By
Abdullahi Bego
[IRAN]
As it reaches its four-year destination mark, the Obasanjo administration, especially if it was unsuccessful in retaining power after the 2003 polls, will be remembered for having led Nigeria through the thick and thin of participatory democracy immediately after the end of a long military interregnum. Among other things, it has shown how it was difficult to succeed in a democratic setting without a good working relationship with the National Assembly. More importantly, it has shown that mere foreign junkets to attract investments alone would not do, if the necessary social, economic and political infrastructures were not put in place to make investments safe and rewarding. As global capital increasingly look for safe havens, the lessons will be relevant in charting the way forward.
But a more ominous trend set, or reinforced, since the return to democratic governance in May 1999 was the tendency among political elites to jettison the democracy of ideology and ‘people first’ in favour of less sublime, self-serving alternatives. Two factors could probably have accounted for this. The first is ‘Tazarce,’ that psychopathic crave to remain in power regardless of the trend in public opinion; and the second, a corollary, is ‘Ghana Must Go Politics’. Both have impacted so negatively on the nation’s quest for an economic and political renewal that the Obasanjo administration was hamstrung, literally, to make good its commitment to fight corruption and instill order in the public service, lost during the years of unaccountable military administrations.
Since
Tazarce, Ghana-Must-Go and lately ‘Agadez’, according to Dr. Tilde, are
self-serving, many politicians have lost sense of the purposes for contesting
for political power. The story, for instance, was told of a former gubernatorial
aspirant in one of the states who stood his ground not to stand down for another
candidate within his party because he was looking forward to being driven in a
‘convoy of cars with sirens’ if and when elected. The political party in
question had to prevail on him to concede following a certain
‘arrangement’ they made among themselves because it considered the
choice between the two and other aspirants as fundamental to its election
victory.
It was also an open secret that during the palaver that were local government administrations before they were dissolved recently, local government headquarters were scenes of ‘cake-sharing’ at the end of every month. With salaries, then, that would make a university lecturer agape with envy; ‘officials’ in these local government areas fell over themselves to be counted as riding the best cars or wearing the best coat or Tazarce dress. With many of them being sundry businessmen, the main preoccupation then was therefore when to get what amount of money to open what shop in the next available marketplace.
Over the last three years, politicians, both elected and unelected, have paid unnecessary attention to details that served only their personal interests. This though is without prejudice to a few ones across the political spectrum who have strove to live above board. In the main however, endemic social and economic problems such as incessant power supply failure, poor telephony, galloping inflation, crises in the educational sector; especially in higher education, a declining public health system etc have continued to make life burdensome for the ‘ordinary us’ in all parts of Nigeria while those to whom we gave our votes continued to look the other way.
In
the contest for political space, our elites also have continued to pitch us
against one another despite the commonality in the lived reality of our
existence. If a contract could not be secured or some door for personal
attainment closed, the elites would rush back to us and whiff ethnic, religious
or other parochial sentiments to stir us to do their fight. Gullibly Nigerians,
in all parts of the country, have continued to be used this way. The result of
all these is inevitably the negation of ‘real issues’.
These are issues having to do with the political and economic empowerment of the people, the relentless fight against poverty, disease and sundry social inconveniences, the development of our industries to optimal production capacity, the protection of the economy against some of the most negative effects of capitalist globalisation, national confidence building and the promotion of mutual trust.
These in my view are issues to which our politicians must return if they are to earn the trust and confidence of the people. For the political elites, as for all of Nigeria, there shall be no peace and security unless the contest for political space is done to actually improve the living conditions of the people.
Abdullahi Bego writes from Tehran, I R Iran (email-abego5@yahoo.com)