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Hillary Clinton’s Real Message To Nigerians By Salisu Suleiman
Commentators have had a field day analyzing the essence of Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Abuja Town Hall Meeting. Her speech so irked the PDP that it took paid adverts to denounce her statements. Such is the banality of politics in Nigeria today that the ruling party is taking issues with America’s top diplomat in the media. But that is another matter.
Forget that she reminded us that the poverty rate in Nigeria has gone up from 46 percent to 76 percent over the last 13 years. Forget that she attributed the failure to corruption, lack of capacity or mismanagement, or that the World Bank recently concluded that Nigeria has lost well over $300 billion during the last three decades to corruption. None of that is new.
We do not need Mrs. Clinton to remind us of the wasted $300 billion or the fact that ‘they don’t tell you how many hospitals and roads could have been built. They don’t tell you how many schools could have opened, or how many more Nigerians could have attended college, or how many mothers might have survived childbirth if that money had been spent differently’.
The most important message she delivered to Nigerians is: ‘we recognize … that Nigeria is at a crossroads, and it is imperative that citizens be engaged and that civic organizations be involved in helping to chart the future of this great nation’. Her message is that ‘the future of Nigeria is up to the Nigerians’.
What Mrs. Clinton was saying in essence is that Nigerians must rise up to the challenge and address the tragedy of leadership we are confronted with. As she stated, ‘the most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance at the local, state, and federal level’. Are we willing to fight for change?
She is right to assert that ‘without good governance, no amount of oil or no amount of aid, no amount of effort can guarantee Nigeria’s success. But with good governance, nothing can stop Nigeria’. The question is: where are the ones to rise up to the challenges of ensuring good governance? She stated her belief that civil society has a very big job to do and by civil society, she included all of the organizations that are formed by citizens, the NGOs, the faith-based groups, everyone working together.
Clinton’s message is that to change our country, ‘there need to be watchdog groups to push for transparency. There need to be journalists, who will shine a bright light on any abuses of the public trust or those who would enrich themselves at the expense of Nigeria’s citizens; independent courts and prosecutors, institutions to punish wrongdoers and deter future wrongdoing; citizens who persist and persevere often against long odds’. We must all rise up to the challenge.
So as we continue to digest the essence our Mrs. Clinton’s message, we need to begin to situate the challenge of governance within the existing context and mobilize for change. We must confront the state of roads that cannot be driven on; water that is laced with disease; rivers that are glazed with waste; millions of people with no work to do; elected officials that steal us blind and their unelected relatives that rob us to starvation point.
To change our country for good, we must rise up with courage to declare that the time has come be rid of the monstrous burden of a despotic, directionless and diabolic leadership. We must be the ones to confront the tragedy of tyranny that has been our lot and restore Nigeria to its ultimate destiny.
True, our backs are broken, our dreams stolen, our resolve molten. But we must ask: Where are those to fight to change? Who will tell Nigerians that dying in silence would be a great betrayal of our heritage? Are Nigerians ready to fight for true liberation? Are we ready to wrestle our fate from with the motley that claim to be Africa’s biggest party; but have reduced governance to a banal cabal who only pledge the perpetual pillaging of public property for private purpose?
How can we take up the challenge? Of course we cannot confront Nigeria’s murderous police. But what we can, and must do is form viable platforms. If we do not have truly democratic political parties, change will remain a mirage. Secondly, the challenge is not about candidates but about building structures and institutions at grassroots levels. Thirdly, we must challenge Nigerians to stop being cynical. We must not reduce our tragedy to mere complaints. We must begin to act!
As Hillary Clinton rightly pointed out, ‘no matter how much President Obama and I want this future for you, it will be up to you to decide whether it happens or not. You are the ones with both the opportunity and the responsibility. But I want you to know, as you walk this path to a stronger democracy that produces results for your people to lift the development of Nigeria up, that you will have us by your side’. If we are not ready to take up the challenge, the essence of her message would have been lost.
Suleiman is a doctoral student at ABU, Zaria (ssuleiman@gmail.com)
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