Calming political tension in the land

There is understandably palpable apprehension in the land. No one really knows what 2015 holds for the country. Only the future can tell.Elections are always contentious in the country – and understandably so. As Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President and doyen of his country’s nationalist struggle would say, “seek ye first the political kingdom and […]

There is understandably palpable apprehension in the land. No one really knows what 2015 holds for the country. Only the future can tell.
Elections are always contentious in the country – and understandably so. As Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President and doyen of his country’s nationalist struggle would say, “seek ye first the political kingdom and every other thing shall be added unto you”. Nigerian politicians appeared to take that dictum to heart. And can you blame them? Whoever is in control of state resources wields enormous power and influence. Not only has he (usually a ‘he’) the power to transform a pauper into a billionaire overnight and a billionaire into a grovelling charlatan in a matter of days, every senseless huff he utters is guaranteed to generate the loudest but feigned rib-cracking laughter and proclaimed the funniest or wisest thing ever uttered on earth by a coterie of favour seekers and hangers on.  Simply put politics is anarchical in the land because state power is both a means of production and the shortest cut to wealth accumulation and elite formation.
2015 has a special salience. For the first time in our political history the outcome in the 2015 cannot be easily predicted. The result will be quite close; guaranteeing that whichever side is proclaimed to have lost will cry foul and perhaps take the laws into their hands. This is why I believe that there is an urgent need to begin the process of dousing the tension ahead of the elections. I shall return to this.
Two recent events have enormous implications for the build-up to 2015 – Governor Murtala Nyako’s letter to the Northern Governors’ Forum and Buhari’s reaction to the recent Nyanya terrorist attack.
Nyako’s letter to Northern governors implying that Boko Haram was a creation of Jonathan and accusing him of genocide against the North has been rightly condemned by many people. I share strongly that condemnation, including the thinly veiled attempt to incite the North against a section of the country.  Between Governor Nyako’s outright incitement and the equally unacceptable attempt by the PDP to incite the people against APC and Buhari by blaming them for the Nyanya bombing, it is difficult to know which is worse. But these are ominous signs of what lie ahead as 2015 approaches.
But reading Olusegun Adeniyi’s, ‘Who is Nyako Speaking for?’ (ThisDay, 24 April 2014), a broader perspective to the face-off emerged. Adeniyi argued that Nyako’s memo could not have been borne out of any altruism. Recalling that both Nyako and Jonathan were buddies, Adeniyi traced the genesis of the quarrel to the appointment of Bamanga Tukur as PDP’s national chairman against Nyako’s wish – and despite the fact that the Adamawa Governor had swum against the tide in the North to deliver his state to Jonathan in 2011.  Jonathan  was said not only to abandon Nyako when he needed him most  but also reportedly looked the other way when Bamanga Tukur dissolved the State Exco of the party in a bid to take away the party structure from the Governor. In essence Nyako’s letter was actuated not by altruism but malice. Playing the regional card was therefore, in my opinion, a convenient mask to cover what was essentially a quarrel between two former friends.  An important lesson here is for our politicians to be mindful that there are consequences for using and dumping others. And this includes politicians who, without scruples suck up to political godfathers only to turn round to play the saints after double-crossing their benefactors.  While I strongly condemn Nyako’s rather thoughtless letter, I also believe it will be counterproductive for security agencies to harass him or for him to be removed as Governor under the pretext of implementing a full state of emergency. It will only exacerbate the tension in the land.  
Another major event was Buhari’s letter on the Nyanya car bombing. In an article entitled ‘Nyanya Bomb Blast and the Fight Against Terrorism in Nigeria’ and circulated widely to the media, Buhari wrote: “We cannot allow these merchants of death to make us numb to the tragedy they manufacture.  Those who were killed were not merely numbers on a page.”
The highly commended letter from Buhari embodies at least three important lessons:  one, that his handlers (or a new handler) is coming around to appreciate that the General needs a re-invention and that previous image management strategies – if there were any – really did not work. Can we just not notice how one single letter rendered impotent the ill-advised move by the PDP to blame the General of being behind the Nyanya suicide bombing? Today people eulogise the statesmanlike letter while no one paid any heeds to his threat to sue the PDP if it did not withdraw the allegation. That should be an important lesson to the hawks around the General who like to talk tough and threaten everyone (the other side is equally guilty of this). Two, the   tone of the letter and the reactions to it, shows a certain latent admiration for  Buhari  across the fault lines.  My personal opinion is that Buhari is a good product that has not been properly managed and packaged. Politics is a battle of the heart and mind. Politicians are often prone to gaffes and Buhari has had his own fair share of it.. Had Buhari been better managed, the presidency of this country would probably have been his for the asking – whether he is 80 years old or not.  Hopefully the letter on Nyanya bombing should be a turning point for him.  But he must go a step further. He needs to find ways to win critical segment of the elites, especially in the North, on side. He has to find a way to make them feel comfortable with him and his potential presidency because for as long as the critical elites  distrust him for so long will they do all they can to undermine him. I have often heard some of the General’s supporters talk of the elites being afraid Buhari as if it is something to be celebrated in politics. The masses are important but in every democracy the critical elites have a big say on who gets to power. You need to be allowed to get power first before you can deploy it to the good of the society.
Three, Buhari’s Nyanya letter is a sign that even as we fear 2015 there are still voices from the contending parties that will know when to do the needful to prevent the country from falling into the abyss.
This now brings me on what we should do to douse the enveloping tension. My suggestion is for the constitution of men of integrity – preferably outside the state structure – who will develop a taxonomy of what will constitute inflammatory speech or unacceptable conduct by politicians and eminent Nigerians.  Such men and women should have the capacity to rise above the active controversies of the day and see issues from their multifaceted dimensions. They will fashion out modes of approaching the culprits – no matter how highly placed – with suggestions on how they can offer remedy for their unacceptable speeches or conduct. Despite the wide entrenchment of constructivist thinking and the triumph of one-dimensional writers, the country still abounds with individuals who can be objective and see issues from several perspectives – the Wole Soyinkas, Emeka Anyaokus, Christopher Kolades, Dangiwa Umars and even my fellow Daily Trust columnist Mahmud Jega.  It is all too obvious from what has been going on that like the restored Bourbon dynasty in France after the abdication of Napoleon, our politicians have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
An ode to our soldiers
Two days ago, at about 7am, I was told someone was looking for me. When I opened the door, I saw a tall, lanky man, dressed in military uniform standing by the door. He was just a lance corporal – the lowest rank in the army. He started with apologies for coming to disturb – which was calming because you never really know if what you write earnestly will get you into trouble.
Put simply the man was asking around for a University lecturer around the area to discuss one or two issues regarding his master’s thesis. I took a long look at the likeable young man and then his rank. He sensed my disbelief and in the next ten minutes or so we chatted: He enlisted in the army as a recruit more than fifteen years ago. He had, through his own efforts and sponsorship completed his first degree and about completing his master’s. Despite knowing that his degrees would not earn him promotion, he had trudged on, bent on improving himself. He got the first promotion after 12 years in the army – and that was to the lowest rank, a lance corporal. From him I learnt there are several graduates, who entered the army or police as recruit and will remain on the same low rank for over ten years, doing their duties, obeying the last order, and sometimes laying down their lives so we can sleep in peace. So when next you see that army man or police corporal, can you spare a moment and say, ‘well done for today’?. There are bad eggs in the police and the army. But given the conditions under which they work, they deserve even more respect and understanding.