What We Need

Four short phrases summarize Buhari: He is an incorruptible man. He is a patriotic Nigerian devoid of any trace of ethnicism and parochialism. He is a deeply religious man and a stern disciplinarian. We talk of the giant strides the Asian Tigers have taken to leap from the state of underdevelopment to developed nations. Little do we know or appreciate the agonizing hardship, pains and sufferings all Singaporeans, Chinese, Malays, Indians and other ethnic nationalities, had to endure for Singapore to attain its present height as a respected nation. Gold must be smelted in hot burning furnaces before unleashing its shine and purity.

Lee Kuan Yew was a benevolent democratic autocrat. He subjected his people to a good dose of rigorous healthy discipline. No country makes the kind of progress Singapore made without an unwavering sense of disciplined direction. Moreover, Lee Kuan Yew was an inspirational leader of his people. He governed by example.

It is not just the question of the number of kilometers of roads you build that elevates a nation. It is not a matter of the megawatts of power you generate or the number of buildings you erect for the populace; not even the refineries you build or the volume of agricultural products produced and exported. These are important. Any leader surrounded by brilliant experts, excellent technocrats and loyal advisers can achieve those basic and essential needs. Leadership calls for much greater attributes than the performance of those feats. A leader must have a strong, solid, moral and disciplined background, the inspirational ability to galvanize his people to higher, lofty and common purpose. These are not ordinary attributes available to every man. They are uncommon gifts and talents dispensed and bestowed only to a few. This makes the difference between one man and the other.

It is only a pity that fate thrust Buhari into the leadership limelight at a period in time when military revolution and coup d’états were in vogue. In a democratic setting as we have now, I believe that the real worth and essence of this man, encapsulated in an exemplary and enigmatic personal life, will blaze through and shine forth. It will soon be clear that those of his followers of questionable and dubious pedigree who think they can latch on to the reputation of this rare Nigerian would be the first to be highly disappointed.

I also believe that what is badly needed at this stage of our national development is a leadership that will turn the country round and rescue us from the depth of chronic indiscipline, disorder and decadence we have over the years, gradually descended and then slipped into. What I believe we need is a strong hand at the helm, with the support of our people, who will instill in us a much needed sense of order and discipline; inspire us into patriotic zeal and sacrifice; bring out the best in each and every one of us and encourage in us the love of Nation.

Buhari represents, in my opinion, the last opportunity we have to get it right. He should be given the chance to restore and consolidate the disappearing values of that golden age, so sadly disrupted by the military to which paradoxically and tragically, he and those in that generation and those before him were willy nilly pressed into being a part of. He carries on his frail ageing but reliable shoulders a historic responsibility and burden of getting it right. He has a duty to realign the nation towards achieving its manifest destiny. He has no excuses for failure. Otherwise why should he be seeking power at his age? History will judge him very harshly should he fail.

The immediate challenge before him is how to curb the excesses of the teaming masses of followers who undoubtedly adore him. The next is to rein in the display of empty, hollow pompousness and offensive arrogance by a few of his elitist, lazy patronage seeking associates, who if victorious will flock to him without discrimination.

I think it is time for us to begin anew. We should start to live as normal human beings and not in self-delusion and self-deceit. This is the real transformation needed. This is the revolution we yearn for at this time in our national life. One now understands what drove past Chinese leaders into staging the “cultural revolution”. Nigeria is ripe for a non-violent revolution, which will shake us up like a volcanic eruption from our present national stupor and sweep out the quacks and charlatans from our midst.

What we need is to get out there and March (28) for Buhari.

WHEN TRUST IS LOST

We Nigerians should have had enough by now! We are at a place where politicians exist, purely because they exist; purely because there is scope for them in our constitution. I am sure that whoever fashioned this system of government did not intend for the 3 arms to government to be a cancer to us, to our freedoms, to our security and to our prosperity. I am quite sure that the opposite was intended. But look at us, look where we are, we have been so ravaged by bad leadership that the connotative word for ‘politician’ is ‘deceit.’

We slide down a slippery slope to anarchy when, apart from breaking promises of delivery, leaders start to toy with our rights to give them a scorecard on performance, by not keeping to a timetable as ascribed by them, by whom I mean the federal government, INEC, the PDP. This highlights the impunity with which these same promises are broken. The very mandate, which elevated them to power, is what they toy with, for their own selfish interests. It is a disgrace. They are beneficiaries of our democracy and should defend it with their lives and not abuse the trust that we had given them.

INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, the man in the eye of the storm, is a personality. He is not INEC. We must build institutions. This body must be independent and apolitical. The pressure that has been brought to bear on that institution is a further indictment on the ruling party, and the president’s utterances that he was not consulted in this mess, shows how weak a captain he is in steering this ship to calm waters. INEC was bullied into postponing the elections by the combined forces of the Presidency, the NSA, the PDP and the military. This is unfortunate.

The PDP have gone from telling us that General Buhari did not go to school to alleging that more PVCs have been distributed in the north than in the south. They should however not forget that the whole country, including the North, voted overwhelmingly for President Jonathan in 2011. What has changed? A failure to deliver on the promises made. They have themselves to blame, so they should look inwards and hang their heads in shame, roll up those sleeves and look hard at what they got wrong this time. Bringing in orators like the forked tongued Fani Kayode as spokesman only exposes their desperation to hold on to power by any means possible. They would do well to be wary of the fragility of our democracy in bringing in the army into matters that do not concern them. They should reverse acts and understand that the country is bigger than they are and we all have a right to choose, whoever we feel. After all, we did choose Mr. President in 2011. That is democracy.

