|
 Published
June 22nd, 2010
In his address to the US
Council of Foreign Relations, then acting President,
Goodluck Jonathan, promised or hoped rather, to offer the
nation what he termed a transformative leadership in the
remaining part of the administration. And, may I add,
thereafter in his first term after the next general
elections for which I’m personally sponsoring him on behalf
of myself and millions of Nigerians at home and abroad, who
have now come to believe in the Jonathan promise after his
impressive and exemplary performance during and after the
Yar’Adua crisis.
I’m no
longer interested in wasting my precious time debating
Jonathan’s eligibility and candidacy for the 2011
presidential election because as far as I’m concerned it is
a done deal. Only a sick nation would engage in the sterile
debate as to whether or not a citizen and an acting
president for that matter, who succeeded a dead president,
should or should not contest an election in his own right in
a democracy when he is otherwise not disqualified under the
law and the constitution. Those who have nothing better to
do with their time can continue to dance themselves out in
public before the real party begins in a few months.
The
debate is sickening and becoming irritatingly infantile and
provocative to me. And it is a shame that the Nigerian press
is unable to enlighten and educate the nation on the
constitutional rights of every citizen to vie for any
elective post in the land in our young democracy and instead
feeding fat on the antics of primitive forces bent on
pulling us back into the Stone Age in the 21st
century. We will not allow that to happen in our nation.
All I would say for now and repeatedly so, is that our
public affairs should and must, at all times, be governed by
law and the constitution and nothing extraneous to them.
It’s the meaning of rule of law, which the late president
had made the cornerstone of his administration. His kinsmen
must respect that.
However,
President Jonathan is hereby advised not to be distracted by
the noise coming from disgruntled elements in the North
seeking political relevance by purporting to be fighting for
the interests of the North. He should not tip his hand
either way as to whether he will contest or not at this time
and allow his detractors burn themselves out fighting his
shadows. He should keep his decision to himself and
concentrate on productive governance by delivering on his
promises to the nation and understand that his fate will be
determined by his performance not by his Northern
detractors. With the electoral reforms in place it will be
up to ordinary Nigerians to choose their leader through the
ballot not disgruntled Northerners. He can be rest assured,
however, that when the time comes, he will literarily be
dragged into the race by Nigerians themselves putting out of
business the thinning clan of naysayers.
I am
saying it straight up like it is. The North has a weak case
by trying to impose on the nation an alleged phantom party
agreement. How in the world could a mere party agreement,
assuming it actually exists, be equated with a national
accord? What if the AC, ANPP, APGA, PPA, or any of the other
parties pulls out a purported agreement from its hat zoning
the presidency to the South? What is the business of the
North in PDP affairs anyway? Is the North now trying to
appropriate the PDP as its own party to the exclusion of
other parties? These people have completely lost their
political bearings and seem headed toward political
wilderness.
However,
let me make it abundantly clear that any purported
gentleman’s party agreement, real or imaginary, that is
directly in contravention of the law and the constitution is
null and void and of no effect whatsoever. The North cannot
disqualify Jonathan or any Nigerian for that matter, from
contesting election into any office if he so wishes. They
can make all the noise in the world, hold clandestine
meetings every hour, and threaten fire and brimstone, but it
will not change the law and the facts on the ground. The
only way open to the North is to play smart and find some
accommodation with Jonathan before it gets its fingers
burnt. Or, as I had advised in earlier write up, quit the
PDP and try its luck elsewhere. It should stop turning
Nigeria into another Iraq because it is not in its interest
to destabilize the nation. Enough is enough.
Regardless of the antics of naysayers, however, I make bold
to state categorically that Nigeria and Nigerians owe Dr.
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a debt of gratitude for weathering
the political crisis that almost consumed the nation in the
recent past, and he deserves to be rewarded appropriately,
subject to his performance. That Nigeria is still standing
on her ever so wobbly four legs today comprised of three
major ethnic groups and the so-called minorities put
together, is due largely to Jonathan’s handling of the
national crisis, otherwise Nigeria would have gone the way
of the Koreas, former Soviet Union or even Somalia right
here in Africa.
A nation
of strange bedfellows clobbered together by the strong arm
of British imperialists and thus condemned to co-habit in
perpetual ethno-religious and political crisis, Nigeria is a
combustible keg of gunpowder. And all it takes is a little
spark to turn the vast blessed land burdened with cursed
leaders into a wasteland of ethnic conflagration as the
recurrent ethno-religious crisis in Plateau state and parts
of the harried North have amply demonstrated.
Imagine
the replication of Plateau in 36 states and the Federal
Capital Territory, Abuja! That is what could have befallen
the nation. If some elements in the North want to start
another crisis they’re welcome to do so, but they should be
ready to bear the full consequences of their actions. Those
old guards elements in the North who cannot survive without
wielding political power will soon come to terms with the
reality that the game has change in Nigeria and the pendulum
of political power has swung to the other end and likely to
remain there for a while before it swings back again to the
other end. It’s all natural and not a contrived occurrence.
