Still on Presidential Nomadism and National Priorities
By
Zulfikar
Aliyu Adamu
[SAUDI
ARABIA]
zulfikar@kfupm.edu.sa
This time around, our agile president was
most likely visiting the Republic of … just a minute, aha; he was over the
Pacific Ocean
a month ago when a sensational CNN program was aired about Nigerian
fraudsters, a.k.a. financial terrorist. On behalf of the president and
people of the Federal(?)
Republic
of
Nigeria
, our ambassador to the United Nations made a spirited attempt to redeem as
much National image as he could. Greed, on the part of the victims, he pointed
out, should be blamed for making people especially foreigners, so gullible. The
main thrust of this article remains the restlessness of our president and the
insensitivity of his government to the plight of the common Nigerian. But
kindly allow me, dear readers, in the manner of introductory continuity of the
last publication, to sort of digress on the aspect of national image and
international perception- even though, my concept about this series is
primarily based on national priorities and the roaming tendencies of our
number one citizen. It is well known that Obasanjo was a renowned farmer and
not a tourist before he was elected into office three years ago, but today,
while he is wining and dining in foreign lands, the cost of food is sky
rocketing at home. And, more Nigerians are leaving the country today than they
were during military dictatorship. So desperate is the desire to seek greener
pastures by hook or crook that imagine a Nigerian woman named Fatimo Atanda,
sought for and was granted refugee/asylum status in Cyprus because she is
pregnant, unmarried and would be
‘stoned to death’ in Nigeria. This was after she was deported from
Ireland
because of her forged British passport. Mind you, even without a Yoruba
surname like Atanda, Fatimo… (not
Fatima
) is obviously from the south west where you and I know that the states there,
are NOT enforcing Shari’a law. It all goes to point that some
Nigerians are capable of doing and saying anything to leave the country.
Forging British passports and telling lies about Shari’a prosecution are
only tools for achieving same. What could Fatimo Atanda care about patriotism
and national image when her (and her president’s) priority is to escape from
the problems in
Nigeria
? But let’s not waste time on another crooked Nigerian woman who is probably
on her way to become a sexual diplomat in
Europe
.
You may recall that wasteful efforts on
economically diversionary issues like building stadiums and hosting
international sporting events (in a poor country) receiving some bashing on a
BBC program- and on the second paragraph of my first article on executive
nomadism and national priorities. However, I don’t know how many of you
readers can recall that presently, our Minister of Sports has declared that
Nigeria will run for the hosting rights for the Soccer Mundial of 2010. That
decision has now pitted us against the South Africans who were hitherto, clear
favorites to host the world cup in
Africa
. But when queried about the issue of insecurity and
Nigeria
’s crime problems, hear our sporting minister: “
South Africa
is not more crime-free than we are. I used to be the Minister for Police
Affairs, so I can see it from both sides, and I can tell you what our men can
do,” Haba, Mr. Stephen Akiga! Are you unaware that our policemen went on
strike early this year because of the insensitivity of their leaders to the
plight of the rank and file in the same police force, which YOU were
once a minister? Even if South Africa is no less crime-free than Nigeria, I
will have you know Mr. Akiga, that South Africa is building more affordable
houses for their citizenry, has better road networks and other civil
infrastructure like water and electricity than we do; more telephone lines
than the rest of black Africa put together, a more thriving economy than we
can hope for presently and the respect of the international community to cap
it all. Instead of touching the security criterion (thereby indirectly
exposing your immediate past failures as Minister of Police Affairs) and
embarking on hosting the world cup, kindly tell us how many jobs you have
created in the sports ministry since you took over. You were in the police
ministry not long ago and now the police have learnt how to organize Aluta,
like our university students. You are now the Minister of Sports, haba; no
wonder our footballers have been dumping the interest of the nation as
witnessed in the last nation and world cups. I am fervently praying that you
don’t end up in the Ministry of Agriculture because food crops and livestock
will also go on strike. At least, so that we don’t join the ranks of
countries like
Zimbabwe
that are currently facing famine. Talking about agriculture, while our
ex-farmer president is competing with the Pope for frequent flier awards,
Cote d’Ivoire
(the world’s largest cocoa producer) has just recently raised export taxes
on cocoa beans by 22 percent, simply to take advantage of high world prices
and demand. This was a country that in the 60’s, ranked fourth in cocoa
production behind
Ghana
,
Nigeria
and
Brazil
. So while Pope John Paul is canonizing saints and keeping in touch with his
understandably borderless constituency of Catholics, our farmer-turned-tourist
president (who won the World Hunger Award last decade) is busy setting up
international branches of Aso Rock; meanwhile the national grains reserve has
been coughing up its contents recently in order to keep food prices down.
Where art thy priorities O president?
The last quarter of the year is at hand
and we neither have an operational budget for 2002 nor has the budget for
2001 been fully accounted for. Therefore it is not out of place to say that
this government is running the country in arrears. While other countries are
busy trying to conquer time, want, distance and space, our government is
speaking in past tense. Simply put, come the time when OBJ is vetoed out of
office by the legislators or voted out by the electorate, his government will
owe the people of Nigeria one year’s budget. By the time Abacha’s body was
consigned to mother earth, 80 Naira exchanged for a dollar. As of today, you
need 130 Naira for the same dollar officially, that is. Even when the late
dictator increased the domestic cost of petrol products by reducing subsidies,
at least he was able to set up PTF with the extra profits that were accrued.
