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THIS IS WHAT PARADIGM SHIFT
MEANS TO THEM
Jide Ayobolu <jideayobolu@yahoo.co.uk>
Aug 17, 2006
It is a well known fact that all is not well
in Nigeria’s political firmament, this has to do with the inordinate
ambition of some political gladiators to hold on to power indefinitely,
not minding what the constitution says and what the feelings of Nigerians
are on the subject-matter. First, it started with what was popularly
called the third term agenda, which sought to illegally elongate the
tenure of office of the president without following the due process.
Although the naughty issue was roundly defeated at the National Assembly,
the brains behind it are not done yet, they are planning on some other
devious methods they can use to extend their stay in office without
recourse to the mandate of the people, and the constitution which is the
supreme law of the land. In a bid to foist this strange political agenda
on the people, Nigerian politics have been turned into roforofo
fight. The political personalities are fighting it dirty, no weapon in
their arsenal is spared, and they go for the jugular when it is even wrong
to do so. It would be recalled that after the wicked annulment of June 12
presidential election by the IBB, then military president, he boxed
himself into a cul-de-sac in a desperate bid to hold on to power. However,
events did not turned out the way he envisaged, to manovure himself out
the tight-corner, General Obasanjo, now the president provided him with a
leeway, by selling the idea of Interim National Government (ING) to him
and nominating who eventually headed it. Then there was a collective
conspiracy by the military and their civilian collaborators to scuttle the
wish of the people, which was expressed through the electoral voting
behaviour. Now, this kind of retrogressive politicks is in the offing. So,
that invariably the reason for that kind of reasoning is not because they
have good intentions towards Nigeria, but because they want to help
themselves to what belongs to all of us. So, that Nigeria will become
their personal estate. All the hoopla about paradigm shift is just to
create an avenue to have unfettered access to our collective patrimony.
Now, it is important to
note here that not many people know this fact, and what the
anti-democratic and retrogressive forces are planning concerning next year
election. It was never expected that the selfish clamour for third would
end abruptly the way it did, the masterminds were jolted like bolts from
the blues, now the game plan is to make next year election inconclusive,
cause some upheavals, so that, they can have the opportunity to bring in
an Interim National Government (ING) that is unknown to the constitution
to govern the country and organize elections. It is very difficult to
fathom why the president who ought to be the father of the nation would be
orchestrating volatile political schisms and over heating the polity. The
president is the unseen hand encouraging the south-south politicians to
come out and contest for the presidential elections since nobody from the
geo-political zone has ever govern the country before. It is for this
reason that when the presidents’ third term agenda was on the front burner
nobody from the zone talked about, a south-south president, instead they
provided money for the infamous scheme, but it’s quite easy to see the
linkage. In order to pitch politicians against themselves and cause
confusion in the country, the president is also simultaneously propping
some politicians of northern extraction to declare their interest in the
presidency of the country, and even financed some of them so far. The
point is that, why will someone rule for eight for years and still want to
hang on to power desperately? So, what does he want to achieve by so
doing? Here was a man who was sentenced to death, but by sheer stroke of
luck, it was commuted to a jail term, where he spent three years, three
months and three days and later by the grace of God became president,
can’t he show some appreciations to God for what he has done for him?
Can’t he quit the scene without allowing the polity to boil over? What
will he benefit if he makes the country burn? Why must Nigeria be
sacrificed on the alter of selfish political ambition of one person? Is
Nigeria not greater than any individual or group of individuals? By year
2007 Obasanjo would have spent about 11 year as the leader of Nigeria, why
can’t he retire peacefully? If Nelson Mandela had been a selfish person he
would still have been in power up till today in South Africa, but he
voluntarily relinquished power for a younger person, his deputy to move
the country forward. So, can’t we learn from this laudable example? Even
neighbouring Ghana transited without qualms, so why not Nigeria?
If we look at the
enormity of the problems that confront Nigeria today and the magnitude of
work it requires to to fix the manifold problems, one wonders how the
president and his co-travelers have the luxury of time to chase shadows.
