APC wins, but the battle is just starting
With the well deserved victory of General Muhammadu Buhari at the polls it is right, and totally understandable, to congratulate ourselves, all of us, even members of the opposition who were bent on continuity. Change has come, and Nigerians have shown the world that our democracy is maturing to the point of kicking away a […]
With the well deserved victory of General Muhammadu Buhari at the polls it is right, and totally understandable, to congratulate ourselves, all of us, even members of the opposition who were bent on continuity. Change has come, and Nigerians have shown the world that our democracy is maturing to the point of kicking away a crude and clueless ruling cabal, even at the federal level once we are organised enough to fight and say enough is enough. Now all elected governments, at all levels, know they can be removed if the electorate have become tired and disgusted. It may be true that no elections took place in some parts, especially in the South East and South-South, which hopefully would be corrected on Saturday but Buhari has consistently made it clear that his government would be for everybody willing to move forward to a better Nigeria. The issue now is how to bring about this change.
Failure they say is often orphaned; victory has many parents. Now everyone, including vested interests and those who opposed any change would all rush to give advice and propose road maps. Buhari I am sure is intelligent and astute enough to sieve the good from the bad, and even the downright ugly. He is also experienced enough to navigate the murky and rocky waters of power politics. Without doubt neither he nor his party, the APC, have all the answers and I am sure they would welcome any and all suggestions and words of wisdom. Indeed the flood of advice is becoming a deluge but I would just raise some of the ones to ignore.
It is good to start at home, so let me take the suggestion of my former boss and political leader, Alhaji Balarabe Musa who, even before the results of the presidential polls were announced, called for a government of national unity. Even though I knew he was supporting Jonathan, I still found the suggestions bizarre because there was no threat to the unity or survival of this nation except the crude attempts by the Presidency and its main supporters, which were clearly not working anyway. Even those pretending to campaign for Jonathan knew full well they were marketing a very bad product. I could not help but wonder what he would have said if someone had suggested to him to form a cabinet of unity with the NPN back in 1979-80. The struggle then was not too different. But that would be a debate for another day.
Stranger still is out-going President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his Easter lessons for Nigerians and for Buhari. Speaking when his deputy, Arch. Namadi Sambo, and some still loyal supporters, came to pat him homage he exhorted us to sacrifice if Buhari is to succeed. In his words, “Whenever we talk about this (Easter) period, the key lesson there is sacrifice. Somebody sacrificed four our salvation.” He added that “it is not about supporting Buhari or government, but what sacrifice, as individuals, are you willing to make for government and for the nation?”
It is clear that someone is trying to make Jonathan sound like JFK, who, in a still memorable quote urged Americans to think not of what their country can do for them but what they can do for their country. Jonathan however puts the government before the nation, while Kennedy spoke only of the nation because the government exists, as other all institutions to serve the country. Jesus did not ask his followers to sacrifice so that he and the church leadership could enjoy. We have been sacrificing so that our political leaders (actually rulers) could enjoy. We are used to sacrificing; we just don’t see the fruits trickling down to our levels. That is why the PDP was kicked out, what they could not understand, and still do not seem to get. Politics should be about service and sacrifice to the nation and not about sacrificing the people, or making them to sacrifice for your creature comfort. People are not fools. They know they must give up something to get something. However, when after years and even decades of sacrificing and listening to promises of brighter days to come they see nothing but waste and cheeky stealing they will rise up to put an end to the rule of any thieving elite stupid enough to think it can remain in power for ever.
Nowhere is this made very clear as in the other advice Jonathan gave. He asked, “If for instance Buhari decides to increase VAT from 5 to 10 percent, will Nigerians support him?” and concluded that we should because we have the lowest VAT rate in the ECOWAS sub-region. Which is true but why single out VAT? The Nigerian elite, especially the business segment, enjoy some of the lowest tax rate in the whole world, and some still refuse to pay. VAT is easier to collect and falls on the poor and rich alike. But the real possibilities are in corporate profit and other taxes on the incomes of the rich one percent who go scot free. Even the oil and gas sectors don’t pay as much as they should. Tax revenue to GDP ratios are 11% in Niger Republic, 15.4% in Benin, 18.2% in Cameroon but only 6% here in Nigeria. It is 20.8% in Ghana, 15.8% in Egypt and almost 27% in South Africa. The EU collects over 35.7 of GDP as taxes yet our own just grab, enjoy some and hide the rest. So why not explain to Buhari why the PDP could not tax the rich but instead resorted to giving them waivers? VAT burdens the lower and middle classes more, and sounds to me as a recipe for unpopularity, when people have managed to buy houses worth billions without ever being asked to state where they got the money, and if tax has been paid on them. Statesmen should give honest, and well considered suggestions. Our tax rates are too low, but Buhari would need to approach the matter carefully. People only pay if they believe the money would not end up being stolen. On this, Jonathan does not qualify to advise him.
On a more controversial level, Buhari may find it difficult to know what to do with suggestions still to come from the likes of General Olusegun Obasanjo, who felt betrayed by Jonathan and whose utterances and support help bring an end to Jonathan administration, a contraption he had helped to put in place. Even Jonathan admitted that, as President, he was not in-charge, as he was “in a cage, being taken care of by the government…for 16 good years.” So who were the cabal really in-charge, and how did we end up with a president who had no idea what it meant to be one?
With Buhari I have no reason to fear; he knows what it is to be in control. I don’t think we need fear that he would be figure-head, surrounded by protocol, security operatives and vested interests, despite our unease about some of the characters surrounding him. A clueless, spineless and captive president could be worse than Boko Haram, as we have already witnessed. Dealing with insecurity, lack of electricity, crumbling infrastructure and even unemployment would be easier than fighting vested interests but our hope lies in his standing up to them.
Which is why we need to give him as many progressive governors as possible, to work with, if true change is to come. These must be governors who realise the need to allow free, fair and credible elections at the local government levels; a tier critical to sustainable development. It is also necessary to give him a hand at each and every step, especially with workable and people-oriented suggestions. The struggle has just begun.