Unlike Northern elements, Jonathan did not execute a coup to
get to power and he did not seek power either. It was
delivered to him by divine happenstance and no one should
fight against God because doing so may not produce a happy
ending for those involved in those diabolical moves.
But
thank God, Nigeria dodged the bullet that wheezed morbidly
past her ear, which was directly aimed at her heart by
forces of evil some of whom are now seeking accommodation
and rehabilitation with Jonathan, thus making it possible
for the president to turn to developmental issues of urgent
concern.
Said he,
”... we
are committed to ensuring that the remaining period of the
administration...will one day be viewed as a watershed, a
transformational time in our young democracy.”
He did not stop there but was generous enough to crack open
a window that enabled us take a sneak peek into his modus
operandi in the attainment of his transformative agenda.
Here again is Acting President Jonathan elaborating at the
same event: “For
us in Nigeria, this is our time. Either we continue with
more of the same or we change the game.”
Changing the Game
Aha!
There we go—changing the game! Changing the game is an idea
whose time has come. And it is for that reason and that
reason alone that the third and final part(s) of this
groundbreaking series, dedicated exclusively to the
unfolding Jonathan presidency, is devoted to a closer
examination of what the idea of game change entails in
nation building in the Nigerian context. What would it take
to change the game in Nigeria? What is the significance and
implication of the president’s statement and how might it
become the philosophical seedling that could be planted,
watered, germinated, nurtured and grown to birth the
political vineyard of this administration for a better
Nigeria?
The
president says we cannot continue with more of the same and
expect different results. Therefore, we must change the
game to get different results. What exactly does the
President mean by changing the game and how is the game to
be changed? Can the game ever be changed in Nigeria that is
wedded to doing business as usual? What is the nature and
character of the game to be changed and who will be the
winners and losers in the game change?
Unfortunately, the president did not elaborate further other
than the generalized indication that things would be done
differently, which has now become his fervent gospel ever
since he assumed office as president. But is the gospel of
game change resonating with Nigerians? Put differently, are
Nigerians on board for a game change? It’s hard to tell
since the nation has yet to be mobilized and sensitized to
the new paradigm beyond presidential statements. However,
for Nigerians to be on board, they need to know the
philosophical underpinnings and the precise contents of the
game change agenda because it is an agenda that is
all-encompassing with the potentials of affecting all facets
of our national and even private lives. Such an agenda must
be clearly articulated, spelt out and burned into the
nation’s consciousness.
However,
it is not enough simply to issue forth a promise or even
commitment of doing things differently because doing things
differently does not necessarily entail changing the game.
After all, every successive leader in Nigeria had done
things differently in the past without changing the game in
any significant sense despite their professions to the
contrary. It’s human to do things differently even if only
slightly so in some cases. But on the whole it’s been the
same game in town all over and over again, leader after
leader. And the reason for that is not too difficult to
fathom because it is difficult to change a left-handed man
to a right-handed man overnight. Nigeria’s leadership has
been recruited from the same pool that is used to doing
things in particular ways and therefore has developed its
own culture of corruption, planlessness and outright
indifference to the plight of the people and development
generally.
Our
leaders are content to escape abroad to enjoy better
facilities rather than replicating those facilities in their
own country. They are content to send their children abroad
to better schools rather than replicating those schools in
their own country. They’re content to jetting out abroad at
the nation’s expense for medical check-ups and treatments
rather than replicating those medical facilities at home.
They’re content to jetting out on vacation to tourist
attractions abroad rather than developing their own tourism
industry to attract tourists to their own country to grow
the economy. What they cannot bring back with them from
abroad like uninterrupted power supplies, they make up with
automatic generators and private water works. And if they
cannot bring better roads from abroad to drive their posh
cars on they take to the air to avoid the potholes and armed
robbers on our highways. People like Abubakar Rimi (of
blessed memory), who fail to do so do not live to tell their
horror stories on our roads. May his soul Rest in Peace.
The
nation has thus been cursed with leaders who do not want
their fellow country men and women to enjoy the good things
of life by replicating them at home but would rather have
them abroad and condemn their fellow citizens to live in
ramshackle, sub-human conditions and infrastructural decay.
Doing things differently means dismantling this paradigm
altogether and replacing it with a more wholesome
alternative that caters to the welfare and wellbeing of
ordinary Nigerians inside and outside their homes because
government exists not for the rich and the strong but for
the weak and the poor. It’s time our leaders are made to
understand and appreciate why we have government in the
first place.
Nigerians are yearning for a change in direction and
contents of governmental policies. But it is not enough for
individuals to clamor for change in the abstract as an
impersonal thing by expecting it from others except him or
herself, for, one who desires change must be the change
itself he/she desires from others. In other words, no one
can rightfully clamor for the change he is unwilling to
embrace himself and be the substance of the change himself.
But it is not enough to desire change and go to sleep on it
hoping for it to be delivered on a platter. The people must
do their part by constantly and insistently demanding
change, because as one famous man puts it, power concedes no
ground unless and until it is demanded.
