|
Why Must “Power Shift”? By Babayola Toungo
The clamour for power shift by disparate political groups across the country has taken a life of its own to the detriment of issues. The fad now is to shout loudest as to the desirability of your local area to produce the President or else the world will come to an end. No one among the plethora of these later day irredentist gives a hoot about what they will do with the power once it is “shifted” to their locality or what may be in it for the average poor man. Power must just “shift” for its own sake and as the shortest way possible to gaining access to the nation’s treasury. The noise has reached a nuisance level and is actually polluting our political airwaves. Among our so-called frontline politicians, non cares about issues based politics but rather how to make sure that certain political offices are “allocated” to his locality. This is the line of thought of our surfeit of counterfeit politicians, holding court nationwide with their court jesters, telling their illiterate people that they are their knights in shining armour who are here to “wrestle” their rights for them from neo-oppressors, be they the hated Hausa and Fulani who have “cornered” the oil resources found in the Niger Delta; or the ubiquitous Almajiri wandering the streets with no certainty of the present much less contemplate a future that holds more uncertainties for him.
My beef today with these agitators is not their misplaced agitation per se, but on whose behalf are they making this pandemonium in the name of power shift. Why do failed politicians always make the most noise purportedly on behalf of the ordinary man who daily toil from dawn to dusk just so he could be able to swallow anything that may past for food to keep him alive for yet another day of toil and turmoil. The ordinary man in Ajegunle, or Aguleri or Umuleri or Modakeke or Kona or Kamba or Wulari or Yofo or Yakoko is all the same and cares little about who happens to be on the saddle so long as his daily needs could be met. These daily needs may not be more than food, education for his kids, healthcare delivery for his family and security of his life and property. It is you and I that constitute the stumbling block to the unfettered growth of democracy in this country. I am very particular with the power shifters from the northern part of the country.
Power has been domiciled in the north, according to those against candidates from this area, since time immemorial. But no one is yet to convince me on how the average northerner benefited from the length of time that northerners held sway at the centre. We have the largest number of unemployed; the least number of students in tertiary institutions, the military and all security organs; we are not in commerce, financial institutions, telecommunications, and any sector you can think of. Infrastructures in the north have long since atrophied; our state of healthcare delivery leaves much to be desired; agriculture, the backbone of the north has long been criminally neglected. Our vast resources are yet to be harnessed. So what did the north benefit from its hold on power in the past and what do our politicians hope to do with power once they manage to get back onto the saddle? Ask the farmer around the Goronyo dam whose land was confiscated to make way for an irrigation project that is yet to take-off 25 years after it was supposed to be completed; or the millions of small business owners who were forced to go under by the non availability of energy sources to propel his business; or the textile worker that was asked to stay home because his employer cannot operate anymore due to lack of cotton from the farmer, whose access to chemicals and equipment has been closed by his state chief executive sitting idly by and waiting for the monthly manna from Abuja which in turn will be used to pay for his families healthcare and children’s school fees in Europe and the Americas.
The bulk of the aspirants to the presidency come 2007 are serving governors from the northern part of Nigeria and they are among those who have exhausted their two-term constitutional limit of eight years and therefore are now looking up – the ultimate office in politics. But pray, what have they done to their immediate constituencies as governors to give them the courage to aspire for higher office? The north that they want us to believe they have the interest of its people at heart is the most backward area of Nigeria. Most of the things the federal government is supposed to do for the states falls within the concurrent legislative list – what has these governors done on their part to ameliorate the problems of their states and their citizens? Take agriculture for instance. Over 80% of the land mass of the north is arable with different crops cultivatable compared to South Africa’s 20% arable land. The north provided the bulk of the food crop for the nation and as a matter of fact was the sole producer of groundnuts and cotton. Groundnuts were exported and the abundance of cotton was responsible for establishment of textile industries in Kaduna and Kano. Kano was actually known for its groundnuts pyramids. But today neither the pyramids nor the textile mills are evident. What has our northern governors done to revive the agricultural sector – the single biggest employer of labour for our people. Those among them who aspire to be president, do they intend to turn the country into another north – a metaphor for wasted opportunities.