In seven years over $1billion has been spent on electricity, yet power
supply is epileptic and very erratic. Similarly, in spite of the billion
of naira spent on the maintenance and construction of roads, roads
throughout the country are in a deplorable state of disrepair, they are
death traps that have sent many innocent and innocuous lives to their
early graves, the healthcare centers are worst than mere consulting
clinics that it used to be, today in Kenya tourism remains the highest
revenue earner, but in Nigeria it is still taking a back sit in the scheme
of things, also Ethiopia Airlines remains the number one money spinner, in
Nigeria we are not near it yet, the development of solid minerals and
agriculture have been thoroughly neglected that is why Nigeria imports
most of what she consumes, and has remained a mono-culture dependent
economy in permanent crisis, the education sector is in a shambles, while
the housing policy is just for the rich, and the stories of woes about the
management of the economy are endless. To complicate the already
situation, poverty and unemployment are very pervasive, with over 70 per
cent of the entire population living on less than $1 per day, with less
than 39 per cent having access to portable water supply, and almost all
the entire population not having access to uninterrupted power supply, as
well as good food, medical services, education, shelter and social
security.
Yet, our so-called
leaders are not bothered about the plights of the country and her people,
for the past seven years; there has been the trivialization of the very
essence of governance, misplacement of priorities, self-righteousness and
un-necessary excessive grandstanding as well as tall on policy
enunciations and short on the delivery of the dividends of democracy to
the people. Even, the so-called reform programmes of the government do not
have any positive impact on the socio-economic conditions of the people,
it has engendered massive sacks without preparing the victims for the
after effects of such brazen misanthropic policy and it has helped those
in government to sell public assets to themselves, for example, NITEL.
The are so many problems
facing the country that the government should concern itself with rather
than putting clogs in the wheel of political progress of the country.
Perhaps, the reason why politics has been reduced to roforofo fight
is because, most of the present occupiers of office did not contribute
anything to the emergence of democracy in the first place, in fact, some
of them were military apologists, if they had participated in the struggle
to chase out the military out of power, they would have taken governance
more seriously, it really a pity that all Obasanjo accused IBB of doing
while in office, is the same thing he’s doing with greater venom.
The fact of the matter is
that Nigerians have not really benefited from this government in real
terms, more so, that it has made a lot of money from the upsurge in the
price of oil in the international market, yet nothing good is happening
on the economic front. The impact of their so-called reforms which is out
of sync with the wishes and aspirations of the people, on Nigeria’s
political economy is that they have made the Nigerian economy more
subservient to the international finance capital, the economic
relationship created with the West is that of unequal exchange and
imperialism of trade. The reforms are about pandering to the interests of
the Brettonwood institutions or Washington consensus, and
not the collective interest of the Nigerian people. It is instructive to
observe that, development cannot be achieved by proxy. A people develops
itself or not at all. All it can develop itself through a strategy of
self-reliance that is through the commitment and the energy of the people.
That is where democracy comes in. Self-reliance is not possible unless the
society is thoroughly democratic, unless the people are the end and not
just the means of development. Development occurs in so far as it amounts
to the pursuit of objectives set by the people themselves in their own
interest and by the means of their own resources. It is for this reason
that, it has been argued that, the circumstances of our history have
conspired to produce an elite which cannot function because it has no
sense of identity or integrity and no confidence, does not know where it
is coming from or where it is going. It is clear even from the bahaviour
of our leaders that most of them have no respect for themselves and do not
take themselves seriously. That is why they have converted us into the
mimic people. Lacking confidence and self-respect, they cannot develop any
sense of efficiency. So, even with the best of intentions they are forever
confused and perfunctory.
More worrying still, our leaders suffer from
self-contempt. This underlies their alienation from themselves and from us
and it is manifested in their frisky impatience with their environment,
their fondness for foreign things and disdain for the local, typical of
the Obasanjo’s government. Operating in a vacuum they proclaim their
incarnation of the popular will, hear echoes of their own voice, and
reassured, pursue with policies that have nothing to do with the
aspirations of the people and which cannot mobilize them. As their
alienation from the people increase, they rely more and more on coercion,
and become even more alienated. There are two issues that must be clearly
sorted out, those that have been in the drivers seat for the past seven
years and have not been able to radically change the manifold conditions
of the people for the better have no business staying on in power, or try
to dictate how the future of the country should be managed. Two, those in
power now should voluntarily relinquish power, conduct free and fair
elections, allow the will of the people to prevail and not mercilessly
torpedo the hard earned on-going, nascent democratic experiment.
By Jide Ayobolu
No 19, Gongola Street
Garki 2
Abuja-Nigeria.
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