Yar’Adua’s Slow Motion Picture   

 

Prince Charles Dickson

pcdbooks@yahoo.com

 

There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change -- and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future." NOAM CHOMSKY.

 

Precisely one year ago I wrote an essay, 'But...Yar'Adua Has No Magic Answers'. In the last one month, it is becoming very clear that except a miracle, we are in for some more hardship, for another more few years. It has been difficult to say that this exactly is where President Umar Yar'Adua is headed towards.

 

Despite the best of efforts, analytical commentaries, sights from the crystal ball and all the rumors, we are yet to get a clear picture. While many have asked for more time, others have questioned how much long do Nigerians have to wait? Many say he has a plan, others say that this man is a stooge. We are still to get a cure for our expectation fatigue.

 

Right from when I was a kid I was often reminded of the need to be focused, the need to plan, how the lack of it can cause only problems. I know too that t is no use running when you are in the wrong direction so we may as well go-slow and mind me I have no problem with that in so much that it is not slow and unsteady. But the fear still remains that we may be doomed if this go-slow leads to nowhere.

 

A cursory look at the policy thrust of this government is the very essence of my lamentation. For those who have asked for more time, I have argued that a change in government, if free, fair and credible does not mean that government should restart its engine. On the contrary, it calls for a refueling and moving ahead. Our experience is that government has to start all over again and the same old music is remixed and few months after we notice same old thread in action. Has it occurred to us that the same issues that the last administration sought to solve or made comic of, is the same ones we are facing again.

 

We have sent Ribadu to school, brought Waziri in, danced around Grange, Iyabo, the whole Ibori, Igbenedion and other ex-governors saga has not stopped. In the words of Senator Chukwumerije, the Senate has been neither here or there. Brings to mind when the late Okadigbo mused that he often slept off when he listened to the all talk of the Senate.

 

The Yar'Adua government is still grappling with the Niger Delta question, setting up yet another committee. He is still on the Electricity problem, which has seen a metamorphosis from NEPA to PHCN, to God knows what next. And as was stated by Audu Ogbeh in an interview, it is funny that you get into your house and see it flooded, rather than embark on a remedy, you declare an emergency. In this case, the emergency is even yet to be declared.

 

On the Niger Delta, the President's 90 days has come and gone and one does not see the magic wand. After several truce called, the kidnappings have continued, it has even become a profitable business venture with high returns, kids are now targets, Plastic companies’ staff, lecturers that are white and Nigerians that have white pigmentation are not spared, footballers, etc.

 

Can this government end it all? For Power, I had thought there would be an insignificant improvement and as one basked in that euphoria, we were brought back to reality, as electricity has become as scarce as looking for pin in the ocean. And again the date for realizing peak mega watts has been shifted and this also comes with a drop in what has been achieved. After the Mexican Soap called 'Power Probe' orchestrated by the House of Representatives, all rubbish

 

How much will the Yar'Adua government spend on Power, after the billions spent by Uncle Sege, will Nigeria cease to be the favourite destination for Gasoline Generator makers? He has given his own date for getting uninterrupted power supply.

 

The story of the sale of our refineries is one for another day, because after the reversals, nothing has yet to be done. The truth is that there is no hope, no hope that PMS would ever sell for N50 in the next four years, whether deregulated, mal-regulated, dis-regulated, subsidized or unsubsidized.

 

Even with increase in oil earnings, just like in the days of Obj, it has continued more money, more problems. It was Zora Neale Hurston that said "There are years that ask questions and years that answer". Scary as this may be, we are still at the stage of asking questions, leadership and the led have not shown considerable reason for one to believe that answers to the numerous problems hitting this nation is anywhere near the answers.

 

We take one, two and three glorious steps and when the accolades are yet to subside, we take ten, twenty and thirty inglorious leap backwards. Ordinarily the attempt to form a unity government was one that on the surface could have marked the beginning of a new era, but viewed against the backdrop of our Presidential system in which winner takes all. The fact that the party involved is PDP, the reality that we have never really had an opposition and the lack of bedrock of principle for the accord to work, the idea simply became a recipe for sealing the opposition that has not been too strong after a year.

 

A government of National Unity actually says a lot about the lack of credibility, it speaks volume of the absence of initiative. The present dispensation has not shown that it is honestly searching for the solution. Government apparatus has not been deployed in its fullest at tackling the core issues that face us as a nation, the common problems which we know are not mysterious but need only a determined effort and collective will to solve.

 

The Yar'adua government needs to exhibit the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future. This is so because whether Soludo reels out the best micro-macro economic statistics of progress, whether the inflationary tables at CBN is beautiful or average, the truth on ground is that the nation would be doomed to repeating the last eight years, not for lack of purpose but for refusal to learn from it.

 

One of the few achievements in the last mistake called Obasanjo was the fact that few institutions were strengthened by the weakness of that era. Prominent among the few was the Judiciary this being against the backdrop of a President that saw the law as a backyard bin of his Ota farm. However recent rulings of the several election tribunals are again posing the question can the tiger change its spot?

 

The question that needs answers is will Yar'adua not fight corruption with corruption. Will he allow for the continuous strides made by the Judiciary? Is he ready for a new improved Police? Any hope that the health sector, industries, power and education will be revived this time around. Is there any realistic hope that the new sets of kids on the bloc have the magic wand. What really would and can change?

 

I beg to re-echo again that except there is a honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change. There would be no answers; rather we would continually be plagued by the same questions.