This Obasanjo government cancelled the PTF; which paved so many roads in
villages like mine and cities like
Lagos
, provided drugs in hospitals that the same PTF rehabilitated. PTF
supplied books in schools that it renovated or built and… in a nutshell,
carried out the numerous responsibilities that established ministries failed
to do. Agreed that PTF may have no role in a constitutional democracy, but my
point is, Obasanjo has scrapped the PTF, increased the cost of petroleum
products by as much as three times Abacha’s increment and today, we are
poorer and hungrier than we were four years ago. We still do not know what
happens to the extra cash being generated by the increment in cost of fuel.
According to the Corruption Indices of Transparency International, Nigeria has
just lost the Corruption World Cup in a final match with Bangladesh.
Therefore, If, in the paraphrased words of Wole Soyinka, Abacha’s government
was a monster then I tell you, dear readers, that Obasanjo’s government is a
whole damn zoo!
True leadership in
Nigeria
, the West African Subcontinent and possibly
Africa
as a whole can only be practiced by listening to the voices and cries of the
people and not by flattening villages like Odi and Zaki-biam or strong arming
rebels in far away
Liberia
and
Sierra Leone
. Understanding a problem and its roots is half way to solving that problem.
So in terms of regional integration (call it NEPAD, AU, or West African
Central Bank or whatever you like) removing the speck in our eye will go far
in making us better prepared to remove the log of wood in other peoples eyes.
Take the European Union for example, where membership is based on strict
adherence to laid down democratic and economic guidelines and not by mere
geographical location. But what do you know? Our information minister has just
informed us that the take off of the West African Monetary Union has been
postponed from 2003 to 2004. This is to allow member countries to meet the
requirements for adopting a single currency. But really, aren’t we just
trying to copycat the Europeans, who themselves are still experimenting with
the Euro currency? Personally, I am of the opinion that most of the West
African member countries (with
Nigeria
toping the list) are not in a position to begin to implement single regional
currencies. Of what use will be a single currency for (I presume trading) when
after every three countries you cross, the fourth is a rebel zone? Okay,
agreed that most conflicts in
West Africa
are on the threshold of resolution but what about economic discipline and
poverty alleviation, sorry, eradication? I am no pessimist, but I don’t see
the single currency idea working right now. How many Nigerian factories or
cottage industries are producing goods for the patronage of Guineans, Malians
and Senegalese entrepreneurs and vice versa? Are we producing enough rice,
garri, yam and palm oil to feed ourselves and sell the excess to our West
African neighbors? One of two things is possible. Firstly, it is either we get
fed up and drive away these people when (and if) they come to Nigeria (thereby
reinventing new bags called Guinea-Must-Go, Senegal-Must-Go etc), or they
drive us away from their counties in frustration with Nigeria-Must-Go bags.
Oh, I almost forgot, our 419 schemers will probably milk the living daylights
out of any foreign investor (African or Westerner) anyway, unless security
issues and unemployment are seriously addressed. Strengthening the
micro-economic aspect of Nigerian economy, putting more food on people’s
plates, and fighting crime and corruption should be our priority because we
can barely feed ourselves now.
It is the level of our government’s lack
of simple economic aptitude that makes the average Nigerian head for the
seaport of
Cotonou
in order to purchase a ‘tokunbo’ car. One wonders sometimes whether we are
landlocked like
Niger
Republic
, or we do have our own seaports at all. I don’t really blame those who go
to Benin Republic to buy cars since the few cars that arrive at our ports end
up departing without engines, tyres or headlights, hmm, talking security
again! Instead of Obasanjo’s government to figure out ways of livening
things up at our ports so that international car dealers will dock their ships
on our coast, the president preferred late last year, to cancel the
importation of used cars, as if he was going to subsidize the cost Peugeot
from PAN in
Kaduna
. In short, but for the intervention of some smarter advisers, more Nigerians
would have their dream of having vehicles squashed. And the president had
the audacity to count increased salaries and car ownership by civil servants
as some of his achievements so far.
As I draw the curtains on this second and
probably last article on presidential nomadism and the needs pf the people, I
shall conclude by hoping that our police will not go on strike again for who
knows, next time it may be mutiny. The soldiers may then follow suit. Let us
collectively, hope and pray for better leaders, icons and role models and not
have to reminisce at the minted images of our past heroes on our devalued
monies. Let’s work for a country that understands the needs and values of
human resource as more important than owning oil wells in every backyard. So
that our university undergraduates will sit down to study in order to blend
well into this digital age instead of hijacking buses and deputy governors. So
that our women folk will not have to wake up in the mornings, tie their
scarves around their waists and barricade premises of oil companies,
chewing-stick in mouth. So that civil servants realize that this absentee
president is simply taking them on a ride each time extra zeroes are added to
their salary digits on workers day; and that they should instead press for
more economic measures for better purchasing powers. By insisting on an
Obasanjo candidacy and electing him (when his tribesmen refused to touch him
with a long pole), I hope the northern political class realize that they built
a glass house and alas, now they are throwing stones. As we shop for a new,
nay, better president I hope that Nigerians have collectively learnt some
valuable lessons from the despicable failures of this government, which is of
unparalleled magnitude. Thank God I did not vote for any of them!