First of all, we need a value system.
No country can thrive in utter moral degeneracy. Morals are the key to
sustain the efforts of today. President Umar Musa Yar’ Adua needs to
show good examples and ensure absolute compliance to the rule of law
at all times. His war on corruption should not be skewed to any
degree. Positive values should be encouraged at all levels-most
especially, at the lower levels from where the future of this country
will spring up. From there, we will learn to celebrate merit and
people will keep to the right. A firm moral identity will help paint a
positive image of Nigeria in the international scene as well and it is
the responsibility of President Umar Musa Yar’ Adua to set good
examples.
THE CLOCK TICKS FOR PRESIDENT UMAR MUSA YAR’ADUA by Chiso Obiandu
Democracy is a vital element for the development of
a nation and the most appreciated system of government all-over the
world. When you talk about democracy in this country, the Olusegun
Obasanjo era takes the chunk of it. In the history of a nation, eight
years of an era divided by forty six cannot give an insignificant
result-especially for a nation with only a few positive landmarks.
Much more, eight out of the democratic rule fraction. No matter what
denominator we use-the whole forty six years-post-independence, or the
democratic rule fraction of it; eight years was enough to take
decisions that would decide the future of a nation, to make radical
and visible changes and clearly paint the picture of a new Nigeria.
This is not a review of the Obasanjo democratic era
that ran Nigeria like a personal estate, without regard for democratic
institutions, or of a leader who saw himself returning to the seat he
vacated in 1979 just without the military khaki. A review of that era
would amount to unwieldy details and given that the regime is behind
us now, it far more gainful to save ourselves the pain of such an
exercise. However, no meaningful success can be made by us as a nation
without reference to the present and future myriad of problems that
administration evoked on the entity called Nigeria.
Even at the brink of that administration, former
President Obasanjo had the chance to clean up every mess by just
organizing a free and fair election for the country but he seemed
larger than life to possess any atom of human conscience. So he failed
again. Even President Umar Musa Yar’ Adua-a beneficiary of that
election’s implausible result publicly admitted that the exercise was
flawed and have promised to make it up to Nigerians at the end of his
tenure. This admittance by President Umar Musa Yar’Adua as a matter of
conscience shows that he and Obasanjo are of different nature. After
all, he should not be held accountable for Obasanjo’s transgressions.
To recall-one-by-one, the many unpatriotic dealings
of the Obasanjo administration can eat one up faster than cancer. They
out-number whatever gains we boast of. Yet, President Umar Musa Yar’
Adua needs to learn lessons from that administration if he intends to
succeed. He may not be a messiah, but anyone coming at the heels of
the Obasanjo regime has an infinite horizon to etch a name in history.
Not by being everything that Obasanjo was not. By fixing the
fundamental problems of a nation that Obasanjo could not-including
those he created.
First of all, we need a value system. No country
can thrive in utter moral degeneracy. Morals are the key to sustain
the efforts of today. President Umar Musa Yar’ Adua needs to show good
examples and ensure absolute compliance to the rule of law at all
times. His war on corruption should not be skewed to any degree.
Positive values should be encouraged at all levels-most especially, at
the lower levels from where the future of this country will spring up.
From there, we will learn to celebrate merit and people will keep to
the right. A firm moral identity will help paint a positive image of
Nigeria in the international scene as well and it is the
responsibility of President Umar Musa Yar’ Adua to set good examples.
Yar’ Adua should as fast as possible redeem his
electoral promise of declaring a state of emergency on the power
sector if indeed he wants the economy to blossom. If he increases
power generation and distribution, it will have positive multiplier
effects on direct and indirect investments. The overhead costs of
economic units will fall drastically, profits will go up, government
will gain more by way of taxes, savings will increase and economic
surplus units can explore new frontiers and create more employment
opportunities. This boom will also have an effect on corporate social
responsibility and through that, government can have meaningful
partnerships in its developmental strides. The abject poverty in the
land can never be eradicated by the National Poverty Eradication
Project (NAPEP) and all worth not strategies of the Obasanjo
government if the basic economic determinants that impinge on
successful venturing are not put in place.
As a farmer, Nigerians are not expecting the “Yar’
Adua Farms” to become famous when he leaves office. ‘Obasanjo Farms’
is the only proof of that administration’s support for agriculture in
eight years. With our first rate green vegetation endowment in the
continent and indeed the world, an unadulterated support for
agriculture will by default increase export and provide another source
of revenue for an oil dependent nation. We expect that funding should
be increased by way of direct intervention on the part of government
and by the support from financial institutions under the Yar’Adua
administration.
The tension and rash of hostilities in the country
can also be tackled by Yar’ Adua. Since oil bears the burden for what
sustains Nigeria, the problem in the Niger- Delta is not a good story
for us. But for the mere fact that the only language understood by
Obasanjo is brute force, the problem of that region could have been
fixed to a reasonable degree. After I visited Odi a year after
Obasanjo commandeered the near wiping of a community, I concluded that
man can never be a democrat. I lost hope in his ability to tackle any
problem by means of dialogue which remains part and parcel of
democracy. What the foreign companies cause the Niger-Delta they
cannot do in their home countries. What they silently tell us by the
pollutions caused to the environment and exploitation is that Nigeria
is a country of no laws. The Yar’ Adua government can make the
companies in the region and Nigeria comply with international best
practices in environmental protection. Something can be done to create
more jobs for the people of the region, the government and companies
can do more to provide basic infrastructures, boost education and
vocational training for the youths to reduce future recruitments into
militant groups. The region truly deserves more than it is getting
from the Nigerian federation.