Oftentimes, however, when people clamor for change they tend
to pay little or no attention to the type and content of
change they desire and how it can best be brought about. For
the most part, they’re content to leave both the substance
and the details in the hands of their leaders many of whom
quite regrettably turn out to be political demagogues full
of hot air with no real substance to their messianic
posturing. What is happening in Edo state of Nigeria under
Governor Adams Oshiomhole and in the United States of
America, under President Barak Obama, for instance, where
political rhetoric and electioneering grandstanding have
both fallen short of people’s expectations and turning their
hopes and dreams into hopelessness and nightmares, bear
eloquent testimonies to the gulf between political promises
and political deliveries. Today those who fought so hard to
put President Obama in the Oval Office and Governor
Oshiomhole in the Edo state Government House have cause to
doubt their sense of judgment.
While
reactions may vary with different groups and constituents,
the one group that would certainly do so in the case of
Obama is the immigrant community and minority racial groups
in the US who have invested so much in the Obama presidency
but who now watch with alarm and morbid trepidation as the
state of Arizona bares its fangs against immigrants with a
law that was designed to directly challenge the authority of
the US government headed by President Obama, which is
totally outside of state jurisdictions.
But all
Obama could do was to puff and huff and voice his outrage,
with his promised challenge of the racist Arizona law still
in cooler two months after it was enacted. And the petrified
immigrant community who had looked up to the president to
protect them from racial profiling inherent in the
enforcement of the law, are wringing their arms hopelessly
in disbelief as Obama dithers perhaps in the hope that the
bad news will go away to be replaced with something else in
our 24-hour news cycle. And sure enough, the Gulf of Mexico
oil spill has displaced and consigned the Arizona law debate
to the back seat. Obama is now all over BP mauling the
British oil giant, not the Arizona Madam Governor, who is
defiantly determined to execute the racist, Hitlerite
scripts of the Republican, tea-party, racial cleansing
agenda.
I
understand that the Gulf oil spill has transformed itself
into a major national crisis of Biblical proportions and
therefore demands presidential attention round the clock,
but it didn’t happen yesterday, it happened today, and
immigration issues could have been addressed long before
this crisis in fulfillment of Obama’s own promise to address
the issue within his first year in office. Healthcare and
economic battles shunted the immigration agenda thereby
giving the Arizona Governor the leeway to stick her racist
law in our face and call the bluffs, catching the Obama
administration by surprise and flatfooted.
But even
with President Obama literarily sleeping under the cushion
of the thick oil sludge in the Gulf, with his third trip to
the region so far; and even with the clubbing of BP to
death, the hard to please Americans are not impressed with
his performance in the crisis and are now comparing his
response to President GW Bush’s response to the Katrina
disaster. In the latest Associated Press-GfK poll, 52%
majority of Americans are unhappy with Obama’s handling of
the Gulf oil crisis.
It goes
to show just how difficult and insatiable human beings are
with all the efforts Obama has put into the crisis from day
one. But as noted in my previous write up, when the economy
is down though not out, and people are hurting, nothing a
leader does is good enough and disaffected citizens would
look for reasons to vent their anger on the symbol of their
sufferings, which, in this case, is the president. Americans
are hurting from economic woes and they’re loath to give Mr.
President any credit whatsoever even if he lands a man on
Mars for the US to brag about. It will make no difference
whatsoever unless it brings their lost jobs back and gives
them their paychecks to settle their mountains of unpaid
bills starring at them unblinkingly in their faces. So Obama
could relocate the White House to the Gulf of Mexico if he
likes, but it will make no difference to economically
beleaguered Americans. That’s the reality.
I am,
therefore, not in the least surprised by the poll results
for, anyone who imagines that the over ten million Americans
who have lost their jobs since the financial crisis began in
2008, and the additional millions who are graduating yearly
into unemployment in the US would have the grace and large
heart to pat Obama on the back even if he puts a man on Mars
for America, has got to be kidding me. At the end of the
Obama honeymoon disaffected Americans have since dialed back
to transfer their anger against GW Bush onto Obama. Poor
Obama! He inherited not just the crisis but the anger of
Americans against the government of GW Bush. He has been
left to carry the can of worms left by his predecessor and
he cannot let go of it. Uneasy lies the head that wears the
crown.
Perhaps
even more disappointingly is the African American community
who had put invested every penny they had in the Obama
presidency but whose socio-economic conditions have gotten
even worse not better under Obama not unlike their South
African counterparts under black rule. Their hopes are
dreams have spilled into the gulf of poverty and misery but
there is no Obama there for them to contain the spill and no
emergency efforts either to address their losses. They’re on
their own, it seems. And they’re hurting real bad and
burning on the inside unable to openly take on Obama
publicly because he is their own. Were he white, they would
have been jumping all over and mauling him for not looking
their way as they did during Katrina.
