Fate can be cruel at times. Events virtually beyond your control conspire together to reduce you to an emotional wreck, an object of mockery for neighbours, friends and colleagues. You watch helplessly, realizing that you are only a victim of the failure of leadership, suffering from the painful effects of the actions and inactions of those entrusted with the sacred duty of taking decisions that affect the emotions and wellbeing of millions of people. Most worrisome is the nagging feeling that the gloomy situation would likely get worse.
 
Being an indigene of Imo State, a Nigerian and a passionate fan of Arsenal FC at this point is a sure recipe for continuous annoyance, anger, disappointment and misery. These three entities are now regarded as embodiments of failure, inept leadership, crass incompetence and to some extent shamelessness. Their current leaders came to power with a promise of hope, renewal and progress but today they have left their followers in despair, agony and retrogression. People have been reduced to a laughing stock by origin and association. They watch helplessly as their leaders desecrate all known precepts of leadership.
 
However, it was not meant to be this way.
 
Imo State, the Eastern Heartland, was supposed to be the pride of the Igbos who occupy the whole of South East Nigeria. The state is the highest oil-producing state in the South East, has the highest number of local governments and was the state least affected by the devastating civil war of 1967 – 1970. Imo was the top state in Nigeria in the latest Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams and has produced such notable people as Sam Mbakwe, Leo Stan Ekeh, Kanu Nwakwo, Genevieve Nnaji, Walter Ofonagoro and Adiele Afigbo.
 
Today, Imo State is a butt of jokes due to the actions and idiosyncrasies of state governor, Rochas Okorocha. No thanks to the internet and social media, the name Rochas, of which meaning is mired in mystery and linked to misery, is now known all over the world as an epitome of tomfoolery, ineptitude and shameless nepotism.
 
This is a man who got to Douglas House Owerri nearly seven years ago as a courier of hope, a renowned philanthropist elected to deliver Imo State from the clutches of Ikedi Ohakim. Mr. Ohakim was alleged to have stolen the state dry and was alleged to have sent thugs to beat up a clergyman. Thousands of Imolites danced in the streets of Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe when Okorocha’s victory over the then incumbent governor seeking for a second term in office was officially announced, believing that the saviour had arrived.
 
These days, the citizens of Imo State gnash their teeth in regret as the one who was supposed to save the state has proven to be a tyrant. In addition to outperforming his predecessor in high handedness, Okorocha has spiced his misrule with virulent clowning and brazen nepotism.
 
If the governor’s recent declaration that the state would be more comfortable with armed robbers than marijuana smokers is forgiven as a spur of the moment misspeak, the decision to erect some huge statues in the state including that of Jacob Zuma, the disgraced former South African President, was an infuriating celebration of misplaced priorities and a barefaced waste of huge public funds on white elephant projects. He chose to deify Zuma in spite of the fact that the then unpopular president of South Africa was facing a massive 786-count charge for corruption and his government had virtually done nothing over the xenophobic killing of Nigerians in South Africa. The silliness of erecting Zuma’s statue, giving him the highest honour in the state and naming a major road in Owerri after him was laid bare when he was forced to resign as president of South Africa some few months later over allegations of corruption.
 
The state government has been owing workers and pensioners in the state for several months, several abandoned projects litter the state and most roads in the state are unpassable during the rainy season. To mock the despair of Imolites, the governor created a Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfilment late last year. The leadership inanity espoused by this action was accentuated by the appointment of the governor’s blood sister, Ogechi Ololo, as the commissioner in charge of the ministry.
 
Mrs. Ololo’s appointment was only another show of brash, noxious nepotism by the governor. It is well known in Imo State that the governor’s other sister named Geraldine supplies food and drinks to government house from her fast food joint; his elder sister collects market tolls in the state; the father in-law of his son Uzo, Professor Anthony Anwuka, is the governor’s nominee to the federal cabinet and is the current Minister of State for Education and the vice-chancellor of Imo State University, Professor Adaobi Obasi, is Okorocha’s aunt. Also worthy of note is that Anwuka’s wife, Justice Christiana Anwuka, was appointed by the governor as the President of Imo State Customary Court of Appeal.
 
Governor Okorocha has become so stranded in nepotism that he recently anointed Uche Nwosu, his son in-law who is also the current chief of staff as his successor as governor of Imo State. When he was the commissioner for lands and housing in Okorocha’s government, Mr. Nwosu is alleged to have facilitated the illegal and immoral acquisition of hundreds of choice houses and landed properties in Imo State by the governor, his family members, friends and cronies. Imo State has become a huge joke with Governor Rochas Okorocha as the chief comedian, dissing the citizenry with morbid, tragic and dangerous performances.
 
The Nigerian situation is a lot direr. Nigerians are marooned in the vortex of a clueless, incompetent, insensitive and savage government. In 2015, when the then president Goodluck Jonathan was voted out of power, most Nigerians warmly welcomed Muhammed Buhari, a former military head of state who had contested for the presidency so many times in the past that as they felt his persistence meant he had something to offer.
 
