“Leadership, at its core, is about responsibility and empathy. It’s about prioritizing the urgent needs of the people above personal comfort and status. But what we see instead is a leadership more invested in maintaining its social circles than in solving the crises that define our daily lives”.
BY BELLO GWARZO ABDULLAHI
What should have passed as a routine wedding ceremony—the fatiha of the son of Senator and former Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari Abubakar—has instead become a painful reflection of the misplaced priorities of our nation’s leadership.
The fanfare, extravagance, and the overwhelming presence of top government officials at the event sharply contrast with the silent suffering of millions of ordinary Nigerians facing daily hardship. It compels us to ask: is this really how to run a country?
At a time when Nigeria is grappling with escalating insecurity, economic instability, rising inflation, mass unemployment, dilapidated infrastructure, and a growing sense of hopelessness, the opulence of the Yari wedding sends the wrong signal. It highlights the widening disconnect between the ruling elite and the common citizen, whose basic needs are increasingly ignored.
Roads are impassable. Schools are underfunded. Hospitals lack the most essential equipment. The naira continues its freefall, while food prices soar beyond the reach of average households. Insecurity has turned once-thriving communities into ghost towns. Yet, amidst all this, our leaders find the time and resources to assemble en masse—not to address these issues—but to attend a lavish wedding.
This is not about the young couple. Weddings are meant to be joyous occasions. But when public officials who should be convening emergency economic and security meetings are instead flying across the country in convoys and private jets to celebrate one of their own, it becomes clear where the national compass is pointed: inward, not outward; toward self, not the people.
It is this very culture of indifference that continues to undermine public trust. Leadership, at its core, is about responsibility and empathy. It’s about prioritizing the urgent needs of the people above personal comfort and status. But what we see instead is a leadership more invested in maintaining its social circles than in solving the crises that define our daily lives.
This wedding has become symbolic—not of love and union—but of everything that is wrong with the current political climate. It underscores a glaring truth: that while the country burns, those entrusted with its welfare are busy dancing at the margins.
History will remember this era not just for its challenges, but for how our leaders chose to respond—or failed to. Until we begin to demand accountability, transparency, and genuine service, such spectacles will continue to overshadow substance.
Nigeria deserves better. Nigerians deserve better.
…Engr. Abdullahi, who is based in Gombe, can be reached via bgabdullahi@gmail.com