But the
honeymoon Obama is getting from his own community, though
prolonged for obvious reasons, will not last forever. As I
listen, as I always do, to African Americans commentators in
radio and television talk shows, all I hear are their cries
of exasperation as they pose the questions repeatedly, “What
about us?” and “what is in it for us, blacks?”
For them
the more things seem to change the more they remain the same
as the numbers of blacks and minorities in prison continue
to grow; their school dropout rates continue to skyrocket,
and their rates of joblessness and poverty continue to grow
exponentially and disproportionately higher under Obama’s
very watch. And they’re asking rather incredulously: Where
is the change we can believe in? The change has indeed been
long in coming and many may be dead before it arrives if at
all. However, by the time they get answers to these nagging
questions Obama will be gone and that’s when the scales will
start falling from their eyes to see what hit them.
For now,
however, the ennobling and elevating sights of a black man
in the Oval office and a black woman as First Lady calling
the shots in the US and around the world have provided
spiritual and emotional nourishments to their beings and
deadening their senses to their material deprivations even
if only monetarily. As Shakespeare puts it, it’s a tale told
by a fool, full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing.
This is
not to say, however, that Obama does not have my support
still. He sure does only with certain studied reservations
because, in the end, we are all victims of political
demagoguery. Yes, we are all victims of hope differed and
promise postponed.
And just
as it is in the United States and South Africa, so it is in
Edo state. Impoverished workers and indigenes of the state
who had danced themselves naked in the streets of Benin to
celebrate the inauguration of Governor Oshiomohle as their
Messiah have had their economic fortunes taken a turn for
the worse. What, with government hospitals carrying on
critical surgical operations under candle light, as
reported, how much worse can it get? Oshiomohle has proved
that it can indeed get worse than operating patients under
candle and touch light in Edo state. It’s increasingly
looking like someone is telling Edo people not so much in
words but in deeds: “You ain’t seen nothing yet! Wait until
I’m done with you.”
Edo
people are now forced to sleep with one eye open as armed
robbers and kidnappers rule the state forcing the highly
revered Benin Monarch to direct traditional worshippers (as
reported) to place traditional curses on the perpetrators of
the horrendous criminal conducts in the state under
Oshiomhole’s watch. And while hapless Edos are sleeping with
one eye open and facing worsening economic conditions, their
governor is busy consorting with the evil genius, IBB, and
wasting the state’s scarce resources to organize a political
jamboree at Ogbe stadium ostensibly to campaign for one man
one vote, where IBB was billed to lecture us on free and
fair elections. Wonders shall never end. Only in Nigeria!
Governor
Oshiomohle and ex-military dictator, IBB, in a marriage of
convenience! Was that really about electoral reform or the
launch of the IBB/Oshiomomhle presidential ticket for 2011?
True in politics there are no permanent friends but
permanent interests and Oshiomohle has just proved that to
us. It sounded to me more like someone positioning himself
for the post of a running mate to the evil genius whose
ambition to rule Nigeria again will not see the light of day
until he is made to answer for June 12, and our missing
$12bn Gulf Oil windfall, than a campaign for electoral
reform. And good a thing, other invitees got the hint and
voted with their feet putting Oshiomhole and his evil guest
on the defensive.
But this
much I predict with dead certainty: Oshiomhole will be
flushed down the toilet with IBB, his newfound political
godfather, having dumped Tony Anenih, in the fullness of
time, because no one can fool all the people all of the
time. He has given his second term a kiss of death with his
flirtation with IBB. There is always a day of reckoning and
that day is drawing nigh. Ogbulafor just got his day; Ibori
is getting his day, and IBB will get his as well, ‘cos the
ghost of MKO will never rest until justice is done and IBB
is brought to book. June 12 is his political waterloo of all
times of which time will never heal until the perpetrators
of the satanic annulment of the people’s will are put behind
bars. With June 12, the nation’s memory couldn’t be any
longer.
New
Game in Town
There is
a new game in town and he is no other than the man Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan. Jonathan appears to be chip from a new block
altogether and hardly your run-of-the-mill political
demagogue. Sure he is a politician, born and bred in Nigeria
and therefore a product of the notoriously destructive and
anti-development Nigerian environment. He is a politician,
who, until now, could not be distinguished from the rest of
the pack of wolves ruling the nation. He has come to the
presidency with lots of memories. He is a man brought up in
a system that denied his people the benefits of their God
given resources and instead used to turn other regions in
havens of development. He is a man weaned in system that
denied his people the right to aspire to the leadership of
their own country and are now acting plotting to deny him a
chance to rule in his own right. Yes, Jonathan is a product
of all that and much, much more. Nevertheless, there is a
tone of sincerity in his voice and one of urgency in his
cadence. He may not be the Messiah yet, but he comes across
as someone who truly desires to leave a legacy of
transformative accomplishments for the present and future
generations, not only in words but in deeds, and that’s an
important difference to note. He strikes one as one who
truly wants to leave his imprints in the sands of time like
no other before him.
