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OBJ and the crisis of survival
OBJ and the crisis of survival
CHUMA IFEDI
FIVE years of
democracy have not directly transformed the lives of Nigerians. The
circumstances of the citizenry continue to worsen. Gloom is rampant. Yet, the
presidency behaves as if the situation in the country is normal. The Democracy
Day broadcast by President Olusegun Obasanjo hardly reflected the mood of the
nation. He said inter alia: "Fellow citizens, today is a special day in our
lives. Let us eschew despondency, cynicism, indolence, jealousy, automatic and
permanent distrust of ourselves, especially our leaders, governments, policies
and programmes. Isolating yourself from the process of change and development
hardly helps you, your community or your country. The challenge before us must
be addressed collectively and patriotically".
From all indications, the President was
preaching to deaf ears. Majority of the citizenry have reached the end of the
road. Nobody can be a patriot on empty stomach. What indeed has democracy in
Nigeria under the current dispensation achieved? It has all along been tales of
woes - epileptic power supply, unprecedented high cost of living, excessive
price of fuel, non-payment of public service pensioners, personal insecurity and
mass youth unemployment. To add insult to injury, the President’s arrogant and
overbearing comportment, his peripatetic style of government, his deplorable
human and public relations and his know-all disposition attract public
animosity. Apparently, the most combative head of government in the world, he
confronts prominent individuals, political associations and communities as a
matter of course. President Obasanjo is always right. Nobody ever wins an
argument with him. His recent attacks on Emeritus Professor Sam Aluko and
Professor Wole Soyinka were really in bad taste.
Our bloated presidency paints an
extravagant picture of the current democratic rascality. With 42 ministers, 50
senior and junior assistants and a multiplicity of advisers, liaison and
protocol officers, Nigeria certainly has the largest presidential bureaucracy
parading several sinecure officials funded at heavy public expense. For a
government preaching prudence, accountability and transparency, the wheeling and
dealing noticeable within the corridors of power paint a deplorable picture of
corruption ad fraud. When our President granted pardon to Alhaji Salisu Buhari,
the disgraced first Speaker of the House of Representatives found guilty of
forgery and perjury, severe doubts were raised about his personal integrity.
In January 2003, the International
Economic Intelligence Organisation stated that Nigeria was the third most
misgoverned country in the world after Kazakhistan and Honduras. Transparency
International recently categorised Nigeria again as the second most corrupt
country in the world. The British government recently indicated that 55 per cent
of corruption in Nigeria is perpetuated in the presidency. Quentin Peel,
International Affairs Editor of the Financial Times of London, lamented
at Abuja in March 2003 that leadership in Nigeria is still largely characterised
by corruption. In a study by USAID in collaboration with non-governmental
agencies in Nigeria, it was confirmed that 51 per cent of corruption in Nigeria
is committed in the presidency. This evil can readily be seen in the flagrant
abuse of political patronage and the dubious calibre of people at the helm of
affairs in the present government.
President Olusegun Obasanjo prides himself
upon the roles he plays in the politics of the African Union. Always planting
himself at the fore-front of practically every African continental initiative
like the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), he believes that
Nigerians will celebrate him. Not at all. As far as we are concerned, charity
should begin at home. His profile depends on his performance at home, how he
tackles the critical economic, social and political problems in the country.
A combative president who creates undue
problems for himself like withdrawal of federal allocations to local governments
of some states cannot expect respite or harmony around himself. He does not
improve his image by self-serving rationalisation of his questionable policies
in the media. A lot can be achieved by carrying the people along and trying to
appreciate the feelings of the embattled electorate whose mandate he claims to
have.
President Obasanjo has not faithfully
implemented any federal budget since his inauguration in May 1999. This
culminated in his attempted impeachment by the National Assembly. He barely
managed to escape from that debacle by the timely intervention of former Heads
of State, General Yakubu Gowon and Alhaji Shehu Shagari. If he had learnt his
lessons, it does not show from his arrogation of unbridled executive authority.
An editorial in a popular national newspaper concisely reflected the reality of
our president’s personality: "The whole instability we are going through in this
country stems from the style of the leader of government - the President. His
style generates this instability".
The misfortune of President Obasanjo’s
rule is the quality of aides surrounding him. In his first tenure 1999 to 2003,
the federal executive council was dominated by dead woods, senile politicians of
the old breed who had since lost the productive steam and were patently sterile.
Expectedly, the period was wasted. The second term saw the emergency of young
professionals with very little experience in civic management. The team divided
between the dollar and naira executives is utopian, academic, doctrinaire,
unrealistic and simplistic in their approach to the core problems of Nigeria.
The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) presents a
distorted plan devised by starry-eyed intellectuals of the Ivory Tower. Whoever
told those young idealists that lofty prescriptions recommended for advanced
industrialised nations should be appropriated and imposed on fledgling and
underdeveloped third world countries? Monetisation cannot be equitably applied
to Nigeria now with its obvious manpower rationalisation. Ten thousand motor
drivers retrenched from the federal public service will constitute a social
menace and threat to our collective security. So also seven thousand employees
retired prematurely from the Nigerian Railway Corporation. When government
officials are thrown out of quarters, they will be subjected to harrowing agony
in the hands of rank-renters.
NEEDS, which is the plank of President
Obasanjo’s economic reforms, is brilliant on paper and makes an excellent thesis
for academic seminar. By the time the reforms incorporated in NEEDS are
implemented, Nigeria will go up in flames. We shall return to a state of nature.
One would have expected the president to have critically examined NEEDS in the
context of our milieu before approving it. The reforms are suicidal in our
primitive economic circumstances.
Apart from his poor image as a sadist,
tyrant and dictator, our president is undiplomatic and tactless in human and
public relations. The welfare of the citizens means nothing to him and yet he
enjoys absolute comfort in Aso Rock. To deny retirees of the Nigerian Railway
Corporation their pensions for over twenty four months is blatant wickedness.
President Obasanjo receives his pensions regularly in addition to a multiplicity
of other emoluments and allowances. His five years of presidency under a
democratic regime is certainly the worst in the history of this country. It is
simply hell on earth. Thomas Jefferson had warned: "The care and happiness of
the citizenry is the first legitimate object of good government." Dwight
Eisenhower also admonished: "You do not lead a people by hitting them on the
head. That is assault not leadership".
In his broadcast on the so-called
Democracy Day 29th May, 2004, President Obasanjo said: "Democracy is at the
heart of it all - People, their welfare and well being, security, hope,
fulfillment, rights, dreams, capacities, engagements, challenges, problems and
of course solutions". Such declaration is amazing coming from a ruthless,
heartless and unforgiving civilian emperor.
President Olusegun Obasanjo must mend his
ways and adapt himself to democratic ideals he espoused in his Democracy Day
speech. He should learn a lot from the affable, fatherly and compassionate
African hero and legend Dr. Nelson Mandela of South Africa. Those cynics who
regard our president as "Tormentor-in-chief of the Nigerian people" cannot be
faulted. He should scrap NEEDS and revert to Vision 2010 which is pragmatic and
relevant to the Nigerian situation. President Obasanjo’s worst enemies are not
the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Coalition of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP)
but the embattled, hungry and dehumanised suffering masses and pensioners all
over the country.
• Mr. Ifedi resides in Satellite Town,
Lagos.
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