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THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER
Nigeria’s Needs
Hank Eso
hankeso@aol.com
Sunday 27 March 2011
Nigeria
needs selfless and discipline men and women who can make good things happen for
the nation. Many will hear that
calling of national leadership, but only a few will meet the litmus test of
being qualified to lead in the context of where Nigeria is now and where it
needs to go in the months and years ahead.…..Buhari did not forget anything in
the State House that he needs to salvage or recoup.
Yet, he has
shown tenacity and discipline and he has shown that he can take tough
decisions...
That
is what Nigeria needs; and that is what Nigeria needs in
its next leader.
Nigerians
will go to the polls in a fortnight. They
will, by universal suffrage decide who will lead them nationally and in the
other tiers of government. This
task, for Nigerians, is one they cannot treat with levity considering the
country’s unsavory political and electoral history.
All the presidential candidates are well known; one presidential debate
has been conducted and another is planned.
Still, there is a palpable air of uncertainty on whether Nigerians will
pass the fundamental litmus test of voting their conscience and electing the
right leader for the country; and if the country has matured sufficiently to
hold considerably free, fair, credible and non-controversial elections. Thoughts
also dwell on possible downstream scenarios; will the losers accept defeat and
rally in support of whoever is elected and to the task of nation building, or as
usual, resort to endless, costly and distractive legal battles.
If there was ever one issue Nigerians
can rally to a consensus on, it is that more than ever, the nation needs good
and purposeful leadership.
Unfortunately, Nigeria has not been a nation
blessed with enviable leadership. After
fifty years, it is ever more evident that the country cannot continue to wallow
in political and developmental stagnation, due to lack of the political will to
pick a leader who can challenge Nigerians to be the best, and who is disciplined
sufficiently to upend the status quo, if that is what it takes to move the
nation forward.
It is axiomatic the
Nigeria
politicians keep forgetting themselves, their place and their statutory role in
the nation. Politicking has become
not only self-serving but also infinitely opposed to the emergence of a
strong-willed leader who will place national interests above those of political
and sectional interests, including some malign interests of the ruling elite.
Nigerian politicians long stopped questioning the basis of
their loss of relevance in true and constructive nation building.
They no longer ponder why on a personal level they strive to get along
with their counterparts across political and ethnic lines, but fail to leverage
such presumably cordial relations in building bi-partisanship that serves
national interest and the wellbeing of the national population.
Several unfortunate confluences of events might have shaped
the political trajectory of Nigerian politics. Yet, it is improbable that the
Nigerian intelligentsia could be in such utter denial that they have forgotten
the historical realities and national aspirations that led the founding fathers
to strive for our independence, and to seek to keep Nigeria as one, though its “tribes
and tongues may differ.” Nigeria remains a blessed nation
with vast resources and potentialities. Still, nothing has adversely affected Nigeria’s
development and political advancement as much as the lack of vision, focus,
discipline and a common strategy that serves common interest by past leadership.
That has to change.
Nigeria’s
needs are huge. Such needs are also acknowledged openly. However, as Jean Monet
observed, “Nothing is possible without
men, but nothing is lasting without institutions”.
At the juncture Nigeria finds itself, the nation
seems bereft of pragmatic men and it has willfully allowed its honored
institutions to erode into infectivity, collapse and in some cases like Nigerian
Airways, total extinction. Many
valuable national institutions have been gutted, cannibalized and some,
unilaterally acquired by a few well-positioned persons by fiats of
privatization. State institutions that are still functional are so bastardize
and debased they merely serve as facades for insidious politics and further
degradation of national values and ethos.
Similarly, at the highest levels of governance, principles and discipline
stand eroded along with integrity, as Nigerians increasingly learn from
WikiLeak disclosures.
Nigeria
is barely two months away from having a new leadership.
Of keen interest to many, is who would emerge as the nation’s next
president. It would be up to the Nigerian people to elect the person considered
most suitable to lead the nation.
The incumbent, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is the presumptive
front-runner, but challengers deem him vulnerable and beatable. His recent
boycott of a presidential debate spoke volumes about his perceived
vulnerabilities. After months of being at the helm, many Nigerians consider him
no suitable for the multifaceted leadership task. However, such sentiments and
traditional emotionalism aside, very few in the current slate of front-runners
are politically well tested to assume the position of the presidency and in that
context, serve Nigeria’s acute
and complex leadership needs. The point here is not to suggest that to govern
well and lead a nation; one is required to have served in the public service.
Far from it, since some great world leaders have emerged from different works of
life, including from trenches and the bushes after wars.
Still, one cannot grapple with issues such as these without being seemingly
judgmental. The controversy over
the zoning of the presidency has yet to abate and will inevitably affect the
forthcoming presidential elections.
That is an inescapable reality.
Notwithstanding that reality, it would seem rather evident, that of the
various presidential slates -- Jonathan-Sambo,
Buhari-Bakare, Ribadu-Adeola,
Shekarau-Oyegun and others -- that only one ticket presents the requisite
discipline, knowledge, experience,
selflessness, consistency, courage and commitment and foreign policy wherewithal
required to lift Nigeria from its present rut.
That
ticket is the
Buhari-Bakare
slate.
