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The President Nigeria needs in 2007
CHUMA IFEDI
THE
controversy over the 2007 presidential candidate continues all over the
federation. Alhaji Wada Nas, a former Special Duties Minister, and Alhaji
Balarabe Musa, Second Republic Governor of old Kaduna State, support the quest
for Igbo presidency. There is media speculation that northern governors are
working towards producing a sole consensus candidate of northern origin. The Imo
State House of Assembly unanimously voted Chief Achike Udenwa as the most
suitable candidate. Among the articulate Igbo youths, Chief Chukwuemeka Ojukwu,
former leader of the defunct Biafra, is the obvious choice. The South-West seems
largely indifferent to the debate because they are no longer in the reckoning
having had their turn.
Nigerians are very sensitive about who
rules them next time because the present democratic government has failed
woefully to deliver the basic dividends of democracy. The current wave of
economic depression, poverty, brain drain, political instability and massive
youth unemployment has practically dehumanised the society. We have a president
who does not seem to care, who carries his own personal agenda and whose
military antecedents still dictate his style of governance. The result is
general unhappiness and gross penury. Contrary to the social contract maxim of
Jean Jacques Rousseau that the first law of government is the happiness of
society, the present government accords little attention to the welfare of the
people.
Section 131 of the country’s 1999
constitution prescribes that a person shall be qualified for election to the
office of the president if he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth, has attained the
age of forty years, is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that
political party and he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level
or its equivalent. Why indeed must a person belong to a political party to be
eligible to contest for the presidency? That provision blatantly contravenes the
fundamental human rights of a citizen and limits his freedom of action. Like in
the older democracies, independent candidates should be eligible to vie for the
presidency. It is also pertinent to add that candidates should in addition be
clean, patriotic, humane and competent.
On the issue of having a clean record, how
does one rate Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida who the Pius Okigbo panel indicted on
the N2.8 billion Gulf mineral oil bonanza. How true is the allegation that the
retired general is indeed a billionaire through funds siphoned from the public
treasury? Is the annulment of June 1993 presidential election enough stigma to
prevent the candidature of IBB? Does Alhaji Atiku Abubakar qualify in the
contest of his questionable moral record during his past tenure as senior
customs officer? Gossips also allege that Buba Marwa made his millions during
his service as Lagos State military administrator. Critics who associated Achike
Udenwa with the Otokoto saga may be wrong but he needs to prove them
absolutely wrong. What right has Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to aspire to the
presidency in the same country he fought against for three terrible years of
blood and fire? Although the South-South Forum expresses interest in the
precedency, its leaders are disunited to field a credible candidate.
Nigerians certainly do not want another
Obasanjo on the federal seat of power. On the surface, he may appear patriotic,
but he is patently callous if not sadistic. A leader who openly states that he
wants to be a good president but not a good man has no claim to pose as a
Christian. Jesus Christ was a good man as well as a good leader. We do not want
another president who has no regard for senior citizens, his generational
constituency. Pensioners of the public service have suffered untold hardship
under the Obasanjo harsh and insensitive administration. Retirees of the
Nigerian Railway Corporation have not been paid for 26 months and yet he seems
completely indifferent to their sorry plight. The irony is that President
Obasanjo receives his pensions regularly along with other monumental fringe
benefits and allowances. Nigerians do not want another Obasanjo who is overtly
vindictive and unforgiving, a leader who wittingly withdraws local government
subventions on flimsy excuses.
The next president must not only have a
human face. He should lead by his own good examples. A president who is rude and
brutally uncouth in his mode of language has no place in 2007. The president of
our dreams must have good human and public relations, show due regard and
empathy in his attitudes and disposition. He should not be combative or hostile
or biased against any segment of the nation. He must be a father-figure, humble
and tolerant. The large majority of the Igbo population regards President
Obasanjo as their enemy after the treatment he meted out to Chris Ngige, the
governor of Anambra State. It is tragic that up till now the embattled governor
has no security detail for his protection. A situation in which President
Obasanjo visits other parts of the country and ignores the South-East
illustrates the magnitude of his distaste for the Igbo ethnic group. The
activities of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of
Biafra (MASSOB) seem illegitimate and unconstitutional. However, the best
approach is to investigate its roots and come to terms with its grievances
rather than "crushing" it. Residents of the eastern zones of the country are
astonished at the range of support the organisation is mobilising.
A presidential candidate who adopts a
peripatetic mode of government should forget 2007. Nigerians were disgusted that
President Obasanjo undertook over one hundred overseas journeys during his first
three years. Indications were rife that he was seeking for international
acclamation instead of devoting attention to domestic matters. Who really cares
about the African Union and the Iraq debacle when fellow citizens are eating
from the dustbins? Charity should begin at home. The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) regards Nigeria as one of the poorest nations of the world.
President Obasanjo had the wisdom to grant loans to Ghana, even when Ghana has a
much higher standards of living, is better organised, and has a more prosperous
economy than Nigeria.
We need a detribalised national leader at
the helm of affairs not an ethnic jingoist or chauvinist. We require a president
with a balanced attitude to religion not a fanatic or fundamentalist who insists
on the superiority of a particular religion. For all intents and purposes,
Nigeria is a secular federation. The new president must follow a pragmatic and
realistic economic national plan. The National Economic Empowerment and
Development Strategy (NEEDS) with its portfolio of reform programmes does not
fully address our economic priorities. Our attention should be focused on the
real sectors of agriculture and manufacturing rather than on administrative,
monetary and fiscal issues. Either we return to Vision 2010 or we evolve another
far reaching development plan.
Nigerians must pray fervently for the right person to
mount the saddle of power in 2007. We need a saviour who will lead us to the
promised land. We should demand a quality personality not what part of the
country he comes from, his partisan political leaning or his religious
coloration.
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