Nigeria ranks near the top of international indices of infant and maternal mortality. Every year hundreds of thousands of mothers and children die in the process of childbirth. Other hundreds of thousands die before the age of one, five or 10 years old. And many who survive envy the dead. Over the years their life expectancy has been shrinking, and now the average Nigerian can look forward to less than 45 years of a very unhappy existence.

In every city across the nation hordes of children who should be in school flood the streets selling cheap goods manufactured in China, newspapers, and sometimes their bodies. Many have no parents because of premature deaths due to malnutrition or disease, and others have parents who cannot feed, clothe, school or house them. When they complete their day selling in the streets they may have to find a place to sleep there also. Those who succeed in attending schools find the experience so daunting that the only lesson they learn is that they should have been born to rich parents. In a country where politicians embezzle billions, a child may not be able to go to school for lack of 100 naira.

In some parts of the country children are kidnapped and killed so their organs can be used for juju to make rich men and women even richer. Others are captured and trafficked to Europe like their ancestors who were once sold into slavery in America or the Caribbean. The most unlucky of all are captured and sexually abused by brain-dead, pot-bellied businessmen or politicians, who stole the money that should have been used to bring them into the world safely, brought up in comfort, and educated to be productive citizens in a caring nation.

In most countries of the world adults look back at the idylls of their childhood when they enjoyed the innocence of youth, without cares for their survival or fears of danger, protected and nurtured by loving parents and responsible nations. In Nigeria the suffering begins on the day of their birth when poor parents have to find the money to take care of their immediate necessities. And for the rest of their lives they see their children as burdens to be overcome rather than insurance against the vagaries of the future.

Children suffer most from impoverishment because they are in greatest need of sustenance. With parents unable to perform their role as protectors and nurturers, children at a tender age have to resort to extreme means to survive. By diverting resources to their personal use, leaders have condemned the youth to a life of suffering, adding insult to injury when they drive past them in the gutters in their Mercedes Benz, on the way to unspeakably luxurious mansions built with the stolen money that should have been used to provide for these children and their parents.

Destitute children are the products of a nation made bankrupt by the greed and corruption of leaders who exercised power without responsibility. Calling themselves "born again" Moslems, Christians or Ogbonis will not save them from punishment in this life or the next.

Nigeria has a new government, many of its most prominent leaders products of the institution which bears the name of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto. Like the Sardauna who died in debt because he shared the little he had with those who had less, they know the virtue of honesty and humility. They know that God demands that they use public resources and the talents He gave them to alleviate the suffering of the weak and poor, especially the children whom He put into their care. Some of the new leaders are followers of the late Aminu Kano who also devoted his life and talents to save the Talakawa and their children from poverty and suffering.

Children cannot be saved from destitution unless government provides the conditions for lifting the nation from the poverty into which corrupt leaders have plunged it. The new government has the responsibility to recover the money which leaders, in violation of their sacred oaths of office, have spent on mansions, foreign accounts, properties, and prostitutes. Those who committed crimes must be held to account.

A president who steals billions is more worthy of punishment than a hungry man who takes a loaf of bread to feed his wife and children. Money spent on power which was never supplied must be recovered and used to build power stations and distribution systems needed for industries and domestic use. The same for water, education, roads, housing, security and every other institution of a modern state.

With the rapid industrialisation of China, India and other poor countries, Nigeria has a unique opportunity to use the money it receives for its oil and gas to build the industries it will need after the oil and gas run out. It must have the courage and faith in the future to build a nation in which its children can be happy and secure. The presence of destitute children on the streets or villages is a sign that leaders have lost faith in the future of their country. It is from among such children that the future armed robbers, political thugs, and other desperadoes will arrive to make the whole country hell on earth.

The president, the ministers of finance, defence and others are graduates of Ahmadu Bello University, where they learnt that everything is possible with leadership, organisation, and the participation of the grass roots. They know that they are men created by Allah with limits, not supermen who think they know it all, and can do everything they wish without the help or advice of others. They have role models such as the Sardauna, Aminu Kano, Yakubu Danjuma and Ishaya Audu, who showed that it was possible to take a poor region and set it on the path to progress through leadership and sacrifice. When they were in the university they saw how it rose to be ranked in the world when it was given the resources it needed.

These are the men they should model themselves on, not the so-called leaders who grew fat at public expense, and built palaces on the hills, so they could gloat at poor children picking scraps from the gutters and garbage dumps in the potholed streets below.

The above is an edited version of an address by Patrick Wilmot during a recent visit to Abuja, Nigeria. Wilmot, who is based in London, is a writer and commentator on African affairs for the BBC, Sky News, Al-Jazeera and CNN. He's a visiting professor at Ahmadu Bello and Jos universities in Nigeria.

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