OF POLITICAL RHETORIC AND CULTURE OF MEDIOCRITY AMONG NIGERIA'S POLITICAL CLASS (A Cursory Reading of 'Nigeria: A New History of a Turbulent Century' by Richard Bourne) By 'Tobi Adewunmi “ The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership…. The Nigerian Problem is the unwillingness or liability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility; to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership ” – Chinua Achebe (The Trouble with Nigeria) In August 2017, 7 months after I enrolled for my PhD degree, I got funding from the University's Postgraduate School to attend the 30th West African Linguistics Conference at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. I find it worthwhile to share some insights I gained from that platform, for purposes of shaping the ongoing conversations on restructuring in Nigeria and as a retrospect of a book review event I rapporteured for while at the Ibadan School of Government and Public Poli