January 16, 2010
How is President UmaruYar’Adua’s disappearance holding Nigeria back? Let me count 10 of the ways: Electoral Reform: Practically confirming to the international community at his inauguration in May 2007 that his own election was rigged, President Umaru Yar’Adua said: “I will set up a panel to examine the entire electoral process with a view to ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general elections, and thereby deepen our democracy.”
How is President UmaruYar’Adua’s disappearance holding Nigeria back? Let me count 10 of the ways: Electoral Reform: Practically confirming to the international community at his inauguration in May 2007 that his own election was rigged, President Umaru Yar’Adua said: “I will set up a panel to examine the entire electoral process with a view to ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general elections, and thereby deepen our democracy.”
He did. And the Mohammed Lawal Uwais Electoral Reform Committee panel submitted to him, 13 months ago, an excellent report that is capable of transforming Nigeria’s chaotic elections. But some of its key recommendations do not make for easy election rigging, and considerably diminish the manipulation of the executive branch. Yar’Adua was still playing with how to fiddle with it to his own taste when he left Aso Rock for parts unknown. The Anambra elections, next month, will be the first victim
A laughing stock abroad: On January 1, 2010, Nigeria quietly assumed a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. We had to sneak into the Council, and be careful not to cough, because the Foreign Minister did not know where the President was, or even whether he was alive.
To worsen matters, on Christmas day, one week earlier, an emotionally disturbed Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab had tried to suicide-bomb an American commercial flight, by which act he dragged Nigeria into the open at the United Nations. True, the matter was not a United Nations issue, but the absence of Nigeria’s leader in Abuja meant Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the UN was a highly-sought high-profile government official.
This is particularly important if you remember Nigeria has no substantive ambassador in Washington DC. Our former ambassador, Rtd. Brigadier-General Oluwole Rotimi, was recalled in February 2009. In September, his proposed replacement, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, was stopped at the airport on his way to the United States because of embarrassing personal problems: allegations of being a polygamist on both sides of the Atlantic, the “conversion” of another man’s children to his own, and the alleged gang-raping of women in the United States by his son. Nigeria finally found an excellent man, Professor Ade Adefuye, but he has yet to be considered by the Senate.
By the way, Nigeria will serve as the President of the Security Council next July, six months from now. It is not clear what Nigeria’s strategy would be. Other nations often take that opportunity to push specific agendas and elevate their profile but that may not pay Nigeria, given her poor international record in recent times. It may be a wiser strategy to maintain that low profile, or risk embarrassment.
Here is an example: Speaking on the situation in Afghanistan in the Council on January 6, her first statement, Ambassador Joy Ogwu said, “Nigeria is mindful that electoral contests have increasingly constituted a major challenge to the security and stability of emerging democracies. We, therefore, welcome the proposal for electoral reforms in Afghanistan. The reform should be a measure to reinforce the country’s nascent democracy as well as constitute the foundation for a sustainable political development in the country.”
Preachment such as this comes from a country that has no difficult with identifying what is right and should be undertaken…elsewhere. In the circumstances in Nigeria, contradictions of this nature could appear in droves.
The Millennium Declaration Goals (MDGs): Yar’Adua has missed the last two General Assembly meetings in New York. Next September, at the 65th GA, a High-Level event will be held to review progress in the implementation of the MDGs. In April 2009, however, Yar’Adua told The Guardian that Nigeria will not meet the objectives in several fields. It was particularly shocking that he identified two of those goals as poverty-reduction and education.
Curiously though, last September his government suddenly said it would need N4 trillion Naira per annum, between last year and 2015, to accomplish all the MDGs. Was the government getting ready to unveil a gigantic and energetic Marshall Plan” to ensure Nigeria did not lose the MDGs race? September 2010.
Electricity supply: On 23 November, just as fate was getting ready to ferry Yar’Adua across the political stream, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan declared in Kaduna that in 2010, Nigerians will have full electricity supply for business and private requirements.
It was a stunning statement, but the kind Nigerians had heard before. By the time Yar’Adua woke up in Saudi Arabia, Jonathan was holding the bag, although he did not have the strings. Still, to Jonathan fell the embarrassment two weeks ago to apologize to the nation that the government’s prior promise of 6,000 megawatts of electricity by December 2009 had not been met.
