Although the age of Methuselah has nothing to do with the wisdom of Solomon, there is a general belief that age depicts sagacity, moral rectitude and justice. This explains why even in traditional African Communities, the elders are regarded as torchbearers of light, good morality and leadership. They play a critical role in the resolution of communal and intra communal conflict and their verdicts are usually regarded as infallible. In most traditional communities, the elders are vested with the authority to conduct a rite de passage and other initiation ceremonies to manhood.
In Nigeria, the elders are no longer playing such enviable roles hence they no longer have a monopoly of truth neither can they function as custodians of high moral values.
The elders have made futile attempts at nation building. Since 1960, the nation has witnessed cyclic instability when we have dallied with Westminster style of parliamentary democracy in the First Republic; the Ironsi junta inaugurated something like “Unitary system”; this paved the way for “diarchy” in the turbulent civil war years. Bureaucrats and political patronisers also demonise politics by instigating confusion to stifle the process of policy formulation and implementation. Government officials turned contractors populate this category. They use government offices to lobby for contracts involving stupendous sums of money and in turn give out such contract to naira giants who may not necessarily have the expertise. They mystify contract values and demonise smooth execution resulting in abandoned projects. Another very subtle category of political demons is the praise-singing group. This group comprises employable people, failed contractors and frustrated politicians who in their bid to make ends meet, engage in praise singing.
Their modus operandi is very subtle. They pour encomium on public office holders and stupefy them with their praises to get appointments or contracts. And when such people are given positions of trust, they use same to extort money and engage in political jobbery. They demonise politics by their inclination for deceit. They are behind major political intrigues and inter-party fracas. And by virtue of their subtlety, gullibility and clandestine nature of their operations, they are very difficult to identity.
The meaning of politics has not only acquired a strange connotation but it has been given very sinister interpretations by different people and in whatever way it catches their fancy. Ideological bankruptcy has remained a great obstacle to decent politics in Nigeria. In the First Republic politics was essentially devoid of ideological direction. The lack of direction led to the major ethnic groups, which gyrated at the centre and scrambled for political dominance.
The second Republic was not any better. At that time, the five political parties tried to develop, what looked like broad-based ideology. Their ideologies were however empty slogans and Eurocentric inanities that made no meaning in pragmatic terms. The political parties later turned out to be the reincarnation of the First Republic parties.
Most politicians, across party lines, mortgage their conscience and engage in a rat race to accumulate material wealth even at the expense of the pauperised masses. Self-aggrandisement is still very conspicuous in spite of the introduction of the anti-corruption bill. Position power has remained the de facto criterion for acceptance rather than popularity. Most politicians deny good conscience and shed their humane attributes for some strange veranda behavioural patterns. Vindictive politics of mudslinging and character assassination has held sway over the implementation of public policies.
Nigeria is perhaps the only country where the elected representatives behave like Lords of the manor. Elected representatives at all levels see the masses as servants who could be called upon any time rig elections and other fraudulent means to enthrone them in power as masters of their souls. Politicians no longer feel obliged to serve the people. They climb the political ladder on the shoulders of the people and having stolen the commonwealth, look back with utter disdain on the electorate.
Only a few of them discuss accountability and transparency in government in town hall meetings. Our self-inflicted poverty has continued to mow down the most vibrant percentage of our population. Zero-sum mentality has dominated the sharing of our national cake, while anomie and the pervasive morass of unemployment has driven our youth into criminality. We have ridiculed democracy for the better part of three decades. And although we have had a terrible romance with military totalitarianism, the unfolding scenario indicates that we have leant nothing.
It is not an overstatement that our politicians have demonised the game of politics to such and extent that politics is widely accepted as a dirty game. A crop of politicians who cannot solve the problems of the people cannot be said to be serious. We have spent so much money to make the anti-corruption bill, yet no public officer has been publicly indicted or brought to book under the anti-corruption bill. While the poverty alleviation programme has utterly collapsed, the perennial problem of fuel scarcity seems to have defied all solutions. And it is becoming obvious that the present civilian government is incapable of fulfilling its promises to the Nigerian people.
During the Babangida diarchy, government took duplicity to a bizarre level. Elections were conducted for about 3 times and each time the goal post was shifted. What became the crowning glory of the Babangida era was the annulment of the June 12 elections. Nigerians are always reminded of the billions of dollars of oil windfall, which has not been accounted for by the Minna Born, gap toothed retired General. Why will Nigeria implement her development agenda when the same cabal of primitive despots are still calling the shots and hobnobbing with Aso Rock. IBB has always seen politics as an investment.
Late General Sanni Abacha, the maximum ruler that succeeded him bred a handful of wolves whose specialization is hunting down all democrats while the marabouts chased away the spirit and shadow of good governance. All those who came under the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) were railroaded into exile. Abacha – the archetypal tyrant symbolized that inglorious era embarked on what may be regarded as rite de passage - that of translating from a Combat soldier to a civilian President. The Youths Earnestly Ask For Abacha Group and other fringe democratic pretenders who chorused ye to the translation programme. It was when the bespectacled General expired on the laps of Delilah. That likes of Wole Soyinka, Gen. Akinrinade, Anthony Enahoro and other NADECO Chieftains returned home. Till date, his successors have not told Nigerians the truth about how much was looted and recovered by their predecessor.
