Nigeria’s democracy @ 12
Before Jonathan had been former military Head of State, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, and Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua. Obasanjo opened the current stanza of the country’s chequered democracy experiment in 1999 and ran two straight terms of four years each, ending in 2007; he handed over to Yar’adua who, sadly, died in office mid-way into his […]
Before Jonathan had been former military Head of State, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, and Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua. Obasanjo opened the current stanza of the country’s chequered democracy experiment in 1999 and ran two straight terms of four years each, ending in 2007; he handed over to Yar’adua who, sadly, died in office mid-way into his first term. The unfortunate incident of, first, the illness and then, the eventual death of Yar’adua cast ominous clouds over the country for a while but when they cleared, Jonathan, as vice president, emerged first as acting president through the National Assembly’s “doctrine of necessity” and later as full President when Yar’adua passed on. From that juncture up till now, Jonathan has only been “helping” his late boss complete a term the cold hands of death did not let him complete; but as from Sunday, the man from the creeks of the Niger Delta would be kicking off his own term.
Jonathan’s first name “Goodluck” has repeatedly played a joke on him: He was deputy governor in Bayelsa State when his boss, the governor, ran into trouble and lost his job and Jonathan effortlessly glided into the seat. He was also a deputy when the boss died and he became the leader of the most influential Black nation in the world. Luck, no doubt, has a place to play in human affairs, be it in sports or politics. Beyond luck, however, Jonathan’s emergence as President is significant in many other ways. First, he is the first minority man to be elected president of the country. Hitherto, the contest had always been between the three dominant ethnic groups of Hausa\Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. Similar pattern of domination of minority groups by the majority groups sufficed under the military as only Generals from the three dominant groups emerged Heads of State\Commanders-in-Chief each time there was a forcible change of government.
The significance of the shift this time around has been compared to the epochal event of the election of Mr. Barack Obama as the first Black president of the United States of America. Many would have sworn that a shift of such a magnitude would never occur in America; even those who believed in the dream as espoused by Martin Luther King (Jnr.) would have least expected it to happen so quickly. Jonathan’s busting of the charts and confounding of the bookmakers demonstrates the political sagacity of Nigerians; there is also a tinge of good luck mixed with divine intervention, for it is doubtful if a Niger Delta man would have stood any chance of clinching the post at this time if not for the circumstances that threw up Jonathan.
That is not to say, however, that the Niger Delta is not eminently placed to lead the country. On the contrary, there is the groundswell of opinion that if only as the region that has been the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg; it deserves to also occupy the Number One seat in the land. Since 1956 when crude oil was discovered in commercial quantity at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta, crude oil export has become the backbone of the country, accounting for nearly 100 percent of our foreign exchange earnings. In the process of extracting this crude, the environment has been adversely impacted: Oil spills have ruined farm lands as well as polluted fishing ponds and drinking water. For a people whose livelihood depended on fishing and farming, this is no mean disaster. Add to this the menace of gas flaring and the abject lack of basic amenities in many of the oil-producing areas. Many oil-producing communities travel long distances to buy petrol even though oil pipes criss-cross their land. In addition, the only source of light for many others is the perpetual fire which flared gas provide day and night non-stop. The situation has been that bad.
So, there have been agitations for a better deal, beginning with the one masterminded by the late Major Adaka Boro: The demands have ranged from provision of amenities for the people; cleaning up of polluted land and creeks; juicy appointments for sons of the soil, to resource control. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, made popular by the executed playwright and social activist, Dr. Kenule Saro-Wiwa, drew great international attention to the plight of Niger Delta. The death of Saro-Wiwa only brought out the militancy in the youths of the creeks as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) which emerged thereafter abandoned the pen for the gun, the newspaper newsrooms and television klieg lights for the difficult terrains of the creeks, and spoke not into microphones but through the staccato of automatic machine guns.
Talking about a problem is not the same thing as fixing it; it is called a case of easier said than done. This is not only true of the Niger Delta but also of the entire country. Once he is inaugurated, Jonathan will be confronted full blast by this truism. During his campaign, he was cautious not to promise the people heaven on earth; one of his slogans was: “Promise less, deliver more”. Transforming Nigeria is a theme that runs through every major speech that Jonathan has made recently. To transform Nigeria, he has to fix power supply; combat corruption; create jobs for the teeming army of unemployed youths; uproot the rot in the education system; address the parlous security situation, to mention but a few. He will not be able to do all of these if he cannot drastically cut recurrent expenditure. Running government here must be the costliest in the whole world; even countries that are a million times richer than us do not give themselves the obscene privileges that many of our leaders have awarded unto themselves; the hues and cries and protestations of the people whom they claim to serve notwithstanding. Incidentally, the Presidential Advisory Committee, which Jonathan dissolved a fortnight ago, recommended a slim cabinet as a way of reducing the huge cost of governance; while the President agrees, he, however, was quoted as saying that it could not be done in the immediate period because there would be need for constitutional amendments. Another clear case of easier said than done!
Jonathan will have to find his way out of the labyrinth if he truly is to transform Nigeria. To start with, he must be acutely aware of the weight on his shoulders as a result of the mandate of the people in his kitty; expectations, he must be told, run high. The task of wading through the daunting challenges facing the country is now Jonathan’s; no doubt, tough decisions await him. As we celebrate 12 uninterrupted years of democracy this week, we also look forward to marking 51 years of our nationhood in another four months. These are landmarks collectively achieved by all of us as Nigerians and they call for cheers.
Bolawole is a former Editor of THE PUNCH. [email protected]