Admittedly, the
Buhari-Bakare
slate will be a hard sell to some, in certain parts of the nation, and
especially, to those who have stakes in the survival of the ruling PDP party.
The reality nonetheless, is that PDP is not
Nigeria
and PDP’s fate is not and should not be Nigeria’s fate.
The ruling party must run on its record over the past twelve years and
were things to be done right, should not be expected to win in the many
constituencies in the federation, where it has not delivered the dividends of
democracy or good governance or for that matter, a modicum of the national
largesse at its disposal.
What Nigeria needs
now is not to do business as usual. Nigeria needs
selfless and discipline men and women who can make good things happen for the
nation. Many will hear that calling
of national leadership, but only a few will meet the litmus test of being
qualified to lead in the context of where Nigeria is now and where it needs to
go in the months and years ahead.
Among the present contenders, General Muhammadu Buhari is that man; if indeed
Nigerians are candid to themselves and their dire needs.
What Nigeria needs is the reviving of its
failed institutions and restoration of confidence and integrity in government
and its ways. Nigeria needs to
reclaim its international voice, credentials and the attendant respect.
When Nigeria speaks, the world should
listen; sadly, that is not the case. So far, our foreign policy has been nothing
but shambolic. Nigeria
needs a makeover. Nigeria needs a
leader who understands that and is resolute enough to bring about true change.
Buhari has been there and done that.
Along with Tunde Idiagbon, they offered
Nigeria
one brief shining moment of patriotic leadership that many recall with nostalgia
and regret that it did not last.
Surely, the Buhari-Idiagbo regime was not perfect.
They could hardly be; as they were Nigerians, humans and dealing with
Nigerians. They made evident mistakes. However, they did make a difference and
lifted national discipline and the patriotic zeal of many Nigerians.
Given a chance, I believe Buhari can rescue
Nigeria!
Many have tagged Buhari as inflexible, but they actually
discount his being resolute. They
have characterized him as being a religious extremist, and he proved them wrong
by choosing a Christian and indeed, a pastor as his running make.
Buhari made it fashionable for people to think of
Nigeria
as home, bad as things might have been, mindful that “we
have no other nation to call our own”; he also exhorted Nigerians about the
need to stay and salvage Nigeria together. That salvage
effort, is already much delayed.
Buhari did not forget anything in the State House that he
needs to salvage or recoup. His
campaign will be hobbled by the bad experience
Nigeria
had with Obasanjo’s second tenure at the helm.
Wole Soyinka has suggested as much already, in his rejection of
ex-military leaders. However, the business of disciplined and strict
constructionist nation building has not advanced much since Buhari left office
in August 1985. If Nigerian politics were not as convoluted as it is, and
national institutions not gutted and upended as they are, perhaps, Buhari’s
return to power would have happened sooner.
It might also have been unnecessary for him to seek to return to office.
His court battles to redress the illegalities of the extremely flawed 2003 and
2007 presidential elections dragged on infinitely.
In the end, there was no justice served; indeed, justice was denied, but
the truth did materialize in the most unexpected way. Nigerians now know the
truth!
Nigerians have yet another unique opportunity to do a favor to
themselves, their nation and their posterity.
They have had some missed opportunities, like choosing Shehu Shagari over
Obafemi Awolowo, in 1979 and the annulment of the 1993 elections that robbed
M.K.O. Abiola of his victory. Fate seems ready to offer the nation another
opportunity. Nigerians are unrepentantly proud people, but that pride has lost
its allure, vim, and vigor. Putting
the shine and bounce back into the minds and lives of Nigerians must begin at
home with a renewal, just as it happened in
Ghana. Buhari can bring about that change; he
can make Nigeria a different and better
place. He alone has the courage and
discipline to cut out many crass opportunists and usurpers that masquerade as
political leaders when they should be in jail.
His political opponents know that, which is why they are implacable and
vehement in opposing him and would do everything to stop him.
Well thinking Nigerians should not align with those who use
every pretext, including tribal and religious excuses to campaign against Buhari.
He has shown tenacity and discipline and he has shown that he can take tough
decisions. He took many hardheaded
decisions in 1983 and 1984 and
Nigeria
was better for them. Nigeria
needs to return to that straight-laced path and national discipline. That is
what
Nigeria
needs; and that is what
Nigeria
needs in its next leader. All said
Nigerians have the option of pitching their tent with a leader who can salvage
the nation or settling with another who will continue business as usual and
repeat many mistakes of the past dismal fifty years.
Here is my take: Every
nation gets the leaders they deserve.
Nigerians know their needs. They also know that true democracy is about
making choices, but also about making the right and hard choices.
Democracy is no bed of roses. In their case, things might get rough and
tough before they get better. Someone needs to tell Nigerians that, and among
the present lot of contenders, only Buhari can. The question now is; can
Nigerians seize the moment. Can we?
With neither anger
nor partiality, until next time, keep the law, stay impartial, and observe
closely.
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Hank Eso
is a columnist for
Kwenu.com.
His observations on Nigerian, African and global politics and related issues,
has appeared in various print media, journals and internet-based sites.
© Hank Eso, 27 March 2011.
Email:
hankeso@aol.com
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