But how
does he go about doing that? Put another way, how does he
plan to change the game? That is the crux of the matter and
it raises the question as to the things we have been doing
the same way that need to be done differently—in other words
the “what” and the “how” of the matter. What
have we been doing and how have we been doing them?
We need
to first of all identify the problematic fields that have
given the nation a black eye in the estimation of the world.
The areas of our national life that immediately come to mind
would include but not limited to the following in bold type:
leadership succession, economic development, law
enforcement and administration of justice, power and energy
supplies, tertiary education, foreign relations,
transportation infrastructures, anti-graft war, revenue
generation and allocation, labor unionism, environmental
husbandry, geo-ethnic and religious conflict management,
sports and recreation, as well as tourism, productivity,
just to mention but a few.
While by
no means exhaustive, we already have a full plate in our
hands to deal with. On the whole, there are fifteen items on
our list above that we need to examine a little closer each
one of which is enough to command a full treatment in its
own right. But we don’t need to treat each and every one of
the above categories. They have been highlighted to indicate
the areas we need to work on if we want to change the game.
Let’s take the first two to illustrate how we have been
doing things in the past and how things should be done
differently in the present and in the future in order to
make the changes we all desire.
Leadership succession:
How has Nigeria been dealing with leadership succession in
the past that needs to be changed now in order to do away
with her recurrent leadership crisis?
The
answer is pretty straightforward. As in all democracies
(both young and old), leadership succession in Nigeria is
effected through periodic elections conducted into various
local, state and federal offices by national electoral
agencies (INEC) under different names every four years in
accordance with the several constitutions we have operated
and the extant electoral laws in operation at the time. Save
for the military interregnum, the nation has been conducting
elections the same way since independence and she has been
getting the same results of chaos and anarchy in each and
every election.
But what
is wrong with the way elections have been conducted these
past fifty years in Nigeria? The reader would be surprised
at the answer: Nothing! Nothing, and absolutely nothing is
wrong with the electoral laws or the methods of conducting
elections in Nigeria. But everything is wrong with our
politicians and the particular governments that have been
conducting elections in Nigeria! The fault is not in the
electoral laws or methods, but in our own selves and in our
governments. Put another way, the “Nigerian Factor,” which
has come to define us as a people, who seemingly have been
programmed to destroy or render ineffective every operation,
exercise, process or institution in the land including our
laws, is responsible for electoral failures and the
consequential endemic crisis that has attended every
leadership succession in the nation at every level.
It’s
instructive to note in this regard that the same tribes of
destructive political gladiators that the British unleashed
on the nation at independence and their graduates in
politics are still with us till today. In season after
season these political grasshoppers would descend on the
political vineyard and completely defoliate it. It’s pretty
obvious, therefore, that they’re responsible for the failure
of every republic since independence. They are adepts at
circumventing the rules and game the system to their
advantage. They are those who, rather than seriously
articulate and present their political manifestoes to the
electorate and engage in serious public debates to sell
their programs prefer to work overtime night and day to
subvert the system through the recruitment and training of
armed thugs and other political operatives to ambush the
electoral process and render it totally effective.
And how
have we been dealing with the consequent electoral failures
in the past? Why ask? We change the leadership of the
electoral body and tinker with the electoral laws in the
name of reforms in the naïve hope that all would be well
thereafter. Thus we have witnessed the nation throwing out
the leadership of our electoral bodies and tweaking our
electoral laws at the end of each and every election held
since independence and called that reform. Let’s not deceive
ourselves, that’s no reform but more of the same.
And
gosh! We have just done that yet again in 2010! We have been
doing things the same way and getting the same results and
thereby allowing the malignant tumor all the time it needs
to grow and spread its deleterious tentacles to every
healthy tissue in the body politic. We have done nothing
differently but in exact same way using the pre-existing
template and yet expect different results. President
Jonathan has, therefore, not deviated an inch from the old
way of doing things with particular reference to electoral
reforms. Like his predecessors down the line, he has chosen
the path of least resistance of doing more of the same and
yet expecting different results this time around. That’s not
going to happen. Removing the symbol of electoral failures
represented by the head of INEC while leaving intact and
undisturbed the substance of failure is tantamount to mere
window dressing that will get us nowhere, and that’s all we
have been doing since independence.
Doing
things differently would not entail changing the leadership
of our electoral bodies and the rules of the game in the
name of reforms, but changing the character of the players
of the game through instrumentality of the law. We must
induce or force attitudinal changes in ourselves. And this
is where the government comes in because it is in a better
position to effect attitudinal changes through a combination
of law enforcement and moral suasion.
However,
since the old guards cannot lawfully be prevented from vying
for political offices to stop or mitigate their deleterious
activities, real reforms would simply entail reinforcing and
enforcing the laws that are already in the books to the
letter no matter who is and what party is involved. Doing
things differently simply means strengthening and enforcing
the laws of the land. Allowing political desperadoes a free
reign to mess up our political system only to turn around
and scapegoat electoral umpires will not fix our electoral
woes but aggravate them. Absence of law enforcement has
allowed this problem to fester. This is what has been
missing along in previous elections. This is the missing
link that must be established firmly throughout the
electoral process. The deterrent effect of the law has been
deliberately muted by previous and present administrations
with regard to electoral malfeasances and where that is the
case, evil inevitably takes over our electoral affairs.
