The Emperor Has No Cloth: The Case of "Wanabe" Presidents

By

Debo Awosika-Olumo MD. MS

dawosikaolumo@neo.rr.com

 

 

"The goal of education is not to train future authorities, but people who are not intimidated by those who claim to be authorities. The alternative to gullibility is not the lack of respect for competence, but the ability to find who is competent and who is not”.—Walter Kaufman

 

I continue to read with amusement the names of the “wan be” presidents and the reasons why they want to be president of Nigeria.

 

I am not against the agitation or ambition of any individual or groups of individuals, and likewise I am not against any religion, tribe or ethnicity in their prowess to become president or whatever they desire to be in Nigeria.

 

I have read most the reasons why they want to be president, and I found most of them amusing and self serving because none put the interest of the country first.

 

I will go over their reasons without mentioning names for your information and reasonable assessment.

 

 

Reasons why they want to be president, to mention  a few:

 

1.      It is time for someone from my tribe to be the president: There is nothing wrong with this desire for the sake of self pride and determination of any tribe. However, Nigeria’s problems are so humongous that the ability of a “WANABE” to identify and solve the problems should be more important than geographical, ethnic or tribal parochialism.

 

2.      It is time for someone from the South-South, North-North, South East, and South West etc.: I am not against this desire too. What has this got to do with the alleviation of the sufferings of millions of Nigeria. A country where about 50 percent of its population is under 14 years (This is an economic unproductive age).

 

 

3.      No Muslim should vote for a Christian and we want Sharia in all the states in the North and the whole country as a whole. How many jobs will this create to reverse the grimly picture of 30% unemployment rate in the country and 75% in the present Sahria implementation geographical area.

 

4.      No Christian should vote for a Muslim: How would this improve the country’s current infant mortality rate of 73.34 death/1000 live births. This means that one child dies out of every 10 children born annually in Nigeria.

 

5.      It is our birth right to rule the country and it was a great mistake that the base of power was moved to the south. What impact will this make on the poverty rate in the country; 45% Nigerians live below poverty line and how will this reduce illiteracy rate in the your area and the country as a whole.

 

6.      I am the only patriotic Nigeria who is interested in the unity of the country. How will this reduce the national debt of over $32 billion and the feeling of marginalization, lack accountability and the gross  corruption in the country. What is the plan to improve the disability adjusted quality life expectancy (DALE 38.3 years). This means that a child born in Nigeria today is only guaranteed to live 38.3 quality years without injury, diseases and disability.

 

 

After perusing all these mendacious reasons and some other reasons which are too petty and silly to be mentioned here, I came to the conclusion that with this kind of thinking, the salvation of this country is in a distant generation except there is a miracle from God.

 

All the above reasons can be summarized into one reason, they like the trappings of being important and also want to be proximate to the table to partake in the national cake to the detriment of the masses. To achieve their objectives they are mendaciously using different kinds of hegemonies described above.

 

Nigerian leaders (military and politicians) through their sagacious and garrulous absurdity have turned the country into a mendicant society.

Since the country’s independence 41 years ago, the people of the northern geographical area had monopolized the presidency of the country. The masses from this area could not account for any meritorious benefit from this advantage except those described below:

 

1.                  The richest out of government service generals and politicians in the country and possibly in the world. Despite this benefit, the region has the lowest private and indigenous investments of any area in the country.

 

2.                  The highest rates of unemployment about 75% and poverty rates in the 70% also.

 

3.                  Increased numbers of Alimanjeres (miscreants)

 

4.                  The highest maternal death. Southwest region reports annual maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 165 per 100,000 live births, although, this is high, but the Northeast region reports 1,549 per 100,000. The worst in the world.  A study conducted in the northern part of the country indicates that 25% of all deliveries take place in the home with no assistance or attendance present.---WHO

 

5.                  The highest number of illiteracy rate compare with any geographical areas in the country.

 

After analyzing the five “benefits” above, any reasonable mind will come to the conclusion that, these “wan be” politicians usage of symbolic hegemonies are not to benefit  the masses but their own self-interest and pockets.