Haiti: The earthquake in Haiti has set that country back by many years. Last week, nations the world over were falling over each other to determine how to help. National leaders were calling other national leaders to made quick decisions at the highest level. Not Nigeria, the biggest black nation on earth. We were spectators where we should have been a leader, a coordinator, a commandant keeping the troops awake because there were brothers and sisters in need. But there was nobody driving the Nigerian flag into the soil in Haiti, nobody looking for the Nigerians in that country.
Vision 202020: With Yar’Adua in out of the picture, there is no longer any mention of Vision 202020. The Year 2020 is 10 years away, but with no work on the ground, it is becoming clearer it was always just a comfortable-sounding cymbal, with no content or substance.
Seven-point plan: Three years ago, Yar’Adua and his followers were quick to throw his seven-point plan all over the place as proof he knew what he was talking about. Today, the concept does not pop out of anyone’s mouth, except, perhaps, Pastor Olusegun Obasanjo, who is exporting his investments to Ethiopia, among others.
Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab: In Detroit, the United States is trying Abdulmuttalab for terrorism. Apart from the abdication of duty of President Yar’Adua, this was perhaps the most important development for Nigerians in 2009. It left Nigerians further scandalized and stereotyped abroad, with no leader to speak for them. With President Obama finding no Nigeria leader with whom he could speak, in a nation he had already indicated would find no favour with the United States if it did not curb corruption and establish good governance, Nigeria went on a new terrorist list, and Nigerians into a new ostracism that would have wives and children examined naked at airports.
Rhetoric: At Yar’Adua’s inauguration, he said: “Fellow citizens, I ask you all to march with me into the age of restoration. Let us work together to restore our time-honored values of honesty, decency, generosity, modesty, selflessness, transparency, and accountability. These fundamental values determine societies that succeed or fail…”
Very hot rhetoric: Also at that inauguration, Yar’Adua declared his intention to be something he called a “servant-leader.” He offered the following bait to Nigerians: “Let us discard the habit of low expectations of ourselves as well as of our leaders. Let us stop justifying every shortcoming with that unacceptable phrase, "the Nigerian factor," as if to be a Nigerian is to settle for less.”
That is why, two weeks ago at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, an overjoyed Obasanjo could not contain himself when journalists tried to interview him about critical national issues, including Yar’Adua and terrorism.
Obasanjo clapped repeatedly. The masterplan is flawless.
• [email protected]
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He did. And the Mohammed Lawal Uwais Electoral Reform Committee panel submitted to him, 13 months ago, an excellent report that is capable of transforming Nigeria’s chaotic elections. But some of its key recommendations do not make for easy election rigging, and considerably diminish the manipulation of the executive branch. Yar’Adua was still playing with how to fiddle with it to his own taste when he left Aso Rock for parts unknown. The Anambra elections, next month, will be the first victim
A laughing stock abroad: On January 1, 2010, Nigeria quietly assumed a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. We had to sneak into the Council, and be careful not to cough, because the Foreign Minister did not know where the President was, or even whether he was alive.
To worsen matters, on Christmas day, one week earlier, an emotionally disturbed Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab had tried to suicide-bomb an American commercial flight, by which act he dragged Nigeria into the open at the United Nations. True, the matter was not a United Nations issue, but the absence of Nigeria’s leader in Abuja meant Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the UN was a highly-sought high-profile government official.
This is particularly important if you remember Nigeria has no substantive ambassador in Washington DC. Our former ambassador, Rtd. Brigadier-General Oluwole Rotimi, was recalled in February 2009. In September, his proposed replacement, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, was stopped at the airport on his way to the United States because of embarrassing personal problems: allegations of being a polygamist on both sides of the Atlantic, the “conversion” of another man’s children to his own, and the alleged gang-raping of women in the United States by his son. Nigeria finally found an excellent man, Professor Ade Adefuye, but he has yet to be considered by the Senate.
By the way, Nigeria will serve as the President of the Security Council next July, six months from now. It is not clear what Nigeria’s strategy would be. Other nations often take that opportunity to push specific agendas and elevate their profile but that may not pay Nigeria, given her poor international record in recent times. It may be a wiser strategy to maintain that low profile, or risk embarrassment.
