Failing the fairness test

Just as he did at last year’s celebration, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, President and Commander In Chief of its Armed Forces, reeled out a bagful of achievements, a must-read recommended by him for those who wish to objectively assess his administration. When decoded, the president’s assessment of his government presupposes that Nigerians have all along been […]

Just as he did at last year’s celebration, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, President and Commander In Chief of its Armed Forces, reeled out a bagful of achievements, a must-read recommended by him for those who wish to objectively assess his administration. When decoded, the president’s assessment of his government presupposes that Nigerians have all along been subjective in whining at the snake pit their country has been turned into. Well, well!
At this point in time, subjectivity is the least of charges that could be levelled at Nigerians. They are still to see the blurred image of a tunnel not to talk of whether or not it has a light at its rear. They are still waiting for a leader who will improve their lot; not one who will strive to employ their office to improve themselves. In essence, Nigerians are still awaiting the leader who has the capacity to improve his office and not one who expects their office to improve them! One decade and half on, the search remains elusive. The past fifteen years have been years of wasted and frittered opportunities. Rather than being an impetus for positive change, democracy has befuddled and overwhelmed leaders at all level of governance. The political leadership has continuously fumbled and wobbled dangerously and only succeeded in turning the country into one big prison. At every point, Commanders in Chief since 1999 have not failed to amaze Nigerians!
To illustrate: Each time you thought he will come up with a magic wand, President Jonathan simply chooses to harp on issues that should ordinarily be left to low-level party officials. Or, how else do we interpret the president’s recent charge that governors of the ruling party who defected to the opposition are incapable of winning ward elections? How, on earth, does the charge resolve crisis of governance that has gripped the country since 1999? Is the jibe part of finding solutions to the insurgency in the country? Or, how on earth does that indicate a genuine desire to work the economy? How crucial is the president’s charge to tackling corruption in the country?  Is this all part of the hyped No Jonathan, No Nigeria campaign? Here’s hoping the president, through utterances bordering on desperation, is not preparing to take the country down with him as the countdown to 2015 begins! Heck! Is Armageddon here already?
The other day, First Lady Patience Jonathan told Nigerians to stop abusing her husband when she could simply have admonished Nigerians to engage in constructive criticisms. Since her declaration, certain desperate steps have been taken to equate criticism of sloppy management with abuse. No one in today’s Nigeria would have thought red-eyed troops would be barricading streets, not to deal with insurgents but in hot pursuit of vendors to confiscate newspapers. It is hoped this is not a window dressing ahead of 2015. The recent display of intolerance for criticism firms a popular misconception that politicians in our clime are sore losers. But truth is that winners should not expect congratulatory messages when they are neither honest nor wise in victory for the simple fact that it is common knowledge for many things do go awfully wrong with elections. What is honest and wise in ballot boxes being snatched at gunpoint, votes being bought, voters being intimidated, maimed and killed for holding contrary political views? Or, in outright alteration of figures? What the hell is fair in long-winding legal gymnastics after which valid petitions get thrown out on technical grounds? We could not have forgotten so soon how late President Umar Musa Yar’adua claimed an election he had the presence of mind to declare was fundamentally flawed before it was validated by the Supreme Court! Did anyone in their right senses expect losers in that election to congratulate their victor?
But this does not absolve voters who fail to realize that statesmanship and politics do not mix. For reasons associated more importantly with poverty of the mind, most voters prefer to line up behind politicians and political parties who dish out hand outs. In Nigeria, elective positions, right from councillorship to the presidency are not for the poor! And cut the crap about power coming from God: to bid for elective post, you have to send your conscience, assuming you have one, on vacation and do very unconscionable things at odd places! Of equal importance is that you have to be a big-time thief! The interplay of subterranean forces means politicians are ill-prepared and unprepared for office and, subsequently they get befuddled the moment they mount the saddle. Politicians are hardly far sighted: every second they spend in office is an opportunity to grab and strategize on how to rig the next election.  At the end of the day, the desperation by an incumbent office holder to cling to power leaves him vulnerable to all manner of leeches and vultures to hijack the office and empty the till.
Not so the statesman! Because they are prepared to lead, statesmen are more concerned with posterity, as opposed to prosperity, and the next generation. Of course, statesmen dot Nigeria’s landscape and are not a rarity as has been lamely argued in some quarters. And let no one advance the puerile argument that emerging democracies must understudy the Americans for another two and half centuries to get things right. In its fifty three years of independence, Nigeria has passed through the type of momentous and turbulent phases America passed through. Both were colonies of Britain; in fact, the Americans fought a bitter seven-year war to gain independence, a major drawback that did not befall Nigeria! Both fought bitter civil wars and both countries had their fair share of political impasses, ignited by overturning valid elections at gunpoint, which threatened each other’s existence.
After the lethargy and avoidable miasma of the past fifteen years, the election of a statesman will be a soothing balm on the jaded nerves of Nigerians. Unlike a politician, the statesman has vision; he thinks beyond self and group and the stifling and narrow considerations that come with them. Nigerians will be damned to elect another politician in 2015. This is one luxury they can ill-afford because another politician sans vision will waste their time by dissipating energy in pursuit of pedestrian interests. If truth be told, it is the crass absence of vision, more than any other thing that turned Nigeria into a hellhole. Even some of its best known supporters consider the idea of Nigeria’s ruling leadership and vision as a contradiction!
The message is simple: Never give up; never give in! This is no time to throw up your arms in despair. Sooner than later, Nigeria will get leaders it truly deserves; competent leaders who will improve the presidency and not wait for the presidency to improve them!
 
Magaji wrote from Abuja <[email protected]>;