This is a response to Olu Akanmu’s brilliant article entitled “Wanted a tough President” posted on the 29th December 2011 edition of the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper. I hope GEJ can act, but he seems to be overwhelmed by the negative challenges of his office! He is seemingly at ease with the grandiose and the pecuniary benefits associated with the office.
This is a response to Olu Akanmu’s brilliant article entitled “Wanted a tough President” posted on the 29th December 2011 edition of the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper. I hope GEJ can act, but he seems to be overwhelmed by the negative challenges of his office! He is seemingly at ease with the grandiose and the pecuniary benefits associated with the office.
Thought the job of the President of a country like Nigeria is an easy one and limited to: smiling at people including lazy drones, not stepping on the so-called big but cancerous toes, shaking hands with foreign dignitaries, dispensing favours to cronies, presiding and distributing the national patrimony as he deems fit, dining and wining like a glutton with N1 billion in a year, and attending international conferences where leaders from the developed nations behind his back – in a similar way that Netanyahu was mocked by the duo of Obama and Sarkozy – make mockery of him and the Black race as the best caricature of a leader that Nigeria can put forward in this challenging period.
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A leader who does not know his onions!! He should have demanded the immediate resignations of the NSA and other top security officials. Instead it is the NSA, a mere political appointee addressing the nation that the business of Nigerian security continues as usual: no need to effect any changes in the security echelon of the nation, we are on top of the situation, give us more time to perform, impossible to man everywhere in Nigeria at the same time (lame excuse – efficient security agencies never man everywhere at the same time yet they perform!), allocate more budget to security for us to play with etc. In a nutshell, these are all excuses for gross inefficiency at the highest level in which the lives and properties of Nigerian citizens are being destroyed at will by the so-called Boko Haram assassins.
What are the citizens’ expectations from the Nigerian president at this crucial juncture? A time like this demands a tough and fearless President (and not a wimp) who calls the shots and accept responsibility for his actions and inactions. One who can call the bluffs of indolent, corrupt and lecherous public officials whose bad performances continuously attract ridicule and public opprobrium to his person and the presidency? A man who does not equate toughness and fearlessness with readiness to confronting the anger and helplessness of the Nigerian masses to leadership failure and elite misbehaviour (as in the fuel subsidy withdrawal), but with his ability to confronting the menace of economic parasites in this country that continue to eat deep into the bones and marrows of the Nigerian patrimony (as in corruption). A President who is fearless of physical death, but his passionate that his nation – the sleeping pride of the Black race must wake up from slumber, excel and take its rightful position in the comity of nations. A leader whose policy thrusts are borne out of concerns and passions for alleviating the sufferings of the poor and less-privileged ones in the society.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the present crop of leadership is incompetent and clueless on how to salvage the country from the orgy of violence, criminality, nepotism and unpatriotic brigands that hold the nation to ransom. Thus, it is imperative for Nigerians from all strata, resident and in Diaspora to rise up and agree on a framework that will be sacrosanct in the election and selection of visionary and selfless leaders in the moulds of Mahatma Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello etc. that will man the affairs of this great country, stem the rot and galvanise the citizens’ energies into the rebuilding process post-GEJ. This request is a clarion call to setting up basic personal specifications and job requirements that will attract men of great honour and patriotism to public positions rather than the prevailing ones that encourage an army of looters, mediocre, criminals, religious bigots, murderers, ethnic jingoists etc. into governance.
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This becomes imperative as foreign strategic planners in business and government are currently busy mapping out their best-response and self-interest strategies to the varying political scenarios that may emerge in Nigeria post-GEJ while Nigerians are dissipating efforts on non-productive ventures. The truth is: the future of our beloved country is at stake.
Olusegun A. Oyediran, PhD
Depto. de Analisis Economico y Finanzas
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Albacete, Spain
email: [email protected]
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