Here is an example: Speaking on the situation in Afghanistan in the Council on January 6, her first statement, Ambassador Joy Ogwu said, “Nigeria is mindful that electoral contests have increasingly constituted a major challenge to the security and stability of emerging democracies. We, therefore, welcome the proposal for electoral reforms in Afghanistan. The reform should be a measure to reinforce the country’s nascent democracy as well as constitute the foundation for a sustainable political development in the country.”
Preachment such as this comes from a country that has no difficult with identifying what is right and should be undertaken…elsewhere. In the circumstances in Nigeria, contradictions of this nature could appear in droves.
The Millennium Declaration Goals (MDGs): Yar’Adua has missed the last two General Assembly meetings in New York. Next September, at the 65th GA, a High-Level event will be held to review progress in the implementation of the MDGs. In April 2009, however, Yar’Adua told The Guardian that Nigeria will not meet the objectives in several fields. It was particularly shocking that he identified two of those goals as poverty-reduction and education.
Curiously though, last September his government suddenly said it would need N4 trillion Naira per annum, between last year and 2015, to accomplish all the MDGs. Was the government getting ready to unveil a gigantic and energetic Marshall Plan” to ensure Nigeria did not lose the MDGs race? September 2010.
Electricity supply: On 23 November, just as fate was getting ready to ferry Yar’Adua across the political stream, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan declared in Kaduna that in 2010, Nigerians will have full electricity supply for business and private requirements.
It was a stunning statement, but the kind Nigerians had heard before. By the time Yar’Adua woke up in Saudi Arabia, Jonathan was holding the bag, although he did not have the strings. Still, to Jonathan fell the embarrassment two weeks ago to apologize to the nation that the government’s prior promise of 6,000 megawatts of electricity by December 2009 had not been met.
Haiti: The earthquake in Haiti has set that country back by many years. Last week, nations the world over were falling over each other to determine how to help. National leaders were calling other national leaders to made quick decisions at the highest level. Not Nigeria, the biggest black nation on earth. We were spectators where we should have been a leader, a coordinator, a commandant keeping the troops awake because there were brothers and sisters in need. But there was nobody driving the Nigerian flag into the soil in Haiti, nobody looking for the Nigerians in that country.
Vision 202020: With Yar’Adua in out of the picture, there is no longer any mention of Vision 202020. The Year 2020 is 10 years away, but with no work on the ground, it is becoming clearer it was always just a comfortable-sounding cymbal, with no content or substance.
Seven-point plan: Three years ago, Yar’Adua and his followers were quick to throw his seven-point plan all over the place as proof he knew what he was talking about. Today, the concept does not pop out of anyone’s mouth, except, perhaps, Pastor Olusegun Obasanjo, who is exporting his investments to Ethiopia, among others.
Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab: In Detroit, the United States is trying Abdulmuttalab for terrorism. Apart from the abdication of duty of President Yar’Adua, this was perhaps the most important development for Nigerians in 2009. It left Nigerians further scandalized and stereotyped abroad, with no leader to speak for them. With President Obama finding no Nigeria leader with whom he could speak, in a nation he had already indicated would find no favour with the United States if it did not curb corruption and establish good governance, Nigeria went on a new terrorist list, and Nigerians into a new ostracism that would have wives and children examined naked at airports.
Rhetoric: At Yar’Adua’s inauguration, he said: “Fellow citizens, I ask you all to march with me into the age of restoration. Let us work together to restore our time-honored values of honesty, decency, generosity, modesty, selflessness, transparency, and accountability. These fundamental values determine societies that succeed or fail…”
Very hot rhetoric: Also at that inauguration, Yar’Adua declared his intention to be something he called a “servant-leader.” He offered the following bait to Nigerians: “Let us discard the habit of low expectations of ourselves as well as of our leaders. Let us stop justifying every shortcoming with that unacceptable phrase, "the Nigerian factor," as if to be a Nigerian is to settle for less.”
That is why, two weeks ago at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, an overjoyed Obasanjo could not contain himself when journalists tried to interview him about critical national issues, including Yar’Adua and terrorism.
Obasanjo clapped repeatedly. The masterplan is flawless.
• [email protected]
articleadsbanner
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