Nigera is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the state of Nigeria is directly influenced by the inadequacy of its leaders.
Chinua Achebe's quote reflects the belief that the quality and integrity of leadership significantly determine the progress and condition of a nation. It highlights the responsibility that leaders have towards their people and critiques the failure of leaders to meet the expectations and needs of their country, indicating that societal issues often stem from ineffective or corrupt leadership.
In practice
In a discussion about governance, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of capable leadership.
In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn't perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.
Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches!
Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life - to drive the crowd away from His church.
It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time was the absence of the African voice. Being part of that dialogue meant not only sitting at the table but effectively telling the African story from an African perspective - in full earshot of the world.
An angry man is always a stupid man.
Know what your people are like, and make sure they do their jobs excellently.
Leadership is standing with your people. People say you have to live to fight another day, but sometimes you have to show you are a true leader.
When you care about people's happiness and productivity, you give them what brings out the best in them and their creativity. And if you give them a choice, they'll say, 'I want an iPhone,' or 'I want a Mac.' We think we can win a lot of corporate decisions at that level.
You can't just shuffle people around like they're deck chairs on a ship. You have to help them change their lives, and you have to give them the requisite resources to do so.
As we mourn President Mandela’s passing we must ask ourselves the fundamental question - what shall we do to respond to the tasks of building a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa, a people-centred society free of hunger, poverty, disease and inequality, as well as Africa’s renaissance, to whose attainment President Nelson Mandela dedicated his whole life?
Never break the neutrality of a port or place, but never consider as neutral any place from whence an attack is allowed to be made.
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