|
Yar’Adua’s Agenda: A Panacea for National Building By Abbas A. Dikko Kawo-Kaduna
Yar’Adua, “a product of circumstances and subject of controversy.” He happened to be a product of circumstances because, his emergence was as a result of the death of the ungodly third term and it became factual to Obasanjo that his vacating office come May 29, 2007, is real and the presidency, if not shifted to the North, PDP may likely lose the seat. He as well, happened to be a subject of controversy, because of the manner he was returned elected.
The persistent noises that has been making the news around or the grievances expressed by some certain quotas of the Nigerian populace on his incompatibly to remain the president of this country, were no other reasons than; (a) The controversy surrounding his election popularly refer to as “legitimacy”. (b) His failure or refusal to bring Obasanjo and his allies to book for corruption charges and other related offences. (c) His refusal as some perceived to throw-in the towel, call for a fresh polls that would usher-in the true winner. (d) And, his retention of some of the Obasanjo hatched men in his government.
Well, in either case, all the aforementioned reasons have their pros and cons and nothing can be said to be done without any cogent reason, and for as well the fact that, the complaints advanced forthwith does not include foolhardy, high-handedness, incompetence, ineptitude, corruptible, unethical, uncultured and uncivil as was the case with the just past regime, this gentleman and president should be given the benefit of consideration and allow the rule of law to be the determinant factor.
However, this should not be misunderstood to be a support for undue-process, it is only that, there has or can never be a vacuum in any existing system and, it is not in the African character for a leader to just ordinarily hands off leadership without giving a good fight either legally, rebelliously or through coercion as we saw in the Obasanjo presidency.
More so, government is a gradual and continuing process, at least the foundations for correcting these anomalies have been put in place by the present administration. There is always this saying, “Abinda Hakuri bai bada ba, Rashin Hakuri ba zai bada ba”, in simple term, the patient dog would always eat the fattest meat, therefore, Nigerians and the aggrieved group should be sacrosanct enough to allow the unveiling scenarios to take its cause.
I digress from the suppose subject of discourse for no other reason than to further make a compassionate appeal to all concerns that, we are to either make or mar the system, our destinies are in our hands, we must always try to appreciate, recognize, and honour leaders that tend to be sincere, honest, willing and ready to work within the established and acceptable norms and practice enshrined in the system. This anathema or pull down syndrome of any leader, not taking into cognizance of his innocence and decency, ability and agility, managerial skillfulness, capacity and capability to deliver qualitative leadership, is a social ill and would forever remain the catastrophe for this Nation’s development and growth.
This is my utmost reason for looking insight into the intents, acts and sincerity of purpose of the Yar’Adua’s presidency with a view to appreciating its recent efforts to advancing the cause of Nigerian nation. We as well have to be justifiably fair to look at the current positive unfolding events, that, I think is the only way to be able to appreciate and give credit to whosoever deserved it, hence encouraging the leadership to improve from its score card index.
We all know, before May 29, 2007, Nigeria as a country, had lost its grief and bearings politically, economically and socially, its hopes and aspirations as a people and a nation were completely shattered, it became a state without vision, focus and direction in spite of having the brightest and biggest opportunities in the last eight years of democratic governance to shift its position from the underdeveloped to one among the fastest growing economy in the world.
Alas, here come a leader in half or thereafter year of his administration, one can simply walk to the court to get justice, the art of state craft has been redefined, giving it a more meaningful standard, every relevant arms, subs and segments of the system is refocusing, repositioning and synergizing to conform with the best acceptable standard practice of doing things.
Is it as well, not too early for us to forget, in just the immediate last eight years of the Obasanjo administration, we witnessed series of diabolical disasters and calamities? We saw naked abuse of justice and disrespect to court rulings, we saw confusion and deliberate misinterpretation of court judgments, and we saw innocent removals and criminal replacement of judges and justices rendering the judiciary incapacitated.
