Back again, to 1984

2015 is looking like 1984, the year that the Second Republic was shut. Doctors say there are no antibiotics, and patients have to buy. There are no CT machines at most hospices. Where there is, the hospital is overworked with long queues. Basic supplies are often out of stock, and, to make matters worse, the […]

2015 is looking like 1984, the year that the Second Republic was shut. Doctors say there are no antibiotics, and patients have to buy. There are no CT machines at most hospices. Where there is, the hospital is overworked with long queues. Basic supplies are often out of stock, and, to make matters worse, the hospitals all have shortage of beds. They are mere consulting clinics. Sounds familiar?
This is happening in an administration that public officials found millions to buy SUVs for themselves, and friends of the president have the audacity to donate N21bn for campaigns at a time when Internally Displaced Persons are without succour, flood ravaged areas are in disrepair and our streets are without lights. Life is a mess. In cities, like the Federal Capital Territory, garbage is not being collected on time in areas and zones and public utilities is ‘balanced’ on a banana peel.
And it is worth recalling that in 1983, the police Inspector General, Mr Sunday Adewusi simply went on rampage in Lagos while his commissioner in Borno, Tahiru Njidda barred the Zik of Africa from driving his motorcade around Maiduguri. Today, we are witnesses to Suleiman Abba and Mbu J. Mbu’s partisanships. To say that the greater core of the social fabric of this country is currently in shreds is an understatement. The priorities of this regime are premised upon personal friendships and, most importantly, umbilical loyalty to party. Indeed, these are the hallmarks of the PDP.
A testimony to the period between 1999 and the present narrates that most administrations have been characterized by scandals, ineptitude and a primitive accumulation of riches, the results of which have chronically impoverished Nigerians. We have rolled over from Giant of Africa to Giant of terrorism.
In dimension, our politicians have become the Stegosaurus – a dinosaur with a big body and small brain that lived 150 million years ago. It is clear that each time democracy is ushered in, the country goes on economic and social sabbatical.
The same chaos is here again. Last year, after a surreptitious rebasing, the coordinating Minister of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, bamboozled us into believing that our economy is the largest in Africa, owing to her voodoo mathematics that conjured a 7-per cent annual growth. It was a statistical error that is not worth the paper it is written on. U.S. president Barack Obama once said that ‘economic growth’ that has no correlation to peoples’ pockets and daily lives is just “numbers on a page”. So our lives have been destroyed by numbers on pages.
But why does the PDP win more elections than the others? Simply, PDP spends more time on how to obtain power by fire by force, and less time, far less time on good governance to encourage the pursuit of happiness, the core function of government, ala Thomas Jefferson. For that, Nigeria is undergoing an opportunity drought, worse than the physical drought that has eaten Sudan up.
As a citizen, I am terrified with a health sector on “national emergency”. It does not inspire confidence. Since we as ordinary Nigerians do not go to Dubai for checkups, like the privileged one per cent, and those of the establishment, and we pay the bulk of the taxes that ‘run’ this country, we must demand a change.
How do we do this? I suggest, as a start, that this election be used as a starting block to Nigeria’s emancipation from the dark forces of evil. Nigerians must elect a man of great scruples to handle their business. Nigerians must as a people make a decision as to how their political future is to be fashioned beyond 2015. Again, Nigeria needs to make a crucial decision as to how to run its economic future. Nigeria should crank up the necessary machinery so that it can decide its path for now and generations beyond, plus other critical social cum legal issues that include repeal of the immunity clause, civilized voting, and finding a foreign body of benchers to be the final arbiter in our judicial system since our courts are afraid of the rich people amongst us.
Nigeria cannot continue to wallow in reverse gear. We need the most reassuring plebiscite that characterizes the core of liberal democratic systems. We need an election that respects the wishes of the people. The polls all over the country show that most Nigerians support local and general elections being held together. This has been known for years. It would make eminent economic sense to heed public sentiment. Nigeria’s broken social, economic and political clock is on wind-back, and we need to decide the best horologist to assist us in fixing it. Our present watchmaker has failed miserably. As we go to the polls, whatever the verdict of the people, we must live with the consequences. Enough, it is often said, is enough!