This is
the hardest part and the real reform. As in the anti-graft
war, a major crackdown is required to exorcise the demons of
elections. Jonathan himself, who is a primary beneficiary of
the old order, must be willing to take on the powerful
interests who are now in power courtesy of rigging because
they will come again as usual to mess up the system under
his watch. In fact, they’re already in the works for
business as usual in the next elections, because nothing has
in fact changed at this moment. He must be willing to do the
heavy lifting and not stop at merely sacrificing the
leadership of INEC and call that reform. Let me tell him how
that might be accomplished. The president should constitute
an “Election High Command” made up of a crack team of
detectives and law enforcement officials of impeccable
character who would police the entire electoral process in
real time to detect and punish infractions before, during
and after elections. Let’s get serious with our problems for
once. Let’s see some big name politicians in handcuffs and
beyond the bars for electoral offenses as in the anti-graft
war to serve as deterrence.
As I
have argued in previous outings and needs to be repeated
here, mere change of guards at INEC headquarters is merely
whitewashing the outer walls of the edifice to create the
illusion of reform. The incorrigible and irredeemably
corrupt and lawless Nigerian politician needs a strong arm
of the law to beat him into line and the president must be
committed to doing just that whether or not doing so will
affect the fortunes of his own ruling party including his,
and let the chips fall wherever they may. I’m afraid the
present game of musical chairs at INEC headquarters will not
cut the deal, because it never has in the past and will not
in the present and in the future, either. While the change
of leadership might satisfy political cravings of the
opposition elements, that, in and of itself, is mere band
aid on a festering sore.
Additionally, President Jonathan must quickly take steps to
reduce the lure and material attractions to political
offices and thus minimize the cut throat competition that it
engenders thereby leaving the field for those genuinely
interested in service to their people so as to weed out the
political contractors, wheeler dealers and opportunists that
now dominate the system. The present situation where public
office holders are allowed to live like Arabian oil sheiks
at the expense of their impoverished constituents is not
only obscene, but an open invitation to political anarchy in
the system variously manifesting itself in electoral
robberies and debacles.
Notwithstanding anything said to the contrary heretofore, I
would hasten to add that electoral failures in Nigeria are
not carved in stones. In other words, electoral failure is
not the nation’s inevitable fate. It is, therefore, entirely
possible for the political class to have a change of heart
and refrain from egregious abuse of the electoral process by
respecting the rules of the game in tandem with the rest of
the civilized world, just like the nation’s military has now
learnt to respect civilian authority by refraining from
plotting coups against civilian administrations. Therefore,
in spite of the misgivings expressed above, it lies within
the realm of possibility for the nation to get it right the
next time around as indeed happened in the criminally
annulled election of 1993, which was widely regarded as a
huge success and a turning point in the history of elections
in Nigeria.
Will the
political class turn a new leaf like the nation’s military
and do the nation proud for once? Would politicians place
national interest over and above their personal interests
and play the game according to the rules? Could the nation
pull off the June 12, 1993 feat again in 2011 under
President Jonathan’s watch? It’s entirely possible that
could be the case. Already the present INEC has improved
somewhat with the last three elections conducted under
Jonathan’s watch which the President himself and the nation
have hailed as successes. Though localized, if such
successes could be replicated nationally in the general
elections, it would be a re-enactment of the successes of
the June 12, 1993 elections. Optimists can, therefore,
justifiably look up to that scenario possibly repeating
itself because history tends to repeat itself.
But what
exactly was responsible for the success of June 12, 1993,
presidential elections? Was it the ban on old breed
politicians? Was it the adoption of Option A4? Or was it the
appointment of a professor of political science as head of
the INEC that made the difference? These are difficult
questions crying for some answers before we restart our
journey yet again on a blind alley. A professor of political
science may have conducted the best election ever in our
national history and another has been tipped as head of
INEC, but it would be a leap of faith to put our faith on
the academic credentials of the head of the electoral
agencies while continuing business as usual. I’m,
therefore, cautiously but not overly optimistic for the
reasons stated above.
Economic Development:
This is
perhaps the biggest ticket on the list. How has the nation
been doing things on the economic front? How the nation has
been doing things in the past is responsible for our success
or failure thus far in our quest for economic development.
If the nation is an economic success it means we should stay
the course, but if not we must change course and do things
differently. By and large, the unflattering verdict is that
the nation has failed on the economic front and must
therefore change course.
Though
essentially a capitalist economy, Nigeria has been
practicing mixed economic model in which economic activities
are shared between the public and private sectors. However,
up and until recently the state had appropriated to itself
the so-called commanding heights of the economy in power,
energy, shipping, aviation, rail transportation, postal
services, and even higher education, which was denied even
to the states, in addition to its traditional areas of
security, defense, and foreign affairs to mention but a few.