Some of those who rooted for Buhari knew he was joking when he promised to make one dollar equal to one naira. They knew about his questionable school certificate, his traits of religious irredentism.
 
But they were excited by his promise of change and hope. Buhari was seen as a no-nonsense man of integrity who would rid the country of the persistent evil of corruption, arguably the country’s greatest albatross. Nigerians hoped that as a former military man, he would bring a debilitating Boko Haram insurgency in the north east of the country to an end.
 
Nearly three years later, the country’s economy is in shambles. Nigerians who have never seen a classroom in their lives are now familiar with the word recession. Millions of Nigerians have lost their jobs, many people are suffering and all the masses get from the government are cheering but misleading economic statistics they are unable to feel in real life. Nigerians are no longer asking the president to fulfil his promise of making the dollar equal to the naira but to take back the exchange rate to N170 to $1 where his government met the national currency.
 
It disheartens many Nigerians that the promised fight against corruption has become a mirage, fought mainly in the pages of newspapers. Money has been found abandoned in flats, airports and safe rural houses. Properties and bank deposits worth hundreds of billons of naira, believed to be proceeds of illicit activities have been forfeited to the government. But then, Nigerians are asking why no highly placed person has been convicted of corruption.
 
The fight against Boko Haram insurgency is the most painful. The president told Nigerians that Boko Haram has been defeated. Then the suicide bombings continued, the killings persisted and the president shamelessly asked the national assembly for one billion dollars to continue the fight against a defeated enemy. The government paid millions of dollars as ransom to secure the release of 100 kidnapped girls and the terrorists apparently used a fraction of the ransom payment to mobilize and kidnap another 110 schoolgirls. Nigerians have been searching for the meaning of technically defeated.
 
The herdsmen atrocities, whereby the president’s kin kill and maim helpless Nigerians with impunity, would remain the lowest point of the Buhari administration. Many bereaved families in Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Enugu and other states of the country are cursing the day Buhari Part II happened.
 
These days, Nigerians have become so used to government ineptitude that many of them have taken the three-month long fuel scarcity as normal. In a country where the national oil company NNPC recently announced that the country has achieved another heinous feat as the largest petroleum importer in the world, most of the traumatized populace now relish dubious stories of snakes and monkeys swallowing huge sums of money, many of them using the allegories as a welcome escapism, a means of keeping their sanity intact.
 
Arsene Wenger at Arsenal Football Club is similar to Okorocha and Buhari. Just like the present Imo State and Nigeria, Arsenal have become an epitome of failure and frustration, a source of constant heartbreak. This is a club that has competed in Champions League finals with FC Barcelona but was recently beaten at home by Swedish minnows Ostersund in the Europa League, a second-tier competition meant to compensate teams who were not good enough for the elite European competition. As the defending champions, Arsenal were dumped out of the English FA Cup by Nottingham Forest, a manager-less team from England’s second tier.
 
It was not a shame to lose to Manchester City, runaway leaders of the English premier league, but to lose to them twice in four days, at a neutral ground and at home and with an aggregate score of 6–0, was very distressing. How do you explain the fact that just 63 days into the new year, Arsenal have already lost eight games and their conquerors include Bournemouth, Swansea and Brighton – three teams fighting for survival at the bottom of the English Premiership table?
 
It is so sad to realise that Arsenal are no longer a big team, anyone can beat them, no one is afraid of the team anymore. The Gunners have long stopped playing beautiful football. Their pattern of play these days is simply put out eleven, spineless, over-paid prima donnas into the field of play and watch them go through the motions that would ultimately lead to anguish for the long suffering fans.
 
Wenger is wholly responsible for Arsenal’s woes. He joined Arsenal 21 years ago and gave the club some unforgettable memories like a record seven FA Cup triumphs and a spectacular 2003/2004 season when the club achieved the unmatched feat of winning the premier league without losing a single match. Notably, most of these were achieved while Arsenal played football so pleasing to the eye.
 
However, these days Wenger has become an epitome of incompetence and imprudent longevity. The 68-year old is regularly outwitted on the field of play by younger coaches and has refused to quit in spite of several fans’ protest and calls by former players and pundits for him to call it a day.
 
He is now like an annoying relic, a callous man who chose the love of lucre over the happiness of millions of fans and who is ludicrously deluded that he is capable of getting the sinking club out of the mire. #WengerOut is regularly a trending hashtag on Twitter. The pain and distress of Arsenal’s recent results have been so daunting that #WengerOut has now transcended sports to become a serious human rights issue.
 
Arsenal fans cannot wait to see the back of Wenger this summer. Most Imolites look forward to the exit of Okorocha next summer. Millions of Nigerians would not want Buhari as president a day beyond May 29, 2019. But from all indications, until then, things can only get worse.
 
Mayor Ikoroha is an author and public affairs analyst. He is on Twitter as @tellthemayor