We saw coercion and imposition of unpopular candidates, we saw brigands and distortion of internal democracy, we saw undue interference and total lack of separation of power, we saw electoral fraud, thuggery and political assassination and the emergence of undemocratic elements without political will and determinations, bringing to near collapse the polity and our democratization process.
We saw greed, deceit, deception and corruption at unprecedented level, we saw misallocation, misrepresentation, misplacement of our resources, we saw the distribution of our national assets to just few cabals within the vicious circle in the disguise of privatization, we saw power outage and dysfunctional refineries leading to importation and unnecessary price increase of petroleum products without commensurate return in development. We saw underutilization and total collapsed of our industries, we saw neglect and complete withdrawals of agricultural subsidies, we saw neglect and underutilization of our minerals resources, and we saw manipulation of our foreign reserve in the name of debts repayment and cancellation close to bringing our economy to a stoop position.
We saw soil degradation, desert encroachment, gory erosion, infrastructural decay, pollution and wasteful gas flare subjecting our environment and health to hazards. We saw insecurity, carnage, air mishap, poverty, disease, hunger and starvation, unemployment and underemployment eating deeply into our social fabrics. We saw destitution, prostitution, child labour and human trafficking leading to total collapsed of our core values.
Then came the Yar’Adua presidency, and taking into note and cognizance of these shameful and unwholesome derailments, he quickly nurtured out his well conceived and concerted strategy tagged, “Seven-Point-Agenda” different from the original “Obasanjo and PDP Agenda” as a panacea for repositioning, reconstruction and nation building so that, Nigeria can remain the, and be a key player, politically and economically in Africa and the Diaspora.
This gave rise to the recent series of retreats, conferences and other related activities by the critical arms, subs, segments and others partners in the system. We indeed saw the 1st ever 36 states governors retreat, SFG/SSG’s, Senators and that of the recent speakers of states assemblies. We saw the 8 biennial conferences of Nigerian judges and justices, Annual Chief of Army Staff, even the Cartographers of Nigeria were part of the development, and of course the Nigerian Stock Exchange equally falls within the line,
all in an effort and with a new vision and dimension to redesign, redirect and fast-track Nigerian nation from the former dreams of Obasaanjo’s modern Nigeria.
Others yet to fall within the line are; the Para-military (Nigerian Custom, Immigration and Prison Service), Head of Parastatals and Extra- ministerial arms, National Security and Civil Defence Corp, Federal Road Safety Corp, Nigerian Police Force among others to fine tune their own strategies through whichever instrument or means geared towards a pro-active approach to the Seven-Point-Agenda, which has become a ringing tone of this administration. Especially the Nigerian Police Force that are key actors in virtually all the aspects of the system.
However, other issue that has become a borne of contention within the media circle, opinionate and public commentators, were the series of speeches delivered by either the president or his proxies at the various venues of the events, especially the one at the 8 biennial conferences of all Nigerian judges and justices. One aspect that is in the front burner of the media discourse, is this his quote-in-quote statement, “popular judgment.” With due respect, Tuesday 6, Nov. 2007, Daily Trust newspaper lead story, “Yar’Adua angry with the tribunal rulings” and Para 1-4 contents, represent some element of misguide. If I may quote the president well, he said, Judges shouldn’t be carried-away to giving popular judgment, that, their rulings should be within the purview of the rule of law and constitutionality.
That happily, rule of law, is one among the cardinal principles of this administration, which it had demonstrated by its quick responses and compliance in accordance with the judgments of the Supreme court for the release of Lagos State local government funds, reinstatement of Peter Obi of Anambra and the returning of Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers as governors of their various states, in like manner, the acceptance of the verdicts of the tribunals, voiding the elections of Saidu Usman of Kebbi and Idris Ibrahim of Kogi States respectively.
However, the president could be misunderstood to be speaking in riddle, but, let’s analyze this connotation “popular judgment”. Methink, popular judgment in this context refer to, passing judgment to satisfy the desired interest of the opinion of the majority. In other words, passing judgment on the predication or prediction of the opinion of the majority or to be more discreet, the popular views and opinion of the majority shouldn’t form the decision for their judgment. This he mean, is against the doctrine of the rule of law and the embedded constitutional provisions, therefore, their verdicts, should be borne out the provisions contained there-in. This is where some of us misconstrued the statement and went further to interpret it to suit the unveiling temperament.
