Shehu Shagari @ 90

The gathering of former rulers always fascinates me. Of course, they routinely do so when they are invited for the council of state meetings at Aso Rock, a time when they are called upon to weigh in with their individual and collective wisdom and clouts on a salient matter at issue, as was done recently […]

The gathering of former rulers always fascinates me. Of course, they routinely do so when they are invited for the council of state meetings at Aso Rock, a time when they are called upon to weigh in with their individual and collective wisdom and clouts on a salient matter at issue, as was done recently when they had tried to dissuade Goodluck Jonathan not to shift the date of the elections, but sadly unsuccessfully-a surprising and poignant fact that their interventions are only advisory, having no binding force upon the person seeking their inputs.   
Anyway, as I was saying, a conclave of Nigeria’s former rulers, while not awe inspiring like Roman Catholic Cardinals gathered at the Vatican to pick another Pope, nonetheless evokes an endearing sense of the wellbeing of Nigeria. There will be more on this shortly. However, on the essence of Shehu Shagari at 90, the point to make is that he has been blessed with longevity, and longevity invites reminiscences, particularly as it relates to his rule. His foray at the helms of power immediately after the long military rule between 1966-1979 was always going to be difficult, not least because democratic practices that had been long put in abeyance must now be re-learnt and the duty to steer Nigeria gingerly from the ethos of the military culture that had held sway after the collapse of the first republic to a democratic one, fell on his shoulders to nurture. At that time he was seen as not having risen up to the task, but with the passage of time and considering what Nigeria has passed through during the tenures of all those leaders who came after him, it will be surprising if Nigerians would not want to re-consider or even revise that unflattering view of his tenure.
The real reason why President Shehu Shagari’s tenure needs re-appraisal is that his was a short rule-a mere 4 year rule (a term) in a total of 8 years of 2 terms can hardly lend itself to any meaningful evaluation, particularly at that period. Now, I do not want to be misconstrued-in places where political parties espouse policies and programmes based on clear philosophies, a term of 4 years should be enough to bring about appreciable development. The then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which he headed was not actually identifiable with any such ideological platform, except of course, for a lose description of itself as subscribing to free enterprise but without the fiscal and the monetary discipline it demanded. The same malady of casting about for ill defined policies and programmes still obtains in the present dispensation which explains the stagnation and the little headway made in building prosperity.
For me, the greatest legacy of Shehu Shagari would be his comportment in power. No one conversant with that particular period of Nigeria’s tortuous history would forget so soon the calm and unperturbed disposition with which he bore the vitriolic verbal assaults on his person and government from the opposition and other critics. Another person under such barrage of abuse, caustic innuendos and the lacerating pressure his person and policies came under, would have lashed out blindly in self defence or even justification, and might even have prompted him to move against these critics and traducers through legal or other means, as was rampant during the military rule he took over from and the ones that came after him. Yet he never did that, not as much as even publicly complain that “he was about the most criticised president ever in Nigeria,” similar to the lachrymal, self pitying refrain that we hear these days.
He knew that being the president was akin to being in the kitchen; if you cannot take the heat then you have an option to walk out of the door. The job comes with being able to savour not only the limelight, the encomium when you do well, but also the brickbat and the bitter arrows of criticism should be borne when you are not doing so well. It should also be underscored that in his long period in retirement, not once has he raised his voice in bitter recrimination against those in whose hands he had suffered, which is a quintessential mark of his magnanimity and forgiving spirit. By hindsight therefore we now know his seeming unperturbed stance in the face of criticism was his own way of saying it was a cross he had to bear if freedom of speech-a cardinal ingredient of democracy had to take root and grow.
But beyond the aspect of his personal comfort in the years he was president, there is a bitter -sweet irony his enduring longevity presents, and it is that there he was surrounded by erstwhile rulers who were largely former military men who were not elected but shot themselves to power. The self same people who had berated and badgered him for not rising to the lofty challenges demanded by the high office of the presidency, now come to pay him homage in his advanced age. They were all in Sokoto to pay their respects to an elder predecessor at a task they had all once performed, to say well done sir for coming this far.  But while doing that they may well be also pondering what were all the point and the aggravation of having to unseat him in 1983 while he was president. Certainly, by hindsight any claim that it was done to institute better governance flies in the face of the results of their own administrations.
Indeed if truth be told ever since Shehu Shagari was forced to vacate power, the relative prosperity that he presided over in the early 80s has since disappeared, leaving in its wake ever -worsening social and economic situation. For example, the Naira was almost at par with the Dollar during Shehu’s time in office, at the moment the poor Naira is worth so little compared with the Dollar. Yes, many economic reasons could be adduced for the sad situation but the major one is we never got to do what should have been done. My take therefore is that one enduring lesson and value in commemorating Shagari @ 90 is the necessity of letting an elected government run its course and let the voters exercise their rights of choosing a new one if they so wish.
It is over a decade and a half now since another democratic dispensation was embarked upon, and Nigeria is at the cusp of exercising such a right, though hesitantly. Everything should be done to make the exercise go on without any hitches whatsoever and this include government resisting every temptation to use state power to trap the opposition in its many web of intrigues in order to secure an upper hand. To put it in another way, allowing appropriate democratic practices to take root and grow in the long run would serve Nigeria well as it will bring stability. Above all, it would also be a fitting respect and honour to Alhaji Shehu Shagari-an unassuming but redoubtable forerunner in this quest to institute a responsible and competent government, in his grand old age of 90