Rumours on Mr President

The announcement on Monday was what is always expected whenever our president is flown out of the country for medical check-up. Immediately the announcement was made, sensible Nigerians followed up with prayers wishing the president a successful medical trip at the same time complimenting the government for taking them into confidence on the reality of […]

The announcement on Monday was what is always expected whenever our president is flown out of the country for medical check-up. Immediately the announcement was made, sensible Nigerians followed up with prayers wishing the president a successful medical trip at the same time complimenting the government for taking them into confidence on the reality of the wellbeing of their president.

Late in the evening of Tuesday, however, the usual rumour mill went at it again when news of the purported death of the president in a Saudi hospital became high throughout the country. The rumour became the only item on the agenda of virtually all telephone conversations across the country. Some people called the rumour as a wicked crafting of those who do not wish the president and the nation well.

As a Muslim, I always knew that death is not necessarily bad news because it remains the inevitable end of every mortal. So if anyone would come up and fabricate stories of death, in my view, it only spells volume of the moral failure of the society which directly translates to the reason why our society is still backward, and despite the enormity of resources at our disposal, life is still unbearably difficult.

I believe that one of the reasons that gave rise to this deep amnesia on the health of the president is not unrelated to the very poor manner the issue was handled right from the period of electioneering up till the post-victory period.

Nigerians, for instance, have since the beginning of the presidential ambition of the president known that the man is not very healthy. That in my view is not necessarily a hindrance to the actualisation of economic or political desires. We have seen very successful leaders who piloted the affairs of their societies through effective supervision and delegated legislation despite ill-health.

In any case, even if the president is a very healthy person, it is impossible for him to run through every bit of our national items. Governance is best done through constructive engagement. We have also seen very successful empires owned by people who are not very healthy. One thing that in my view has tremendously aggravated this hostility is the very poor management of the reality of Mr President. Indisposition is a natural state and responsible people see it as such. Any person that sees indisposition as otherwise is on his own. Equally is the case with those who believe they can conceal ailments and its realities.

I don’t believe that the strategy adopted by those who manage the president is any good. It is unfortunate that their poor management has untold consequences on the wellbeing of the nation. They thought that the president’s health is a personal or family problem. They refused to take the nation into confidence so that every person would pray for his good health.

Instead, they adopted a backward approach of rebuttals when it was obvious that what the people see is believed more than that which they hear. I squarely rest all the blames of the rumours going on those few people who fail to realise that the very moment Umaru Yar’adua was declared president, he had lost his person to the nation. He lost all that which we call personal privileges in terms of views and others.

It is very painful that the nation is basically surviving on rumours in all respects. Rumour is a creation of the dearth of information. When the people are kept away from information or information is kept away from people, the result is what you have in Nigeria today. It is unfortunate that a government which we thought would be vibrant is dominated by very absurd personalities who unlike most of us have failed to outlive their village origins and still equate the national economic and political landscape with their very crude originalities.

This, more than anything else, is responsible for this very painful experience that we are forced to go through in Nigeria in several fronts among which is the management of the being of the Commander-in-Chief. May God never allow such a circle or any such similar situation to confront us again.

In the few years that are left before 2011, we implore those managing the affairs of the president to realise that they live in a dynamic world where leadership is ownership; where the free flow of information is the key to the success of governments and not this very crude perception of power and its management which has put Nigerians in very severe pains and stress over the years.

By nature, the president is an inward personality and he needs people who are outward in outlook; people who can reach to the wide constituency, but unfortunately, the reverse is the case. The president is surrounded by people from all indications who are only interested in following whatever the case may be just for the sake of primitive accumulation of wealth. They are not even interested in the glamour of power and authority as well as their attributes.

In such a scenario, the possibilities of making mistakes and bad governance are very high. This seems to be the pathetic state that the president and the nation find themselves in now. Otherwise, what is extraordinary in keeping the nation abreast of the reality of the health of our president? Do those who envelop him think he is their personal property? Or is it because they’re milking the presidential cow to the extent that they perceive anything outside their cocoon a threat to their personal ambitions?

This apparent show of shame must stop. Those who are responsible must open up, because Nigeria is not any one person’s personal estate or a territory where a sort of cult can hold the nation to ransom by doing the wrong things just because their interests are satisfied.

Definitely, the nation is in pains and we pray for the quick recovery of the president while we urge those who are inflicting this hurt on the rest of us to learn to be more public and cosmopolitan in their actions. They must break away from that rural way, which has tremendous cost on the government.