General Abdusalam who succeeded Abacha handed over power to Obasanjo, who at that time had the credentials of a democrat but ended up as a dictator and primitive accumulator. OBJ blatantly refused to appoint a Petroleum Minister until he was pressured by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to do so. OBJ used his military gusto to change the concept of accountability and transparency. He invested $16 billion in darkness, and Turned Around the Refineries to such a level that the productive capacity dropped to zero index. He then sold all choice parastatals to his cronies including the refineries. Although he used a handful of technocrats, the military man in him was manifested in the ignoble tenure elongation scheme where billions of the taxpayers’ money was frittered away; that was the scheme that lacerated the scant credibility he garnered.
The Ottah farmers crowing glory is that today, he is born again, having become a graduate of theology. Most Nigerians look forward to the time OBJ would mount the pulpit to preach repentance without restitution. ObJ and his crop of elders demonized politics, raped the economy and turned the nation into a one party dictatorship. OBJ also crippled the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under the aegis Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Today the former EFCC czar has been destroyed by the elders, dismissed from the Police and hoodwinked by those who arrested.
Another elder that has made politics look magic is Chief Tony Anenih. Given his pedigree as a former policeman, his record as a politician can better be imagined. He served as former Chairman, Board of Trustee of the PDP and Minister of Works. In his home State Edo State, he has always planted people in political offices even though most of them are mediocre. Governor Lucky Igbinedion was one of the mediocre he planted. The ex-Governor himself admitted that nothing good could come from the Uromi Chief hence he backed Comrade Adams Oshiomole. Apart from fixing the wrong people in power, he could not account for the N300 billion earmarked for road construction and rehabilitation. If we were in an enlightened society, Tony Anenih must be compelled to account, but in Nigeria even Aso Rock is filthy with corruption. Characters like Anenih will never reincarnate in China.
Nigerians have a way of compensating politicians with poor pedigree. Thus for that injustices Anenih perpetrated against the people of Edo State, he has been compensated with a plum job as Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority – one of the parastatals the ruling PDP uses as conduit pipe to amass stupendous monies to bankroll electioneering campaigns. Such elders who have shown the youths the flipside of good politicking still walk the streets free, when in other climes they should be cooling their heels in prisons. This is because we celebrate materialism and criminality, and the youths are learning fast from the godfathers.
Bode George also belongs to the colony of the morally depraved elders who have destroyed the reputation of the elders in Nigeria. It is the mindless spoliation and thievery of the elders that have contributed to the stagnation of Nigeria. Those legal practitioners pleading alocutus for the Bode George are also encouraging kleptomania. I perceive that even the Attorney General of the Federation Mr. Michael Aondoakaa is one of the people frustrating the trials. My candid opinion is that he is one of the most dangerous serving Ministers in Nigeria. If I were the President of the Body of Benchers, I would have moved for his deregistration as a lawyer or withdrawn that coveted title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Aondoakaa – Ibori’s Man Friday has not only truncated EFCC processes of crusading against high profile corruption he has been very aggressive in protecting kleptocrats.
Professor Maurice Iwu the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the superintendent of electoral malpractices in Nigeria is another bad example of the elders who has confused the electoral system. The promise of electronic voting, to the printing of ballot papers and falsification of results. The French noble man De Tocqueville stressed that true democracy calls for public participation, un-coerced voting and periodic election. In all modesty, I should like to recommend the sack of Professor Iwu before the 201I elections
Now, the elders are singing the same discordant chorus of deregulation. The same elders led by Rilwanu Lukman, Emmanuel Egboga and Odein Agumogobia is engaged in a media blitz to convince people about the benefits of deregulation. What a way to rebrand a failed nation. They are promising the same benefits we did not get since the price of petrol was increased from N17.00 in 2001 to N85.00 per litre now. A cartel of compradors have laid siege of the petroleum industry, incapacitating our refineries, collaborating with independent marketers and demonizing the down stream sector. Nikolai Lenin was not mistaken when she observed, ‘no amount of political freedom will satisfy the hungry masses’. The basis of any democracy therefore lies in the conscious attempt of the actors to translate the aspirations of the people into resolves and practical actions. A nation that deregulates in darkness, when the mass of humanity is hungry is an evil order that should be overthrown by any means necessary. Even Jesus Christ exorcised demons and cast them among the swine.
Nigerian elders have demonized politics, and raped the economy, and daily, the masses are traumatized. Nigeria is caught up in the classical debt-trap set by the Western Capitalist nations. The Nigerian economy is characterized by bad statistics: low life expectancy rate and per capita income, spiralling inflation; fluctuating receipts for crude oil sales. The elders would not allow us to diversify the economy; our refineries will not be turned around because they steal the resources to build refineries in Senegal and elsewhere because the Nigerian soil is not suitable for the building functional refineries. The elders will not fix the power sector because they are the same people importing the killer generators into the country. These Naira Goliaths have demonized politics in our fatherland.
Idumange John (MNIM, CBA), is a University Lecturer & Activist
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