 

There is an issue that continues to puzzle me about the country’s sociopolitical culture. Nigeria has the fastest rate of turning a government official to millionaires. To be “made” in Nigeria, you just need to be in corridor of power for months. The puzzling thing about this phenomenon, is these are public officers, and we know their salaries scale, hence where does the extra moneys or largesse come from. These behavior have both direct and indirect association with the terrible mortality and morbidity statistics mentioned above.  Do we Africans in particular Nigerians have conscience, how do we sleep? and how can a country or a continent continue to live in and survive this kind of boner.

 

In the recent memory starting from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair, all the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom are from England. I can’t imagine a Scottish man saying I want to be the Prime Minister because most, if not all Prime Ministers are from England. Hence, it is our turn and also we have the Red Sea oil. On the other hand the Prime Minister of Canada is from Quebec (French speaking) majority of Canadians are English speaking. The current Prime Minister did not get to this position by flouting tribal, ethnic or any other symbolic hegemony. But he identified the problems of the country and professes the best workable solutions that were preferable by the majority of the people in the country.

 

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were both from one of the two smallest neighboring southern states in the United States and together they won two presidential elections as president and vice president of the richest country in the world. These victories were not because of any symbolic hegemony but their ability to showed that they can move the country forward. I hope this happen in my life time or near future in Nigeria when the President and the vice President will come from two adjacent states because of their understanding on how to move the country forward and not by flouting hegemonies.

 

I have discussed two main issues above, 1) the “wan be” presidents without any mission or solution to the yearning problems of the country; 2) the ideal solution that I pray for and the majority of the Nigerian masses yearn for.

 

How to attain the Ideal situation

 

Sovereign National Conference is a matter of necessity and urgency, because any union based on falsehood and distrust, disillusionment, disharmony and disinclination is bound to lead to disaster.

Limitation of government (federal, state and local government) role to only regulations, referees of private sectors and law enforcement. Total privatization of every sector of the economy to enable economic efficiency in the allocation of the country resources. Government commitment to inefficient public agencies such as NEPA, NITEL etc., that are very visible and important political indices are draining funds from the more important but less visible sectors such as education and health care.

 

Privatization of all government establishments, as I said in my previous article on privatization that at present in Nigeria, public sector management is not results and customer focused or value creative. But they are geared to satisfy the people in government and their cronies and not the stakeholders. Value creation should not be a chance event in public agency, nor should it be determined only by government decree. It should depend on what potential customers/stakeholders will really value and that the organization is actually able to deliver in a competitive way. Thus it links customer/stakeholder need with the organization’s actual or potential capabilities. After more than forty years of independence and no matter how patriotic our force may be, Nigeria public agencies and current culture lack the ability to create value that is customers/stakeholders focused. This action of privatization will remove the incentive for “quick rich” mentality as the reason for serving in government and also reduce the peddling of ethnic tribal and religious hegemonies as the qualification to serve the people.

 

I will like Nigerians to watch these “cabals” of people that are against privatization. This group can be divided in to four: 1) the innocent ignoramus 2)deliberate and mendacious ignoramus 3) the beneficiary of the present system of mendacity and 4) those that are afraid of change because of their distrust and disdain for government and their actions. They have justifiable reasons and questions such as how are we sure that the government is not selling public properties to their cronies and how are we sure that they will not create private monopoly which is even worse than government monopoly.

 

The next sure path to this ideal situation was also mentioned in my previous piece on unity of Nigeria. Let every state government manage their own resources and pay tax to a loose central government for the following purposes, national security, defense, commerce and other national responsibilities that the states shall concede to the central government.