6 weeks to salvage the north east? This is the same region that the PDP is claiming has received more voters’ cards than the south. This is the segment of the country that has suffered most in the PDPs hands, why are they so suddenly concerned about their right to vote? We have refugees in Niger, Chad and Cameroun. They have lost their homes and livelihoods. They have lost their kith and kin. It is most unlikely they will vote for a PDP led government. Bakassi in Cross River State where we have the IDPs in the south have suddenly also come to the fore. They are suddenly important, I wonder why. Do they want to practice stomach infrastructure there too! Highlighting these areas only serves to highlight to us how much the ruling party has failed us.

When in 2011, the president was widely voted into power with a breath of fresh air, there was no issue of North, South, East or West.  He secured as much votes in the North as he did in the East. But this time around, desperation is blurring his vision of One Nigeria.  What we are concerned with is who is Boko Haram and how do we rid ourselves of this resident evil. Why is our economy suffering and what have you done with our external reserves? They have been mismanaged and we only see private jets on our tarmac as we watch ourselves getting weaker and poorer.  

We should however not despair. I am particularly impressed by how we have composed ourselves with dignity. We refuse to lose faith and have made calls for only peaceful assembly. Here on a platter of gold is the opposition’s opportunity to show true leadership by eschewing violence and not reacting negatively to anything that is thrown at them. As for the naysayers of our democratic process, March 28 will soon be here. 

AMERICA’S VISA THREAT

When the United States of America’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, threatened that masterminds of election violence would be denied visas to America, I was caught between laughing and crying. I really felt embarrassed that this was the best that they could do. I suppose it is not their place to threaten us with the ICC, as they have not signed up to it. More importantly, he succeeded in highlighting to us how charity does not start at home over here, as our politician’s playground is overseas and the only way to punish them is to threaten like one would do with little children, “if you fight, I shall not give you sweet.”

We really should hearken to the advise of our erstwhile Finance Minister, that we should cut down on foreign trips. Mr. Kerry exposed our leaders’ love for foreign travel where they can conveniently spend and stack their looted funds in banks and on premium properties abroad. He understands that denying them this visa is like snatching “akara” from a toddler.

A Yoruba adage says a deity who cannot improve one’s lot should at least not compound it. I listened to the KOWA Party presidential candidate, Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya, making her case during the signing of the Abuja Peace Accord. The wonderful woman chastised the audience for washing our dirty linen in the presence of Western observers. We were behaving like children; our presidential candidates were called together to sign a treaty that they and their supporters would not resort to violence. But we hear calls to violence daily. Supposed elder statesmen like Edwin Clark, Walter Ofonagoro and thugs like Tompolo and Asari-Dokubo are swearing fire and brimstone if their son, the president, does not win the election. Are we in a democracy and why is the president answering such incendiary utterances with silence?

It is not a co-incidence that while Kerry was prescribing his hilarious visa punishment; President Barack Obama was in India to attend the country’s Republican Day celebrations. The photo-ops and body language of Obama and the Indian Prime Minister show America’s diplomatic directions. We really are the worlds circus and they would all be laughing if people were not dying daily in this country.

The effectiveness of the Chadians and the Cameroonians in combating Boko Haram and protecting the lives and property of their citizens and ours is a spot light on the failure of our leaders to protect us and is a clarion call to the Western powers that we are children who do not understand the folly of our ways and are in capable of understanding the consequences of our selfish actions. We are showing clearly that our leadership is not fit to lead. It is costing us dear and reflects on our diplomatic relationship within and outside our shores.

Meanwhile, colorful political campaigns go on. Thank God, the world is now privy to the ongoing massacre in the North East and watches those who should be rolling up their sleeves and strategizing on how to purge us of this evil, instead dance in half empty stadiums in a show of ill prepared elections which in itself testifies to our unserious immature persona. Less than two weeks to the elections, and INEC has not distributed permanent voter’s card (PVC) to a third of the voting population – that is some 30 million electorate! The PDP, the party in power, is asking that the presidential polls be suspended even though INEC has had 4 years to prepare. I think the questions that we should be asking are: why they are not ready and who is losing his head over the poor show?

An African adage says when a big calamity befalls a giant; hitherto dwarfed challenges would seem insurmountable. We need capacity, we need change. We cannot keep making excuses for poor leadership and roll with the punches anytime something else goes wrong. Our candidates in this election stand, as symbols of a broken political system, which makes all our problems seem even more intractable.

I think it is fair to say that whomever we end up with will preside over a very difficult period in our nation. Much damage has been done to the country in the hands of these same players. My sadness is that I am one of those who do not have PVC but if I did, I would vote for Buhari, as I believe that with his humility and genuine love for Nigeria, he may be able to in the most difficult circumstances, introduce the type of discipline that will save us from fracture. This is not the army, mind you, and he should be prepared to fight a different fight. This time he must deal with politicians.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have that PVC, make sure you go out there and vote for Nigeria.  Politicians and supporters of the PDP and APC should eschew violence during and after the elections.  DO not leave your PVC unclaimed. Travel to get it if you have to; for it is the surest means to end the disappointment and insults that we receive daily by being Nigerians.