Unfinished businesses before the polls

Unfortunately, in Nigeria such an exercise is not ‘ordinary’ as there are sundry angles to it that often translate into violence, deaths and grief. Painfully Nigerians are not making the forthcoming one different from its predecessors. Beyond the official level the shift means different strokes for different folks. For professional election riggers it means additional […]

Unfortunately, in Nigeria such an exercise is not ‘ordinary’ as there are sundry angles to it that often translate into violence, deaths and grief. Painfully Nigerians are not making the forthcoming one different from its predecessors.
Beyond the official level the shift means different strokes for different folks. For professional election riggers it means additional work to figure out which new strategies to adopt in compromising the integrity of the forthcoming polls. Believe it or not, while the advent of the PVC promises to change the face of polls in Nigeria, many local potentates in various parts of the country still buy off the cards from credulous constituents and hoard same preparatory for deployment during the polls. Clearly INEC needs our sympathy!
Among those whom the polls shift will impact mostly are the Valentine freaks who would stop at nothing to revel yesterday, even without respecting the nobler intentions for February 14.  All the while the polls were initially fixed for the day, they saw the enterprise as a kill-joy, and were relieved with the shift.
For some serious public businesses, especially those that were largely abandoned or trivialized until the heat of electioneering campaigns ignited renewed interest in them, the polls shift is clearly an unmasked blessing. At least the incumbents of public office under whose brief the projects fall, whether elected or appointed by elected officers, now have fresh opportunities to address them in the interest of public good.
It is easy to appreciate that not a few aspirants to public office promise heaven on earth to their constituents while contesting for election. However as soon as they ascend into office such earlier claims and promises are easily forgotten or simply ignored. Usually the earliest victims of such a syndrome are nosy journalists, those ‘busy bodies’ who keep record of such promises and intend to hold the incumbents accountable to same.
Needless to state that the promises were never intended for fulfillment but only for attracting support from the gullible elements in a designated constituency. At every subsequent election all the incumbents and aspirants do is change the dates as well as a few details with respect to the promises and launch same right back at the constituents. And another cycle of political chicanery commences.
For instance Governor of Lagos State Raji Fashola is one fine example of a public officer whose performance in the early days of his first term, cast him in saintly robes, as far as state administration in Nigeria is concerned. Inheriting the spoils from the preceding lack luster administration of Bola Tinubu, Fashola quickly set the stage for uncommon restoration of Lagos at a pace that took Lagosians and other Nigerians by surprise. Indeed soon after coming to terms with the ‘Fashola Restoration’, many Nigerians were wondering if the Constitution can be amended to give leaders like him a third chance in office to complete the good work they were doing.
Although his pace of transforming Lagos has proved difficult to sustain, he can at least return from the campaign trail of the national presidential and state gubernatorial elections for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and complete as many unfinished projects as possible before the polls and handover soon after. A typical case is the Mile 2 Badagry Expressway where work has virtually come to a standstill, with the attendant fall-outs of Lagos-style traffic hold-ups and associated crimes as well as vices.
When the Supreme Court in 2007 handed down to him on a platter of gold the governorship of the Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi was ecstatic. This much he betrayed at his swearing in ceremony and gusto which he deployed in tackling the challenges of the state which he met. Having earlier served for eight years as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly he was in aposition to appreciate the challenges first hand. Thesefeatured insecurity, the ignoble one-city state, congestion of Port Harcourt the capital city and an inchoate intra-state road network, to name a few.
Amaechi’s tenure clearly had its beautiful turns and golden spots. His landmark reforms in primary and secondary schools infrastructure, roads rehabilitation programme in Port Harcourt and his Ubima homeland are there for all to see. That was until his wilderness experience started with the break-up with his former political party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).  
Today, he is deeply engaged in poll business as the Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Orgnisationeven as there is a complement of unfinished businesses to his discredit. Beyond the restoration of the integrity of the state legislature, judiciary and the core bureaucracy other areas include physical project that cannot wait. Firstly is the Trans-Kalabari Road whose delay dispossesses the Kalabari of road link to mainland Nigeria. Another is the Bonny Bodo Road that also denies that great city the vital road link to mainland Nigeria. Thirdly is the Woji-Akpajo Road whose value as a decongestant to the strategic East-West Road cannot be over-emphasized.
The scenario of unfinished businesses in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is unique. Just as most readers value a book by its cover so is Nigeria seen from the picture of Abuja. And the true picture of Abuja does not comprise only the intimidating edifices in Maitama, Asokoro and Central Business District. Any picture of the territory that dispenses with the pallid state of the satellite towns cannot be realistic. After all out of every ten residents of the FCT nine dwell in the satellite towns.
Yet it is doubtful where the satellite towns belong in the development agenda of the minister of the FCT Senator Bala Mohammed. In case he forgets, even if he was not elected directly to office as minister, he represents by statute the President who is the de factogovernor of Abuja. Beyond the splattering of gifts of houses, cars and money to favoured recipient individuals and agencies, who often do not need such, Bala can still redeem some esteem for his failed, anti-satellite-towns administration through a refocus on these hitherto by-passed sections of the FCT.
After all nothing is too big or too small for them;that is borrowing a parlance from the growing army of Nigeria’sexecutive beggars.