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The Next Nigeria By Zayyad I. Muhammad
What would us like the next Nigeria to be? A nation or a rogue state, a democracy or a repression, a country of blissful citizens or a vile populace, an economy or a scrap, a competitor or a bystander in the international community. The so called Obasanjo’s team of reformist must have ask themselves those questions before designing their reform programmes for Nigerians, but certainly President Obasanjo must have barred them from asking the deep-seated question which is pertinent to the success of any economic reform; where do we want the next Nigeria to be politically? Precisely in somebody’s pocket? Or where the commoners want her to be? Current trends in our polity are suggesting the later.
The next Nigeria will either be of the two: a real country or a marred nation; it would be the latter, depending on the intensity of cutback in the current alarming level of perpetual ‘vulture habit’ within the political class, it is so pandemic, that their thinking and wisdom can easily be upturned by a glimmer of a fake naira note on their faces, a marred Nigeria would be a product of the continuing insensibilities of the elites; it would be a country where ups are downs, and wrongs are rights; political power would be the greatest ‘smoke gun’ to be used by the ruling class to achieved anything they wish, where their armouries would be two very poles apart matters, corruption and anti graft; emulous accumulations of wealth would surpass the present episodes, and it would be used by the headship to build a focus-less and a deceiving think tank, that would plunge the nation into a bottomless ditch, a marred Nigeria would witness pervasive use of the anti graft organs to crushed, blackmailed and down grade perceived political adversaries and opponents of those in authority, these organs would be used to deceive the international community that the war on corruption is yielding fruitful domino effect, and those in authority gain cheap approval within the international community, and a blind eye will be cast on their illegalities at home, thus Nigeria’s sovereignty would be undermined, respect for political position mugged, and lordly style of governance would be the order of the day, the President, Governors, even local government Chairmen would exercise utmost clout; where, they can direct, matched-on and punished any body without any apprehension. A marred Nigeria will witness a widening of the gap in social class, the upshot would be a surge in crimes, as poverty, unemployment, and lawlessness would continue it wreck on our social order, we shall have more learning establishment but large colony of individuals with small knowledge, more larger population lesser productivity, increas ed government bureaucracy and more adhoc approach to development, government would be impressed by quixotic; consultants and new crop of technocrats would have oily days, as they would reframed, relabeled and renamed existing laid down procedures as new way out for Nigeria, for instance the voluminous orthodox reforms programmes of the Okonjos, Soludos, Obys, El-Rufa’is that only lettered men understand, is the not the immediate reforms Nigerians needs, but the one that would placed rice and beans on their tables, bring prosperity near their sights and helps them in finding the missing keys of the door to the room of treasures and meaningful living.
Political office holders would undermine national goals and resources, institutions that employed thousand of people would be slay, people future would be lay on the line, just for the selected few to achieve their political goals, democratic principles would be limping and advancement to a peaceful, just, valued and multi- dimensional secular society would witness a crocodile phase, regrettably these are foundations laid by president Obasanjo, which will in future be used by lawless politicians, and it will be a pain staking job to do away with from the ever increasing laws of powers grab of some undemocratic Nigerian politicians, though we the commoners have certain blame to share, but it is negligible.
As afore mentioned, to some large extend, the leadership are to be entirely blame for a marred Nigeria, but on the contrary a real and blissful Nigeria is the responsibilities of both the ruling class and the commoners, though the duo cannot share equal responsibility. How do we take Nigeria to a stage of hope? The crucial essential need of Nigeria of our dream, is a President, whose sense of judgment is centered on the challenges of the future, his decisions are knowledge motivated; and poses a strong political will to take crucial decision without necessary relying on ‘open market’ suggestions; a President that believes his actions are bound to be punctuated by laws; and believes on healthy arguments rather than unnecessary confrontations; and put up a team that would swing away government from the traditional methodology of concentrating on conventional ways of improving our society, and focus our attention on human development, a system that would fight crimes with employments and opportunities rather than Guns, axes, bows and arrows, fight official corruption with meaningful wages, and eradicate poverty by uplifting individuals, as mentioned earlier, the need to move away from over concentration on holistic approach to every issue, and shift to reductionism, which entails constructing a blissful Nigeria that put more emphasis on simple issues like IT, sports, films, Music and entrepreneurship, as vehicle of development, it may sound strange, but countries like India, China and some Asian Tigers did so; i.e. they developed their countries by empowering indiv iduals on areas that these people can do well.
We can have a blissful Nigeria of our dream only with leadership that have a strong political will, not what we are witness today in Nigeria, a crop of leaders that does not believe in the power of the masses and the supremacy of the constitution, does even believe in the constitution of their party; the rambling illegalities in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are simple examples.
The world is changing; people are changing, for us as a people to achieve a better Nigeria, we need to be proactive and pragmatic to issues that would change our lives, the people of Langtang in Plateau state have given the Nigerian people a classical example on how to depend their votes; we most follow their path or become a society like donkeys carrying huge burden of books but understand nothing from them. (My condolence to all Nigerians and President Obasanjo on the recent national calamity)
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta, Nigeria
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