Someone has said, ‘in Nigeria there is no more breaking news because news now rings.’ We are only in 2013 and the air on the political landscape between the largest political party in Africa, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) versus the intending intimidating merger from other parties like the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) is hot. Whether the umbrella will overshadow the other 25 political parties (registered: source - http://www.inecnigeria.org/political-parties/) canopying the likes of the CPC sword and ANPP maize will be a matter of time. Various inundating comments and viewpoints are indicative of an already heated polity.
Someone has said, ‘in Nigeria there is no more breaking news because news now rings.’ We are only in 2013 and the air on the political landscape between the largest political party in Africa, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) versus the intending intimidating merger from other parties like the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) is hot. Whether the umbrella will overshadow the other 25 political parties (registered: source - http://www.inecnigeria.org/political-parties/) canopying the likes of the CPC sword and ANPP maize will be a matter of time. Various inundating comments and viewpoints are indicative of an already heated polity.
A major point to note here is the fact that not many Nigerians are interested in political ideologies or profile of political personages but what puts food on their table which explains why political tomfooleries and miscarriages of the ballot box are reoccurring decimals in our polity. Social media, especially, the social utilities, Facebook and Twitter, are recently flooded with indications of the kind of leader Nigerians are looking forward to, come 2015.
Flipping through my twitter-handle on 27 Feb. 2013, I stumbled upon some ground-breaking tweets by one Otunba Dino Melaye via @dino_melaye on, the President Nigerians would need in the next general elections. It might interest you to note that Melaye’s tweets went viral and were severally retweeted/replicated and given commentarial renditions/interpretations by many Nigerian youths who seem to be impatient with the leadership question in Nigeria.
I presume this thinker’s tweets as the product of his imagination; meaning, they are fictitious and have no resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead. Hence, events or locales are entirely coincidental yet panacea for a perplexed political entity. I am, therefore, retelling his tweets yet applying margarine where necessary. It should be noted that the writer does not know and has not met Melaye; he does not belong to any political party nor is he a politician – on contrary, as a social analyst, this essayist is a Nigerian who prefers not to pitch tent with cynicism but romances the ‘Nigerian project’ whole and entire.
Our critic starts on the kind of leader Nigerians should go for. He says, ‘do not go for the lucky man; go for the hardworking man’ insisting that ‘luck exist only with non-existing things i.e., gambling.’ He argues that ‘if a doctor treats his/her patients based on luck, the patient is dead; if an economist strategizes and postulates in luck, economy ya mutu.’
Isn’t this why the celebrated Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto diocese said at the Leadership Forum organized by the First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) with the Nigerian Leadership Initiative (NLI) last year, that all Nigerians Presidents are accidental toys wielding power without legitimacy? One commentator says, ‘don’t go for the lucky man but go for a hardworking man. Who that is, only one with beatific lenses would tell!
About being a matured intellectual, versatile and a man of distinctions, Melaye makes the point that, ‘our next President must know Nigeria. He must have the capacity, possibly speak another Nigerian language apart from his native tongue’ or possibly Pidgin. One with literate and working/practical knowledge of Nigeria or minimal urbanization. As if seeking for a person of carriage, the president ought ‘…not be camera shy’ needing a dose or ‘boaster to address the nation.’
A voice cries out: ‘We need a home boy.’ Oh yes, he says, ‘we must check the local content of our next President.’ The person must have ‘swag and style, carriage and charisma, charm and finesse, bold and courageous.’ In sum, confidence, precision and perfection!
As if moralising in hunt for a gallant warrior who is not imbecilic to social exploits, the critic said, the ‘next President must not be weak especially with women’ but one who ‘will socialise and yet not be imprisoned by a woman or more.’ Perhaps same for a woman President since what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander!
The next line of thought is about a maverick; a person who can ‘take tough decisions, step on toes and’ yet ‘not be anybody’s stooge. Being molded in the image and likeness of any political god-father or mother would certainly be an unpopular feat for anyone vying for the number one seat. Someone added, a President who can fire any minister who is incompetent and corrupt; who can deal with economic saboteurs and oil subsidy thieves.
Do we need an idealist? May be this answer will help: ‘we will need a President that will roll his sleeves to work, who will wear t-shirt when necessary not one costume and bola hat that over bloat you.’ But who are you to tell Mr. President what to wear? Doesn’t that belong to the realm of personal effects and privacy? Abegee, make I hear…
The task of being President makes one a general CEO. Yes, that is why the submission is made; ‘we need a President in 2015 that will supervise projects and not just commissioning;’ one who will take stock of abandoned projects and call the contractors to book. A cry echoes, ‘we need sure-men not show-men.’ Achebe coughs, ‘I said it long ago, ‘we have had all kinds of disasters but the greatest of them is the absence of good leadership.’ Haven’t poverty, illiteracy, insecurity, unemployment, lack of political will, bribery and corruption proved the novelist right?
Will INEC pull through? What of ballot thiefing, thuggery, Ghana-must-go connection, the flying posters, the rallies and do-or-die mentality? Where are our men and women of great ideas? Where are our entrepreneurs? Where are the makers of modern-Nigeria? What is happening to our daily oil money? Does paying millions for an interview or hiring presidential bulldogs for harmless barking help? Shall committees keep on settling committees? Who will blow the whistle for us in the dark night of the evil which has dawned upon us? Who will tackle it headlong? Who will sing ‘redemption song’?
Is the shoeless metaphor anything to go by? Ask Cyprian Ekwensi if Eze had slippers. Is it easy to walk normal if you are wearing oversized shoes especially if you never had one? Who shall make bold to turn this metaphor around and declare: ‘it will no longer be, I had no shoes but, if I can make it, everyone can make it – remember, being shoeless, could make people clueless, a twitter fan observed. Who shall unlock this mysterious puzzle called Nigeria in 2015?
Fr. Justine John DYIKUK, a Catholic priest, freelance writer/poet and Public Affairs Commentator writes from, Centre for the Study of Africa Culture and Communication, Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he is a post-graduate student in Communication Studies/Pastoral Communication!
Emails: [email protected] and [email protected]
Follow me on Tweeter: @just4realsquare
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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