This was compounded by the Indigenization Decree of 1977,
which prevented foreigners from investing in certain sectors
of the economy. Although this decree has been
amended/repealed and foreign investors are now being
actively wooed to come and invest in any sector of the
economy they wish to put their money in, the facts remains
that the government is still holding on tight to its
commercial investments in energy and power sectors of the
economy. That’s why government still operates refineries and
power plants, all of which have been grounded or at best
providing epileptic services to the nation at great costs to
the treasury.
Government’s best efforts over the years to make these
services efficient and effective have been met with dismal
failures for reasons that are not altogether
farfetched—sabotage and political interferences, which is
the bane of government owned enterprises. There is no
reason, therefore, to expect different results by doing
things the old way. We must change course. It means both
privatization and deregulation now, freeing government from
the business of big business to concentrate on its core
competencies of regulation, enforcement and monitoring.
Nigerians who are now resistant to changing in the way
government has been running the show need to change their
resistant attitude to change if they truly desire change.
Enters…
Doctrine of Functionalism
As a
strong advocate of a philosophical approach to governance
because of my conviction that governance means a whole lot
more than the annual rituals of budget presentation and
execution, I had severally advocated for the president to
articulate a grand vision for the nation to be vigorously
and relentlessly pursued with messianic zeal by the
administration, not the bogus and utterly nebulous Y2020
abracadabra that would make Nigeria become one of the twenty
largest economies in the world by that year.
Rather
than aiming at reaching the moon on foot, it’s more
profitable, realistic and doable to articulate a governing
philosophy that is geared towards making the nation and her
citizens whole again. Such philosophical, or if you like,
ideological enterprise, I would term “Functionalism,”
for want of a better word. Its goal is to make the nation
functional in every department and at every level of
government.
I’m,
therefore, a functionalist who is out to promote the
functional philosophy or ideology of growth and development.
What does it mean? In practical terms, it means making and
keeping our roads and highways motorable and in top shape
all year round through regular maintenance and upgrades. It
means setting up and maintaining effective and responsive
law enforcement agencies capable, able, and willing to
respond, confront and take down criminal affronts and
challenges to the law within minutes, not hours.
The
present situation in which armed robbers invade the premises
of their victims including banks at will unchallenged and
spend hours therein operating as if they are on duty tour at
those premises is clearly indicative of failure of
governance. A situation in which armed criminal gangs
takeover our highways literarily and rob innocent motorists
and passengers for hours unchallenged, to their hearts’
contents, is the very definition of failed administration
and rubbishes the institution of government itself. There
is, therefore, no use deluding ourselves about Y2020 unless
and until we’ve addressed the basic issues of governance.
A
functional state is one with a functional and effective
internal security apparatus able to guarantee to its
citizens, residents and visitors alike, security of lives
and property. Functionalism dictates that the nation
institutes a functional and effective Emergency Response
System (ERS) to help those in distress whether it is
about natural or man-made disasters, medical or crime
related emergencies, at every level of government in the
nation. This is a basic function of governance and it’s a
tragedy that we’re still talking about these things fifty
years after independence.
Functionalism means having a working, modern, postal
service, public libraries and fire stations in city
neighborhoods, not one or two fire stations and libraries
for an entire city, and colonial postal service. It’s a
joke. We must not be seen to be offering token services but
be truly committed to offering robust social services that
are sorely needed by our people for their welfare,
protection as well as their personal growth and development.
Our cities are towns must be fitted with functional and
regularly updated libraries and post offices in every
neighborhood or districts to promote knowledge and postal
transactions to grow our economy and provide jobs for our
youths. A functional, well digitized postal system is a
catalyst for economic growth and development in our modern
world and the benefits of well stocked public libraries in
towns and cities are self evident to warrant enumeration
here. It’s time to change the game.
The
Jonathan administration is well positioned to up the ante
and multiply the indices of growth and development in our
nation. That is the very essence of functionalism. It means
instituting effective and modern garbage collection,
disposal, processing and recycling systems in cities and
towns throughout the length and the breadth of the nation. I
don’t want to see men and women carrying brooms to sweep our
streets but modern mechanical sweepers barging through our
streets to take out trash. The world has moved beyond manual
brooms. It’s time to change the game.
It means
instituting and enforcing standards in roads, and building
construction and renovations. It means enacting zoning laws
for our towns and cities in order to properly demarcate the
boundaries of industrial/commercial undertakings from purely
residential domains. Our roads must properly be posted with
road signs demarcations and markings to aid vehicular
traffic and not the caricatures that we see in Nigeria. We
want to be like developed nations then we must act like
developed nations! It’s the bottom line.
Functionalism would involve maintaining safety standards in
dwellings such as the installation of window guards, fire
and gas alarms in homes and fire systems and elevators in
commercial buildings. Nigeria must begin to move away from
third world conditions and ways, and begin to embrace first
world best practices. It’s pointless shouting about Y2020
when our towns and cities are worse than human jungles and
studies in chaos and planlessness.
