2015 Elections: The day after

The point cannot be overstated; Nigeria certainly is not short of Presidents, Governors, Lawmakers, Local Government Chairmen, etc. President-elect, (Muhammadu Buhari) after May 29th, would be the 4th President of the Republic in this democratic dispensation that started in 1999; Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, late Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan (in that order).  At an average […]

The point cannot be overstated; Nigeria certainly is not short of Presidents, Governors, Lawmakers, Local Government Chairmen, etc. President-elect, (Muhammadu Buhari) after May 29th, would be the 4th President of the Republic in this democratic dispensation that started in 1999; Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, late Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan (in that order).  At an average of two two-term governors per state, we have possibly had a turnover of as many as 72 governors from 36 states of the Federation in the past 16 years (inclusive of the dead and the impeached!). If we add thousands of states’ assembly members, some hundreds of federal Representatives, senators, thousands of local government chairmen and hundreds of ministers, Nigeria’s state actors (serving and retired!)  can convincingly form a trade union, (the difference being that with mouth-watering serving and severance pay, the union members have nothing to fight for!).
The real paradox is that with this highest concentration of state-actors on the continent, Nigeria is the most lacking GOOD GOVERNANCE and the much needed DEVELOPMENT. It is interesting to read former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday reportedly saying that Nigeria’s democratic process “was fast maturing”. Two things are however missing in Obasanjo’s correct observation about democratic maturity. For one democratic maturity took so long for a country that got independence through elections and by founding (democrats)-fathers and mothers. Indeed through serial impunities under his Presidency, no president has stunted Nigeria’s democratic growth than Obasanjo himself from whimsical removal of elected officials (governors, senate presidents etc to utter disregard for the wishes of the electorates!). Secondly Obasanjo did not add that our political maturity is inversely related to our shameless economic underperformance and worsening mass poverty.
A day after the much awaited elections are over, it’s time we resumed the business of governance that has been in recess since last year. Sadly just before elections are concluded, we are dangerously returning to business as usual; we are inundated by who becomes minister, speaker of the house and Senate President. These concluded elections are not to give jobs to another set of politicians. Electorate have come out for serial accreditation, and mass voting in the knowledge that their votes will translate to mass jobs for their children some who have left schools for four years without jobs.
A day before the results of governorship elections were out  as  many as 500 highly trained pilots are jobless in a country with hundreds of private jets. Some pilots are even reported to be driving kabukabu! Are those that were elected listening to this outcry of joblessness? These elections must be for revival of all industries to create jobs for the millions of unemployed youths. It must be business unusual; mass jobs for the masses, (not politicians) failing which the crisis of mass expectations might lead to despair and revolution.
It is reassuring that President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC John Oyegun, have decried the current gale of defections to the ruling party in waiting. I agree with Oyegun that those defecting to the winning party should rather form a formidable opposition to enrich the nation’s democracy.“Many opposition party members have defected to APC just because they lost out, that is not good for political development. “One would have advised that opposition members should stay where they are, and form a formidable opposition party.” Oyegun said.
Indeed the recent reported mass exodus of some failed politicians to the winning party (APC) after the outcome of March 28th Presidential Elections is rigging through other means that must be discouraged. Defections distort the expectation of the electorate, because politicians whose programmes and policies have been rejected resurface in the winning party as chieftains. This is another form of political corruption and a critical challenge for the President-elect who promises to confront corruption. A day after the elections, we must discourage “butterfly politicians” who move from one nest to another in search of “political honey” in a country begging more than ever before for selfless political office holders who through creative economic policies will reverse the unacceptable devaluation of the Naira (without nothing to export!), revive collapsed industries, get millions back to work.