Redemption song (1)

Perhaps, the best legacy Umar Yar’adua, the gentleman Mutawale of Katsina and the president of Nigeria (2007 -2010), tried to lay for his people, was to humanise us – treat us as real human beings.  I have studied psychology and my judgments are based, not only on the obvious.  I could see in his demeanour, […]

Perhaps, the best legacy Umar Yar’adua, the gentleman Mutawale of Katsina and the president of Nigeria (2007 -2010), tried to lay for his people, was to humanise us – treat us as real human beings.  I have studied psychology and my judgments are based, not only on the obvious.  I could see in his demeanour, his body language, his actions and inactions, someone who was truly ideological and believed in treating his people fairly.  His first action in this regard was to openly accept the flaws of the elections that brought him in.  No politician does that!  But he was quickly reined in by his party.  Never do our politicians give such respect to the PEOPLE.  To most of them, Nigerians are just an unnecessary stumbling blocks in their business of looting and egomania.

The other aspects of Mutalwale’s efforts include his handling of the Niger Delta crisis in such a humane way.  This was a place where his predecessor, who has become today’s defacto ruler, unleashed maximum force on the people.  But somehow, Umar believed that the problem could be solved by talking to the boys on the creeks.  He invited them over and had a gentleman’s agreement with them.  He did not arrest them after they departed the Villa, like his predecessor, whose word is not his bond, did.  Today, despite the expectations of the worst critics, who disparaged Yar’adua’s efforts at achieving Niger Delta peace, that region is still largely calm.  Nigeria is still the better for it.

What about Yar’adua’s reversal of a 10% VAT that Obasanjo signed into law a few days before his departure?  VAT is a punitive tax that affects the common man everywhere.  Its effect translates directly into inflation across the board.  For some reason, our western advisers have been pushing for that increase.  Once again, nobody is advocating for the poor masses of this country.  But Umar tried his best.  Ditto for the last increase in fuel price which he reversed.  His predecessor increased fuel price on Nigerians, 11 times.  When we complained, he told us to go to hell.  Today, he is technically back on the saddle.  It is as if Nigerians like being treated as animals.  So we get what we deserve.

A good man is gone, but his legacy lives after him.  I predict that many years down the line, we will remember Umar for what he did in this country in his short and jerky reign.  Even though he may have suffered great pains during his brief reign, he did what warriors did; he never quit on his people.  He strategised in the shark-infested waters of global leadership.  The rest of us pointed accusing fingers at him, even though we do not know a tenth of what African leaders go through in the hands of their puppeteers.  

At least, one thing that Yar’adua did that cannot be reversed back to status quo, in addition to the resolution of the Niger Delta problem, is the banking reforms.  Even if all the sacked back MDs are reinstated and awarded the highest national honours, never again will this country go back to the era of impunity that existed before.  The public has seen the underbelly of those who ran the banks and are ready to resist cheating.  It is only because of Umar’s refusal to be in cahoots with these bankers, to accept all sorts of money from them, that he was able to approve such timely reforms and even bring in such a responsible gentleman like Lamido Sanusi, who at great risk to his life, carried out the reforms.

Each time I think of the Yar’adua saga, a song creeps through my mind and because I know that life is full of paradoxes and mirages, because I know that there is usually more than meets the eye, I am certain that Yar’adua is one of the African prophets, whom we as a largely unthinking people, have disparaged.  Our ‘leaders’ who are steeped in the art of survival, who never die in office, are mostly the ones who do nothing for their people.  They are recurring decimals.  Nigeria has them plenty, only few exceptions like Buhari and Yar’adua, go against the grain.  

Bob Marley asked in Redemption Song – “How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look… Some say it’s just a part of it, we’ve got to fulfil the books…”  He was admonishing us to look out for the few truly African prophets that are sent to us by God, and to ensure who they don’t go in vain.  In Nigeria here, we don’t even look out for the prophets, we are used to believing those who shout the loudest.  Prophets usually come in unlikely packages, we should know; but we never make the most of what God gives us.  God gives us a nice Yar’adua, who treats and talks to us like human beings, but we complain that he doesn’t possess the gift of the garb, like Barack Obama.  If we knew what he stood for, if the masses knew he was on their side and against the continuation of oppression against us, we will know that they have lost a great ally.

The part of Redemption Song that talks about ‘fulfilling the books’, refers to the fact that Africans are regarded (by some interpreters of the Holy Books), as slaves to the rest of the world, and so we should just tag along to the devices of our oppressors and resign to our fates.  Leaders like Yar’adua resist this, and try to defy the extremists who try to ram Africa deep into despondency and hopelessness.

Whatever anyone says, none will accuse Umar Yar’adua of the usual greed that beset our leaders.  He doesn’t understand the wanton accumulation of wealth like his many colleagues.  Umar has died with only one house to his name, unlike some of those who pontificate today – people like Obasanjo – who are not tired, even at 80 years, of acquiring houses and lands and all sorts of things they cannot take to hell with them.  By every means, Umar Yar’adua died the way he should – as a worthy President of this country.  He was not a self-centred, self-conceited man.  He did not hold on to the presidency because of lust for power.  His last stand, even onto death, was a protest against a great injustice done him.  I believe that Yar’adua was ‘expired’ by those who were not comfortable with his bias for the downtrodden masses.  A part of me died with this great man.  And the Machiavellians, the neo-capitalists are back, to show us some more ‘pepper’.