APC, PDP incapable of taking Nigeria to the promise land
By William Aborisade
It’s been all about EH PHEE CEE, PHEE DEE PHEE, followed by certificate scandal and corruption. I haven’t heard/seen anything to show any of the parties, prepared to take us to the promise land.
I haven’t seen, from the campaigns, any sign that any of the contestants had set up any group/committee, of egg-heads, the kind Awolowo had. As Chief Awolowo and his fellow politicians went to the field for campaigns, he had bodies and sub bodies, stuck in some private places, simulating life problems and proferring solutions, to them, in critical areas of governance, all aimed at providing the basics of life and human development-then this thing, called shadow cabinet. From some of the materials I read, two things the chief did, which fascinates, to no limit (which I Iearnt, OBJ too, did) all his life, as a politician, was:
(i)seek knowledge continuously (he was solving a problem, in Calculus, one time, as he heard of a coup!)
(ii) communicate with God, as a true believer. (it takes experiences to make a true believer, not so much to do about religion)
These two, remain strategic, in a bid to succeed, as a leader and, even, in life generally. He, completely dedicated his life to the service of mankind and was, ever, conscious of his intellectual limitations and spiritual being. No wonder, he hobnobbed with the best of minds, anywhere and never deceived people, in the name of diplomacy, like today’s militicians. He was said to have abstained from sleeping with mama, soon, after his last child was born! abandoning jigi-jiigi and associated romances, very early, in life!-a feat I consider, not only rare, but herculean, for all normal human beings, below 70, in any culture-these events, probably, explain the rumours of Awo’s alien-identity
Today’s political terrain seems proliferated by the unserious minded, womanizers/manizers, crooks/profiteers, unbelievers and all sorts of men, without conscience, most unknowledgeable in the true meaning and purpose of governance. They dwell, too much, on trivialities. While I understand a businessman, like Dangote’s need for a jet, for example, I can’t fathom a reason for a senator purchasing a jet! For what, if not money-miss-road?
Buhari’s certificate
Too much of emphasis on Buhari’s certificate, to me, looks too trivial. We all know about the existence and purpose of affirmative action (branded federal character, in our country), in our national life, occasioned by the imbalance, in the availability of skilled manpower, of the western-orientation, on the eve of our independence-so much so that a section of the country was said to have opposed the motion for independence, on the ground of non-readiness! Some of us who served in the federal public service, even, much later, still saw this clearly. We, all, had to serve under people, who, ordinarily should serve under us-considering either year of qualification or, sheer intellectual abilities.
In any case, from all that I read, on the constitution, so far, Buhari, eminently, qualifies for election based on educational qualifications. If there are other issues mitigating his candidacy, why not raise those, straight away so that we move on. And, by the way, what correlation have we been able to draw between box-loads of academic certificates and performance in governance, judging by events in our country. Ambrose Alli was the only professor among the LOOBO governors-they were all committed public servants with godly-orientation and good home training, as support.
Jonathan’s Corruption.
Although no one had accused Jonathan of being corrupt, the unfortunate incidence of corruption thriving under him had become a dent on his government. Perhaps with the socio-economic life of the country, grounding to a halt, Nigerians seem to have, suddenly, become so much aware of the evil of corruption. Truth is, corruption didn’t start under Jonathan-may be it festered. It started under Gowon, when career civil servants became too involved in governance, as 10%, resulting in almost everything being done by contracts. This, largely, disrupted the civil service, relegating skilled professionals and, unduely, elevating the administrative cadre, away from the situation, hitherto. Smarter wage-earners abandoned wage-earning to register backward, forwarding and general supplies companies. It got so bad that Obasanjo, in his Jaji declaration, wondered how a nation would import tooth-picks! A new dimension was introduced under the Shagari/Akinloye/Umaru Dikko regime, in which empty bags or bags loaded with sand were imported, in the guise of goods, making corruption becoming more daring and institutionalized. Obasanjo, on the day of being sworn-in as a democratic president, concocted the word corruption, (about the first time, it was used to describe the former percents which he, eminently, identified as an obstacle on our way up, threatening to deal with it, at all costs-he did. (He used his wish to step-on-toes).
With the size, monstrosity and multi-dimensional geometry of corruption, today, it ‘ll take some measure of madness to confront it. It isn’t about Jonathan alone. Corruption, in Nigeria has, indeed assumed the state of the biblical who will cast the first stone-everyone seems involved, one way or the other to the detriment of our societal progress. Nepotism, favouritism, tribalism, religious congregational solidarity, townism, statism, class/school matism or any form of solidarity that pushes fairness/justice to the background, eminently, qualifies as corruption. In fact stealing doesn’t, stealing (when unnecessary) is, most times, a manifestation of greed ( another sickness that afflicts the mind, closely related, to ostentation)–not so much of corruption.
Colourless campaigns.
The campaigns had been largely colourless with the messages, sufficiently, trivial to be vague. The politicians had been brandishing in-existing, or at best, fake credentials, concocted, primarily to deceive the unsuspecting populace, reminiscent of the scenario in the first republic when there were only 46 telephones, in the country and the world hadn’t become a global-village.
So far no party had mounted campaigns that can be adjudged persuasive. All we ‘ve been hearing are EH PHEE CEE; PHEE DEE PHEE, with interludes of celebration by rented crowds/party supporters, with stone-age renditions: e kilo f’omo ode/inu igbo l’ope ngbe stuff, most irrelevant as far as today’s electoral-crowd is concerned. No candidate, party spokesperson or any other politician had come up to tell us (i) how our currency can regain its strength; how our youths can get engaged, meaningfully-not just to be shouting, behind politicians; how our schools will compete, globally; how Chibok girls can come back home, safe; how we will transform the filth, we, now, call hospitals into modern health-care facilities, how our people will have clean water, to use, in their homes, how to feed the populace by local produce, only; how we will power our industries; how to tackle poverty through establishment of robust credit system; how to diversify the economy; how can we re-structure our reward system, such that achievers not failures, parading under any guise remain better rewarded so that we can promote excellence and patriotism and our country can compete globally, etc. These are critical issue of currency and where are we, in all of these? Or, are these no issues relevant to our politicians? Are they more concerned about getting elected, so their wives become first ladies and they move in long convoys, with policemen brandishing assorted ammunition to intimidate the populace, into silence (so, rascally politicians can get away with infractions, without being challenged) and sirens to chase voters off the roads? (in the same country where Awolowo alighted his car to shake hands, with the ordinary people, in Ilesa, Ife, Akure, Otun etc with shouts of Awooooo! Awoooo!, by admirers, renting the air, everywhere) Is this what governance means to these fellows, parading as politicians, for goodness sake? Where are these hooligans from?
We are yet to see any electoral value in any of the candidates. In fairness, the empowerment schemes of the incumbent government, now being showcased, appeal to me, as a drive towards capitalism, which, to me, is the best way to go. I, however can’t see any welfare scheme that can assuage the populace thereby controlling criminality as a way to sustain a vibrant capitalism. Secondly, am yet to see the empowerment as free-for-all, in which not, only people who know someone that knows someone (apology to Mr. President) benefit from it; not just transfer of national wealth to a few crooks.
The campaign methods, so far are archaic with intimidating gutter languages being used freely, in place of persuasive codes which complies with the dictate of democracy, also, employed anywhere intellectual debates hold.