 

Fourthly, we and the so called intelligentsias need to be serious and stop being agents of these “wanabes”. Our actions and supports are some of the proximate problems of the country. Our writings and discussions assist in the parade and glorification of these hegemonies because of our desire to claim advantage of our sociopolitical group or beliefs over the other person’s or groups. No amount of this stupid, parochial, myopic, unpatriotic and self centered actions and beliefs will help us and help the country. “Resentment kills a fool and envy slays the simple”. Some of these intelligentsias even suggested increasing the number of hands in the ‘pot of soup’ (five vice presidents to represent each zone, rotational presidency etc.) all these are just application of band aid to a cankerworm that have eaten deep into the country fibers. Nigeria needs a surgical operation to remove the cancer. There is a popular Yoruba adage that says “You left leprosy untreated to cure ring worm”, which is more damaging or likely to kill you first?

 

The fifth step, the government and the country’s policy makers should immediately embark on a conscientious and deliberate policy to encourage Nigerians in diasporas to come back home, if not literary but to start investing in the country economy. No country can develop or be productive when the majority of its productive adults are either out of the country and those in the country are in a state of despondency. This spirit of despondency and fatalism is so rife that our universities are now factories for would be assassins like “Fryo”.

 

It takes the coming home of Israelites in exile in the Bible (Nehemiah time) before the destroyed wall of Jerusalem could be built. In the present day Israel the same movement had to occur for them to enjoy their present day development. Nigeria security and economic walls are destroyed. Hence, the need for a policy to encourage Nigerians in exile back into the country to help built the broken walls.

 

On behalf of majority of Nigerians abroad, I can say one of our major concerns regarding coming back home is security of life and property.

 

The main reasons, for insecurity in the country can be described as follows to mention a few:

           

1.                  Overt corruption and lack of accountability in all the arms of governments.

 

2.                  Unemployment rates of over 30% (25 millions able bodied Nigerians are unemployed). This is one of the reasons for the fatalistic beliefs among the country’s youth.

 

3.                  Poor and badly managed education systems from elementary to the universities.

 

4.                  States of despondency, hopelessness and fatalism, where public servants like ministers, senators, governors, commissioners are flouting ill-gotten wealth with reckless abandon.

 

5.                  The state and the arrangement of our police, I will continue to maintain that the federal government has no role in local policing. Hence the current police arrangement in the country breeds crime. I am suggesting this line of action, the police force should be divided into two: 1) the Mobile police force  can be a national force for the purpose of quelling riots and assist the state’s police in case of massive compromise of the state’s security; 2) The general police force, should be states or local governments financed and controlled force.

 

6.                  Total failure of the system of governance. No country can develop or move forward in a culture of “settlements” and to be “made” you just need to be in government for months and there is no consequence for the action.

 

7.                  Poor transportation and communication systems, and lack of constant power supply.

 

In summary, the problems of Nigeria is so great, it is an act of pettiness and silliness for anyone to be flouting symbolic hegemonies as the reasons why he should be the next president or the next president should be someone who share their religious beliefs or come from their sociopolitical area.

 

I am looking forward to a presidential  candidate or a president whether from Kokombilo or Timbuktu that will identify the country’s problems and profess a workable and agreeable solutions that can lead the country out of these doldrums.

 

For peace, tranquility, accountability and progress to be in Nigeria we need real and sincere dialogue with every issue on the table because “any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius --- and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction”.

 

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it”. –Albert Einstein.  

 

Through my site at the Nigeriannet.com. I am hereby encouraging a sovereign national-dialogue of all patriotic Nigerian intelligentsias who are interested in the process of moving the country forward.

 

The guidelines for this discussion are listed below:

 

  1. No name callings and use of abusive words.

 

  1. Respect for individual points of view and the ability to respectful disagree with each other.

 

  1. No reference to past evil did of our past leaders. There is no need crying over a spilt milk. A Yoruba proverb says “if we do not forget and settle today’s fight, we can not be friend tomorrow”.

 

  1. All issues are on the table including resource management and taxation

 

  1. Nigerian Union