I have always wondered
why people in government cannot figure
out what should be placed in front of
the other, the cart or the horse. Common
knowledge of science shows that anything
done with the assistance of natural law
of gravity is usually better. When the
horse and the cart are placed on a level
ground, then putting the horse in front
of the cart will usually bring in the
elements of natural law of gravity
because the horse will tend to throw
itself in a forward trust which will
naturally elicit the law of gravity.
In
social engineering also, there should be
this semblance of cart and a horse. A
responsible government is one that will
always see policies from the angle of a
cart and a horse. A responsible
government is one that will always weigh
the impact of any policy on the well
being of the governed before its
implementation. A responsible
government will lead by example. A
responsible government will first feel
the pinch of its policy before foisting
it on the governed. A responsible
government tries to put the horse in
front of the cart in all circumstances
so that policies meant for the governed
will not destroy them before the
benefits are fully realized.
Chief MKO Abiola, may his soul rest in
peace, was variously quoted as saying
that you do not shave a man in his
absence. No matter how wonderful your
policies are, if half of the people the
policy is meant to benefit will die
before the full import of the policy is
realized, the enunciator of that policy
is not a good social craftsman. It will
tantamount to shaving a man in his
absence. What will it benefit a man, who
died of cancer, on whose grave is
established the best cancer treatment
hospital?
I
have never seen a doctor or physician
who first kills his patient before
administering medication. Rather what I
have witnessed is that when a surgeon
finally decides to operate on his
patient, he administers anesthesia to
deaden the pains so as to give the
patient the benefit of technological
breakthrough. I have personally had one
of my teeth pulled out and I understand
what expertise means. A dentist will
explore every available option before
arriving at the option of pulling a
tooth of his patient. When he is
convinced that there is no alternative,
he administers anesthesia first. You
will be wondering if the pulling and
twisting and the rest of it is happening
in your mouth.
Aspiration to get into power should very
well be preceded by a careful study of
what one is expected to do to give the
citizenry a value added existence rather
than how much one can gather for himself
and his immediate family.
Every move from his days as deputy
governor in Bayelsa State down to his
Vice Presidency days up to his campaign
to become president has never portrayed
President Jonathan as a man who knows
what he want s to do with power to
benefit the citizenry. The only thing
that was consistent in his campaign was
that since he went to school without
shoes and carried his books without a
bag and has been able to rise to where
he was, then he argued that every other
Nigerian could do it: “If I can do it,
you too can do it”.
This
slogan sold perfectly among our greedy
youths and impoverished aged. Some
people fancied that and in conjunction
with corrupt politicians (including ACN
in the west) – who dreaded General
Mohamed Buhari – and Prof. Jega’s INEC,
it was easy to sell a man, directly or
indirectly, without coordinated agenda –
just like his party PDP – to Nigerian
people. The impact is that the nation
has continually railed along a track to
the precipice of an abyss.
WHEN
people aspire to leadership position
without any defined set of objectives as
to better the lives of citizens, the
impact is usually that a nation is
agitated to the point of collapse.
Leadership, as I would always suggest,
should be left for creative and
proactive social craftsmen and women
with sound and articulate mindset, who
will be locked up in a social contract
with the governed to provide it with
value added life palliatives and whose
preoccupation should not be to fly out
at any instinct to other lands with a
village entourage. It should not be one
whose take home pay is 1000 times more
than the ordinary man. It should not be
one that will corner all the choicest
portion of the land and state assets to
itself.
When
the president suggested that 25% of
office holders’ remuneration would be
cut and his subsequent launching of a
110 buses as part of his promised
palliatives, he only reinforced our
fears that this government does not know
what it is embarking upon.
Firstly, why 25% and not 75%? Does he
have an idea of what they all take now?
Will 25% give the masses the impression
that the president and his cohorts are
really serious to make any sacrifice?
Secondly, what does the president mean
by 110 buses in a country of over 160
million people? To crown it up, the
president was quoted as saying that
“…government did not buy the buses to
run the scheme directly but the scheme
would be run by the private transporters
while government would subsidize the
scheme to bring down transportation cost.”
Here
again, he is talking about subsidy. The
question now is why we are talking about
private transporters running the scheme
and government subsidizing so that in a
couple of months we will begin to talk
about cabal again. You now realize that
there was no single palliative plan all
along. It has always been a case of
spontaneous reactions and not a well
articulated plan. And this has been
consistent with PDP governments from
1999.
But
let us for the sake of argument agree
that there was an elaborate palliative
plan. Why did the president and his
cohorts not unveil this in the middle of
last year with a bill to national
assembly so that by now, we would have
started feeling the impact of the
palliative before the removal of the so
called “oil subsidy”
A
hunter who starts hitting his club on
the ground after the prey have passed is
not a good one. I see no sense in what
this government is doing. There is no
guarantee that President Jonathan and
his government are serious about any
palliative. He has no agenda whatsoever
and any noise about palliative is only
but treatment after death.
President Jonathan should resign
immediately with all his weird and
inordinate cabinet. And the national
assembly should start immediately to
take steps at reducing the quantum
amount of money they have arrogated to
themselves is the masses will have any
reason to believe them.
This
is what Dr. Oby Ezekwesili had to say in
response to the protesters “…government
alone cannot be the agent of public
policy, it needs the citizens.” This
is a woman who can claim to be connected
with the masses except she changes
tomorrow.
Chris Onyishi(ctekchrisz@yahoo.com)
Lagos Nigeria
Published
January 15th, 2012
