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Memo to Nigerians on April Polls By Maxwell James
Dear Compatriots, I hope this memo finds you all well as you head to polls in few days time. I pray that God, who is most gracious and most compassionate, will be with us in every step of the way as we recover from the collective anguish and anxiety precipitated by previous attempts at transiting from civilian to civilian rule. God has been faithful to us as a people despite our attempt at playing HIM. He does not burden us beyond our capacity to bear pain. He will keep his promise even as we head to polls. The catastrophic challenge so far has been our continuous craving to shed each others blood. From west to east, north to south, the stories are all the same with various clashes signifying our savage nature and confirming our classic desire to degenerate to barbarism rather than move with global trends. Several questions about the readiness of the electoral commission have rented the air. Chief among them are; why is INEC seemingly bias? Whose script are they acting? An even more perplexing question is how the Police and other security agencies could play their constitutional mandate of protecting lives and properties of innocents’ citizens. Before we comment on the above questions and possibly admonish us on possible indicators to guide us in choosing our new leaders, I want to thank all those wonderful Nigerians (specially the press) who came out to protect Nigerians from all possible anti people policies and tendencies (with incurable backlash) that would have consumed us by now. I once more congratulate you for displaying such humanity and safeguarding the Nigerian way even under such adverse and challenging circumstances. As it is, we the Nigerian people particularly the youths feel beleaguered, ostracized, marginalized and terrified about our future; but those of us who can come out on the 14th and 21st can make a gigantic difference. Now I turn to the difficult task of making us see INEC readiness for the elections as intelligible. I need your patience and your understanding to accomplish this. It is important to clarify that in spite of recent declaration by Gen. Buhari et al about the administrative readiness of the electoral body, the previous and continuous attack on INEC as per neutrality may not be unconnected with our penchant for sweeping statement especially when it comes to historical comparison of leadership successes and failures. As we move towards this transition, let’s remember the Spanish inquisition, the holocaust and the genocide in Bosnia, the systematic elimination of the Native American population, the ethnic cleansings in some part of Africa and Cambodia, and even the atrocities against the Bosnians. All these are sheer number of casualties and terror that depicted failed democracies and the enthronement of anarchy. One may also recall that in India nearly 50,000 Sikhs were slaughtered in less than a week as revenge for the assassination of Indira Gandhi in early 1980s. The above tells us the end result of anarchy that some of our politicians are chanting. Nigerians should resist such inglorious call. The challenges facing us as a people are basically how we can overcome our stereotype. Ordinarily, INEC should not be our focus as we have rules, procedures and conducts of how to go about the elections. So far we have rather shifted our gaze on the electoral body without challenging those who want to be our leaders on issues concerning our collective future. For instance this is the first time in our chequeared history that we will be witnessing such a monumental contest of ‘dexterous’ men and women canvassing for our votes and also pledging to redeem Nigeria from what most of them call ‘leadership decadence’ a la Obasanjos’ administration. From a very close observation, three blocs have emerged; those that want to continue with obasanjos’ reform agenda, those that want to reform his reform and those that want to bear the epithet of ‘former presidential aspirants. Supposedly, we should not be talking about sophomoric and jejune campaigns with this array of contestants across our land. But the situation is rather disheartening with invariably no candidate coming out with something uniquely different from the status quo ante. Rather, what we witness is total endorsement of the outgoing administration’s questionable effort from certified candidates or personality massacre by disgruntled ones. They were usually good friends before party primaries. Dear compatriots, as we go to polls, are we satisfy with argument advanced by our next leaders? Is our human capital development index not enough to spark off issues for serious debate? Unemployment keeps getting worse with attendant rise in the rate of crime and other social vices including hunger and prostitution, street begging, etc Despite the much-mouthed hysteria about “issue based campaigns by most political parties”, we are less informed about the strategies that most of our 24 wise men and hundreds more governorship, national and state assemblies candidates will initiate to check this myriad of problems that we have appallingly found ourselves. Yours sincerely is not in anyway out to belittle or ridicule our politicians in view of the high intellectual capacity of some selected few. But it is germane to note that the opposition parties as they are composed today have not impressed quite a number of us as to how to provide credible and viable alternative. For the benefit of doubt, it is imperative to tell them that it is not a show of conspiracy nor a happenstance or a telepathic manifestation that quite a number of us have not been sympathetic to their aspirations despite our unpalatable and sordid travails in the hands of the present PDP led government. The concept of opposition parties in a democracy is a great idea. In the United States for example, opposition parties keep the incumbents on their toes thereby subjecting their reforms or policies to test in the public arena and also opposition politics serves as a barometer for measuring an Aspirants grasp of issues and a gauge upon which to base their acceptability. It is not an occasion for vainglory, jamboree, owambe, self-adulation or crowd renting and personality attack but a moment of bringing one’s opponent to task. As we come to the threshold of our democratic experiment, Opposition parties must make effort to see how far things have gone in the interim. The news of course is not good. The condition of an average Nigerian who elected a democracy has progressively and astronomically worsened. The majority of us are suffering more economic hardship than any other time in the chequeared history of our great country. As we go polls, will the opposition continue to see this as a normal phenomenon? If Abuja, our nation’s greatest theatre of diversion is removed, one cannot but marvel at the level of unbearable poverty in the land. How will the opposition solve this problem? Great Compatriots, it will be worthwhile for them to tell us categorically if it will not be business as usual. For the first time, let them stop sinking it into our ears that they “I remain all ears” and such dull and flat lines. As we match to the polls, may we appraise how they are going to address the issues of poverty, unemployment, and healthcare? How about agriculture and high cost of living even in the remotest rural areas? How are they going to rehabilitate social and public infrastructures? How about the comatose manufacturing sector? What policy or policies will be put in place to promote commerce and job creation? Or are they going to consolidate the unseen gains of NEEDS I and continue with NEEDS II as being bandied around by a mouthful of presidential pretenders? Another issue that is raging is the University system. How are the opposition candidates planning to stem the chaos, degradation and continuous strike in the Ivory Towers that are largely occasioned by poor funding? Let all bear this in mind as we elect our new leaders. Looking at the plethora of the above questions, two things readily come to mind dear compatriot: if the opposition remains on the side of failure albeit reluctantly, then they are not worthy of our (my) vote, they should tell us the way forward. It is important to note that there are several vital issues that could engage every serious Presidential Aspirants than constantly making bland and vague comments. How about security? Do they subscribe to State Police? What is there own version of Police Reforms? Or are they with Baba’s overbearing reforms? Pensioners are not being paid their stipends, some for donkey years. The backlog of Pensions has billowed to trillions of naira. For several years, the economy has been run without proper budget, but constantly, the President continues to request for supplementary budget. How on earth can there be second budget when the first one has not been actualized. This aspect of our national life must be corrected or else we keep on wallowing in agonizing poverty. As we seek for a change in leadership, what are our 24 aspirants plan to the cavalier and rude attitude to finance and budgetary discipline? It is pertinent to note that issue-based politicking has taken a seemingly permanent flight from our mother land, rather, what is been celebrated is one’s ability to mobilize all shades of characters that have “lets join hands and boot him out of office” as unifying ideology. Fellow Nigerians, this should serve as a wake up call to all of us. Let us judge their manifesto presentations as we begin the task of a successful transition. Such will help us or else, we will continue to find ourselves in leadership mirage or political abracadabra where anything goes. Our increasingly foreboding future can only find sustenance if we continue to play I-don’t-care attitude towards issues such as this. Maxwell James 116/118 Woji RD Port Harcourt.
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