Indeed, we are all partners in progress and whatever remains the subject matter is the intent and sincerity of purpose surrounding the whole issues. The three arm of this administration, media and of course the citizenry are all working in tandem to redress the bastardization of the polity, destruction of the economy and, the social dislocation orchestrated by the immediate past regime. I am happy to quote from the speech of Mal. Nuhu Ribadu at this year’s 6th National Seminar on Economic Crime, that the coming on board of the Yar;Adua presidency, have redefine the manner at which the art of governance is being conducted, and they are happy to be the first beneficiaries. What an affirmation!
No doubt, the Nigerian media is the more focus and vibrant institution; therefore, we must recognize, recommend and salute its courage, fearlessness and active involvement for its rigorous fight against these scourges. It exposed the ineptitude and impunity of the Obasanjo administration, killed third term and its reminiscent, exposed the 2003/2007 electoral flaws, vindictiveness and victimization of innocent citizens by the administration, Ettehgate scam and others too numerous to mention.
It should therefore, further its struggle and not to rest on its toes, there are more numerous challenges and daunting task ahead; there are the darling project of Mr. President, the Seven-Point-Agenda, it should be critically watched to ensure compliance. The election tribunals and the appellant courts are right on cause, local government elections and by-elections are as well by the corner, even though the out come of the recent local councils polls in Ebonyi, Kwara and Cross River States were nothing but an eyesore. And of course there is the 2008 budget recently presented, lest we forget, eight years of Obasanjo presidency, not a single year budget was implemented, they expend without recourse to budgetary allocation or provision as contained in the appropriations act.
So, in view of this president performance rating in the last six month or thereafter of his administration, his brain child project; the Seven-Point-Agenda, his openness and non interference with the schedules of other arms of government, his readiness and compliance with the statute rule of law and constitutionality, his transparency and accountability in the discharged of the affairs of state craft. His conscience of his name and that of his family and that his dream of living a legacy that even after his back, his family value and background will be safeguarded, should be allow for now to supersede pending and as well after the determination of his case at the election tribunal or by the last arbiter.
Furthermore, let me use this opportunity and medium to congratulate and salute the courageous work of the members of the Integrity group in the House of Representative. You had done a wonderful work, rekindle our hopes, restore some elements of confidence in the polity and indeed, done the Nigerian masses proud. We are happy to be associated with you good work.
This your other sincerity of purpose to tackle head long, the internal democracy epidemic in your party (PDP) that has almost destroy our democratization process, is quite timely and a welcome development. A redress in PDP’s internal democracy will no doubt extend to other political parties, more especially ANPP which in pre-2007 election took to the undemocratic culture of PDP by swapping and fielding candidates of some select few choice to contest election, this led to their present internal party crises.
One equally hope, you will extend this same goodwill to the States legislatures who have become rubber stamps in the hands of the States Executives, local government administration that have become an off-shoot of the States or mere native authority. But, within the constitutional provisions and powers conferred on you, finally, we hope you will settle down now that you have elected you choice and popular leadership in the House to face the business of legislation, making and passing good laws, carrying-out oversight function, efficient and effective representation in the interest of those you represent.
For the administration in place, and for the fact that, all policies programmes and relevant authorities are well positioned for this transition to transformation, with the present vibrant and working legislature, able and ready judiciary, dogged and willing media, the daunting responsibilities have been reduce to the barest minimum. The remains of the major task, is for the system to work on the psyche of the Nigerian people taking into cognizance, their negativity on issues and government and, the mannerism they perceived at leaders and leadership.
Much damage had been done to their psychology by the immediate last eight years of untold hardship and arbitrariness under the tutelage of the Obasanjo administration. I beg to rest my case here.
|