State roads are no more than the roads constructed by Babangida’s Directorate of Federal Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI). If we are to hold Obasanjo responsible for the state of our federal roads, who do we hold responsible for those roads that are owned by the states? Every single sector of our socio-economic life is a tale of woes. Almost every state in the south has embarked on the construction of an Independent Power Project (IPP) to augment the epileptic supply from NEPA (or is it PHCN?), how many states in the north have thought of one? The Dadin Kowa dam was built with a hydroelectric component for the supply of electricity. What is the state of the dam today? The Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project has been on the drawing board since 1986. It has the capacity to generate 2,500Kw of electricity, five times the capacity of Kainji dam in full production and the whole body of water to be utilised for the project lies within the borders of Nigeria. What happened to the Goronyo Dam, where hundreds of people were killed in 1981 in the course of construction of the dam meant for the provision of irrigation services to the farmers around the Sokoto Rima River Basin? Jigawa and Kano states alone can boast of at least 44 dams but our people are still hungry.
What has been the level of inter-state economic activities among the northern states? What has the governments done to ensure that a conducive atmosphere exists for the people of the area to interact commercially with their brethren across the north? There appears to be more trade between the states of the north and the south than between the northern states. Who among the governors ever thought of exploiting the various resources assumed to be underneath our feet? There are endless questions and no answers. The north is more of an orphan politically.
What happened to our educational institutions, particularly the secondary schools? We are now afraid for our children to write the WAEC so therefore we register them for NECO. Our schools have been left to the vagaries of weather and the lack of equipment. Our leaders find it easier to build mansions than build laboratories and libraries. Most of our children completed the secondary school phase of their education without ever coming across a microscope beyond its design in textbooks. How do we want them to become doctors or engineers? I don’t believe our governors ever take the time to know the number of intakes into our tertiary institution and its percentages. We are all products of free education, that is why a poor man like me from Yola could be able to write. Instead of rehabilitating our laboratories, dormitories and classromms we are more enamoured by the number of new schools we ‘opened’ not how many of our students passed the WAEC and are able to get placement in our tertiary institutions. Instead of stocking our libraries with the most up-to-date journals and text books, we prefer to carry an executive baggage made up of commissioners, advisers, special assistants, and even executive pimps whose only brief may be the organisation of parties and procument of young girls for their excellencies.
What happened in 2003? Where were those who now suddenly remember ‘gentleman’s agreement’ on power shift? Why must power “shift”? Why are we scared of elections? Are we truly ready to govern Nigeria in a manner obtainable in civilised climes?
I for one is against p[ower shift (or rotation or whatever variant that may come by way of political arrangement among the politicians). We “shifted” power to the South West to “pacify” our Yoruba brothers for the injustice of June 12th and look at what we got - a disaster by whatever definition personified by Obasanjo. If I will have my way, no governor from the northern part of Nigeria will come close to the corridors of power any more. Yes, power must shift. But it should shift from the shoulders of purposeless leadership to one that is focused and purposeful. From those that the sound of sirens have numbed their thinking faculties and are beginning to believe they are tin gods to those who believe they will meet God in the hereafter and be held accountable for their deeds.
While the likes of Gbenga Daniel and Olusegun Agagu are thinking of N60billion energy project for their states and Donald Duke is building the Tinapa, Africa’s premier business resort, our governors are beating their chests yelling at us at the number of pilgrims they sent to Saudi Arabia and Israel and they want us to make them president of Nigeria. The north is blessed with abundant land, water, sunlight and wind. Show me one state that has utilised any of the above energy sources for the benefit of its people. One of the northern state governors as president? I would rather vote for Nzeribe or Chris Uba than any of the northern state governors.
|