In general, the Nigerian educational system also
needs an overhaul. Yar’ Adua and Goodluck being complete products of
the Nigerian education system can attest to the fact that standards
have gone down. There is no guarantee that the average graduate of our
educational system can sustain the future of our nation in the daily
emerging global digital economy. Curriculum and funding from the
lowest to the tertiary levels should be critically examined. Scholars
and other stakeholders should be involved in this exercise. The deaf
ear syndrome of the Obasanjo administration to striking unions should
go behind and the development of private institutions should be viewed
as complementary rather than as substitutes to public institutions.
The Yar’ Adua government should not loose sight of the fact that in a
free market economy, it is the duty of the government to provide the
desired regulatory framework.
At all levels, the Yar’ Adua government should
ensure transparency and Value-For -Money for all government
expenditure. The Public Procurement Act recently signed into law
should be strictly adhered to. The failure of the Obasanjo
administration to tackle power, road network and other infrastructures
despite the billions of naira that went down the drain shows that
Nigerians did not gain Value-For-Money. Ridiculous stories about the
N11b special intervention fund for the procurement of raiders and
other safety measures in our fragile aviation sector that buried
several Nigerians in the last phase of the Obasanjo tenure are a shame
to this nation. Nigerians expect that the Yar’ Adua administration
will take drastic steps to review the hurried sale of government
concerns to individuals by the Obasanjo regime. A few persons have
bought this country including us the citizens in an unjust manner. All
governors and public officials in the last administration should be
probed-not just those who disagreed with Obasanjo.
Security of lives and property of Nigerians should
be an issue of concern to the Yar’ Adua government. As a direct
measure, the Nigerian police and other security agencies should be
strengthened to the level of objectivity. Apart from the fact that the
killing of Bola Ige, Marshall Harry and many more were politically
manipulated, do we need further reasons as to why the killings cannot
be unraveled when the security agencies are structurally
incapacitated? Indirectly, if he builds a viableeconomy where
people can be meaningfully engaged, he will also be reducing the spate
of criminality simultaneously.
It may appear that the expectation of Nigerians
from the Yar’ Adua government are innumerable. As if the Katsina born
leader has turned a magician who will darn the defective parts of this
nation within the limited time he has. Not exactly that. If he puts
the right people in the right places, he can deliver far more than we
crave given the enormous resources this country possesses. For
success, there are grades. It depends on the grade he wants to attain
when the results are out.
By actions so far, it does seem that the Yar’ Adua
administration has a hidden hand it takes from and a still voice it
listens to. There are no pointers that it will be any departure from
the Obasanjo style. A few days back, I was on line with a friend who
left this country few days before the swearing in of the Yar’ Adua
government and he asked me what the Yar’ Adua/ Goodluck government has
done sofar and I could not say a thing. He said “but hopes
were high”? I told him we have been lowering it steadily-not that I
have lost confidence in the Yar’ Adua/ Goodluck government-it is too
early to do so. Nigerian leaders have over time demonstrated an
inability to come near the expectations behind their mandate.
It is over two months in the life of the
administration and cabinet lists are still being drawn. It raises the
question of what pace the Yar’ Adua government will move even though
as a nation of faulty origins we need something near the speed of
light. His Special Assistant on media-Olusegun Adeniyi has told us
that his boss is not in a hurry and that he wants to be extensive in
his consultations before taking actions. It is no benefit setting out
very early in the morning to no where but for the fun of being on the
move though. A destination should be borne in mind. If indeed he is
making necessary consultations, it is a departure from the Obasanjo
style but it is not enough. What led the Obasanjo government to the
frustration of seeking a third-term was because it did not discover
the advantage in timing. He did not realize that power is so
transient.
In the end, it is neither the present nor the
future that pass judgment. Only history does so and that history can
only be made after four years (or eight years if the Yar’ Adua
government secures a second-term)-in the event that he would not seek
a third-term. It is important for Yar’ Adua to note that he holds the
people’s mandate and not that of Obasanjo and will be personally
accountable to history for his tenure. The judgment of history will be
based on the assessment of what the government put on ground for
Nigerians to feel, sense, see and enjoy. At the expiration of the Yar’
Adua tenure Nigerians would not want to look into the future and see a
failed past again.
Every failed past is the epithet of an inestimable future that has
been wasted. We are tired of always going back to the point of
our beginning.
On May 29th, 2007 when the baton of
leadership was handed over to President Umar Musa Yar’ Adua, events
and their timing as far as Nigeria is concerned was handed down to him
as well. What Nigerians will not forget- assuming that the incumbency
will have a smooth tenure, is the time to withdraw the baton from him.
History too will not fail to keep a detailed account of it all. For
now, the rest is in his hands. The clock ticks not for Nigerians but
for Yar’Adua and each single tick is to his credit or blame. Nigerians
are waiting-impatiently though.