Currently, there doesn’t seem to be any safety standards in
buildings and people are allowed to store inflammable and
hazardous materials in buildings apparently with no
information or training in the handling and storage of such
materials. Every now and then, we read in the papers about
whole families perishing in their own homes while asleep
from generator fumes because they have moved generating sets
to or close to their windows. This is unacceptable and a
serious indictment of the authorities. It seems nobody cares
about anything in Nigeria even lives and property. Public
safety is the duty of the government and it should be
properly articulated and formulated into an enforceable
policy. The absence of electricity is no excuse for people
to operate generators right in their bedrooms.
Functionalism means setting standards and benchmarks for the
civil service and ensuring a responsive civil service for
the citizenry. In short, functionalism is the sum total of
all that is geared toward ensuring quality of life for the
citizens in all departments of their existence and in all of
their interactions with state agencies and institutions. It
therefore, means raising not only the quality of life of the
citizens by promoting their material wellbeing, but the
quality of the physical environment in which they live in.
There is
no reason whatsoever why Nigerians should be condemned to
live in squalid, sub-human conditions in shanties. And it
is disgraceful that even the wealthy in Nigeria are
condemned to live in ill-planned, ill-maintained towns and
cities in degraded environments. It’s time to change the
game and do away with the slums. Why are we still keeping
the slums in our towns and cities? Is that to show the world
that we like living like pigs? It’s time to do away with the
pigsties we call homes in our city slums. It’s time to
change the game and embark on a massive urban renewal
programs nationwide. It’s about time.
The
recent outrage against the BBC documentary on Lagos should,
therefore, be turned inward by the government to turn the
page on our terribly degraded environments. It will not
break the treasury, and even if does, it is money well spent
for the wellbeing, health and general quality of life of our
citizens. Our people in general and the government in
particular, must understand that a degraded environment
invariably produces degraded humans and a breeding ground
for poverty and misery. This is not about lack of resources,
but lack of vision and political will power. I made bold to
state that our governments at all levels have the
wherewithal to design and maintain minimum standards in our
homes, offices and the environment in general. Functionalism
dictates that the process should begin now, not a day later
and Jonathan should blow the whistle and kick start the
program.
Functionalism is making Nigeria work again. It means keeping
water taps running and public buildings clean and well
maintained—in other words keeping our porters, painters,
plumbers, electricians, and building inspectors, and others
busy round the clock—and why not? Is it too much to mandate
local authorities to provide potable water for residents
within their respective jurisdictions? Is it such a big deal
to keep our public buildings well maintained with functional
facilities? Are Nigerians allergic to clean and well
maintained environments? Don’t Nigerians deserve to live the
good life in a country that blessed but roundly abused? And
don’t we have the means and the required skill sets to
provide ourselves decent environments and to live the good
life in our own country? What does it take? Trust me, not a
whole lot. We can do it. All developmental efforts must be
citizen centric and that includes the environment. Both go
hand in hand, because a degraded environment translates
generally to degrade citizenry. Nigeria must turn the page
and make her citizens and environment whole again, and the
attendant blessings will be unfathomable.
Functionalism means raising the productivity of Nigerian
workers in tandem with the rest of the world and keeping our
children and wards in school. It means having a functional
judiciary that’s alive to its constitutional
responsibilities. President Jonathan should forget about
Y2020 and make Nigeria work again and by the time he’s done,
he will discover that the nation has already arrived Y2020
without knowing it! Rather than setting wholesale target
for Y2020, the government should set targets sector by
sector as indicated above and be sure to meet them one at a
time because development is not a wholesale but a retail
enterprise.
The
government should be mindful of overloading the system with
too many programs at the same time because government has
neither the executive capacity nor the resources to
implement them all at the same time and, in the end might be
able to implement none while dissipating energies on so many
fronts. That is the disease that has afflicted President
Obama in the US who is busy launching one program after
another and getting tepid results at best. All of a sudden
the man has aged considerably within just one year in
office. He is burning himself out by packing too much on his
plate at the same time as if there is no tomorrow for him,
forgetting that Rome was not built in one day.
And
that’s why it makes absolute sense for President Jonathan to
do away with Yar’Adua’s unwieldy 7-Point Program and replace
it with a leaner and more manageable one at this point in
time. It makes no sense to carry Yar’Adua’s elephantine,
back- breaking agenda on his back. Mr. Lamido Sanusi, the
CBN Governor, had advised Yar’Adua to prune it down to
manageable proportions and Yar’Adua lashed back at him
through his spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, who has since lost
his job and fled abroad from the wrath if his countrymen and
women over his role in the Yar’Adua crisis. Many well
meaning Nigerians have equally weighed in with similar
suggestions, but the government appears tone deaf about
these suggestions preferring to lumber along with the
Yar’Adua baggage on its back for political reasons. It makes
no sense. While doggedness and consistency are welcome
virtues in governance, foolhardiness is not.
May God
bless and keep the nation.
Franklin
Otorofani, Esq. contact:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com |
