least it exposes the people to new or alternative perspectives.

However, it is not enough to say that President Goodluck Jonathan is a joke without pointing out the way forward, which is what I drilled into my students. Accordingly, I am writing another piece, Making Nigeria Work Again, which I will tweet in a couple of days.

Thanks for all your comments.

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