|
Yar'Adua: Will He Change the Office or will the Office Change Him? By Dr.Wunmi Akintide
Reuben Abati's latest article titled, "Yar Adua, A New Man" is very interesting. The issue for me is whether the office is going to change Yar Adua or Yar Adua is going to change the office. The jury is still out on that as they say in America, but if his little track record as Governor of little Katsina State is anything to go by, Nigeria may be going on a roller coaster again like we have always done with most of our past leaders. They all come to office to start learning on the job. Even the longest serving of them, the all knowing Ota Farm oracler, Olusegun Obasanjo once admitted in a press interview he had used much of his first term as executive President, to literarily learn on the job.
That is the tragedy of our nation that we always put in power leaders who are either reluctant or are least prepared to assume the kind of responsibilities we always like to place on their shoulders. Shehu Shagari accepted the office kicking and screaming because he was honest enough to tell the nation his only ambition was to be a Senator from Sokoto.
The Nigerian power brokers not the voters said "no". He has got to be President against his own better judgment. Awolowo who said he was ready and who the whole nation knew was ready, had to be sent to the turkey farm, rather be allowed to fulfil his elaborate life ambition and plans for our country. The old man eventually died of frustration. Shehu Shagari held the office for only 6 years before the military boys came back again to continue with their demolition Derby.
In 1999, the young technocrat and Yale University trained economist, Oluyemi Falae who had put in close to 25 years in the Public Service and some ten years in the private sector of the Nigerian economy had signified his interest in the Presidency and has finally emerged as a candidate for one of the two major political parties after having served as Secretary to Government and Federal Minister in addition to his 7 years as Director of Central Planning in the Federation. In normal societies, such track record would have been considered an adequate preparation for the position he was seeking. Not in Nigeria.
Rather than allow the young man to have his way, the Nigerian power brokers again in their wisdom or foolhardiness, settled for Olusegun Obasanjo who was serving a prison term for treason on a trumped-up charges for taking part in a mirage coup. To cut a long story short, it was the Ota farmer that carried the day and became President despite some of his character flaws that are well documented and despite the fact that his own people the Yorubas totally rejected him at his home base at Owu and Ota where Olu Falae won the election in a land slide
M.K.O. Abiola was head and shoulders more prepared for the office he sought when he ran against Alhaji Tofa. He won the elections arms down and that would have been the first time that Nigeria would have elected a candidate of their own choice in all of our History. But IBB and his cohorts including this same Obasanjo would not let it happen.. The election was annulled, and the rest is History.
The irony of Nigeria is that we keep doing the same thing and repeating the same mistake, time and again, but we keep expecting a different result. How could that be? Sigmund Freud, the great Austrian Psycho analyst would have classified Nigerian voters as totally insane because they keep doing the same thing, year after year. but expecting a different result.
Nigeria has just put into office, (I hesitate to use the word "elected") two individuals that are known to have attended the four walls of a University. Their selection was a first in nigerian History. Yar Adua has a Master's degree in Analytical Chemistry and his running mate, Jonathan Goodluck holds a Ph.D in Zoology. While Chemistry or Zoology is not as suitable as a degree in Law, Economics, or Public Affairs, it is still something to crow about. But the truth is that the two candidates again are reluctant candidates who are selected not so much because of a proven track record of performance in the big league but because in the narrow calculation of our President DoGood, they are the two who can be trusted not to rock the boat the least. Again, if we use the same criteria applicable in more civilized polities for picking presidential candidates, one would have to say with some trepidation, if this duo can really be trusted to break out of the mould to find some ways to move our country forward, assuming that their terribly flawed elections are not overturned by the Tribunal or the Supreme Court at a future date.
The hope of the silent majority is for Yar Adua to change the presidency in a way to make it work better for our country than it did under his anointer. But I have serious doubts if that is ever going to happen as praise singers and pander bears take over deifying Yar Adua alive and making him believe he is next to God if not God himself. Such undeserved adulation and praises can often change a leader who has no abiding faith in himself to begin with. His track record in Katsina that Reuben Abati referred to in his article will surely pale into insignificance when Yar Adua sees the enormity of the powers he now has to exercise, and the decisions that he alone can make. I agree with Reuben that whatever support he can get from his predecessor will be an advantage but it can also be a heavy burden, Like I have often warned in all my previous articles on Obasanjo, any future presidents who tries to totally emulate Obasanjo's "modus operandi" is most likely to drag our country in the mud, and make it that much difficult for Democracy to thrive in Nigeria. Obasanjo being named as Chairman of a more proactive PDP Board of Trustees could also have some negative implications for the new President, I will argue. Yar Adua must avoid those pitfalls.
If I were Yar Adua, my first priority will be the amendment to the Immunity provision in the Nigerian Constitution. It was a horrendous provision that is responsible, in large part, for much of the problems our country faces today in her so-called determined effort to fight Corruption. Yes. I agree with Reuben that Yar Adua must focus all his energy on addressing some of the basic infrastructures like electricity, provision of network of roads and provision of portable water nationwide. Another area of priority should be free Medical and Free Education with special emphasis on how to better manage the funding and running of Government Universities in particular. As a former Lecturer, I think Yar Adua ought to be really sensitive to that sector because he has been there, and he probably feels their pain more than anything else. Yar Adua could easily do all of the above by using the so-called landslide victory of the PDP in the last elections to get most of what he needs to pass into Law. The Foreign Reserve accumulation can be used to tackle some of these problems with immediate effect.
My final recommendation to him would be to consider going back to what IBB tried to do when he tried to reduce the number of political parties to two major ones and not tower of babel we currently have in Nigeria. Having more than 50 political parties is silly. Government can deregulate that and Yar Adua must act on that with immediate effect. Trying to suppress or muzzle the opposition is not good for Democracy. If the ruling Party fumbles, the opposition must be seen as the alternate Government or the Government-in-waiting. The winner-take-all pretences of the PDP as we know it today is not good for Democracy in Nigeria. It has to be changed in the best interest of our country.
How I wish that Yar Adua could prove himself the new man that Reuben Abati has anticipated in his latest article. All I know is that it is not going to be easy, because human beings basically don't change much, and sometimes when they do, it could be for the worse, because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I rest my case.
Dr. Wunmi Akintide |