Finally, 2014, the year we so prayed hard and wished to witness is here with us. To God be the glory. This is the year most Nigerians, especially politicians have long talked about and anxiously waited for it to come. According to them, 2014 is the ideal time to measure Nigeria's political temperature, assess the state of the nation, reconcile feuding elements, roll out political plans, mend dilapidated political fences, reunite with foes, write more letters, bluntly deny some of the letters as well as make their positions known to Nigerians.
Finally, 2014, the year we so prayed hard and wished to witness is here with us. To God be the glory. This is the year most Nigerians, especially politicians have long talked about and anxiously waited for it to come. According to them, 2014 is the ideal time to measure Nigeria's political temperature, assess the state of the nation, reconcile feuding elements, roll out political plans, mend dilapidated political fences, reunite with foes, write more letters, bluntly deny some of the letters as well as make their positions known to Nigerians.
An average Nigerian politician thinks of the next election the very day he is sworn into office. He thinks of how to retain his seat in future elections. Good governance or how to deliver on his campaign promises is usually relegated to the background. Already, signs of political events to witness in 2014 and 2015 are very obvious to see. Without doubts, political activities would reach its crescendo. We shall play host to actual contenders and pretenders to various elective offices. In all of these, it is the faith of an average Nigerian whose daily living, food, security, health and existence are largely dependent on the quality of governance that remains uncertain. And that is what this piece is out to address.
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The kind of political intrigues we witnessed towards the end of 2013 is a pointer to what our politicians have in store for us in 2014. Expectedly, more daring and provocative letters with inflammable contents would be written. We shall equally record more denials and counter denials. Governance would become a secondary business, politics and politicking would take centre sage. Government offices would be deserted. Attention would shift to party secretariats.
We shall witness more nocturnal political meetings between feuding party members. We shall record more defections, to and from PDP. Political permutations, political alignments and realignments would reach feverish pitch. More spurious contracts would be awarded to government cronies while previous ones will be abandoned to be re-awarded in the future. This is how things are usually done in this part of the globe. What is of utmost importance to leaders across all levels of government is not how to end polio, it is not how to build more basic infrastructure, it is not how to put food on the perennially empty table of poor Nigerians, it is not how to provide jobs for varsity undergraduates roaming our streets across the country. It is simply about how to be re-elected in 2015 against seen and unseen odds. This is how bad things have gone in Nigeria, especially at the federal level where all that matters is the Dr Jonathan Must Return project. Already, plans on how to achieve that are daily being reeled out. Substantial funds needed to actualize the plan are readily available.
It is a done deal. Already, the strategists, gamers, liars, fixers, blackmailers and bootlickers needed to return Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to power have been identified and about to be settled! Let me not bore you with the names of these potential strategists, fixers and gamers. Even a toddler doesn’t require any guide to name such elements. They call themselves politicians, party chieftains, stalwarts or bigwigs even though they have never contested any election in their entire life, not even a Class Rep election way back on campus. They truly don’t know the pains, misery, sadness and disappointment associated with losing elections. This is why they conspire with their paymasters to rob actual winners of their victories.
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Fellow Nigerians, I’m so sorry to disappoint you. Without doubts, I know your expectations from government are many. Ideally, citizens expect their leaders to roll out yearly plans to make life more comfortable for them. But in your interest, perish the thoughts of expecting anything with a semblance of dividends of democracy from this present crop of leaders. No, 2013 was the appropriate year to expect anything good from our leaders holding different elective or appointive positions. Whatever they hand out to you now is just to win you over to their camps. All legitimate government activities have been suspended. What matters to them is how to clear their rough and thorny paths to power. What they stand to gain come 2015 is their utmost concern. Forget those dilapidated classroom structures in Kwande, Benue state. Even the collapsed bridge that linked Wukari in Taraba and Benue state can wait till 2015. Once elections are conducted and manipulatively won, contracts for the projects will be awarded. The Suleja-Minna-Kotongora Federal Highway awarded by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua administration in 2009 is far from being completed. The snail speed at which the work is carried out is typical of President Jonathan’s unimpressive, lackluster and uninspiring leadership style.
Even those in the opposition are not helping matters. Instead of offering qualitative options or roll out probable solutions to our woes, all they engage in is petty and narrow-minded politics. We expect those in the opposition to tell Nigerians why they deserve to be voted into power come 2015. It is not enough to call those in the PDP thieves, election riggers, clueless or visionless politicians. It is about offering better and reasonable options. Responsible and responsive opposition politics is about offering the people hope where none exist. It is largely about holding the government in power accountable to the people. It is about ensuring that profligacy, nepotism, red-tape, corruption and other harmful practices detrimental to a nation’s life are avoided. Regrettably, all the opposition party does is to constantly take the President and his cabinet members to the cleaners or engage them in needless war of words. Where is the place of insult-free, rancor-free, people and issue-based opposition politics?
I am yet to see any convincing reason to differentiate the All Progressives Congress from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. No! I mean capital NO. They are no clear-cut differences between both parties. Regular press statements from their Publicity Secretaries are laced with provocative, malicious, abusive and rancorous lines capable of igniting war. It is either the PDP is accusing the APC of perfecting plans to Islamise Nigeria by 2015 or the APC is screaming against PDP’s flying of ethnic kite. Both parties have continued to heat up the polity for mainly selfish and personal reasons. The occasional inter and intra-party squabbles we read about in the newspapers are not on how to provide basic infrastructure in our communities or make life a bit meaningful for an average Nigerian. It is about the next election. It is basically on how they want to remain relevant even when they have outlived their political usefulness. An average Nigerian politician sees politics as a career. He pegs his entire life and activities on politics. This largely account for why they often end up badly broke when out of office. Politics should be about service to humanity and not an avenue to amass wealth with reckless abandon. Until our politicians see politics from the prism of service, and not as a route to becoming wealthy, we would continue to grope in the dark.
We have some strong lessons to learn from the daily activities of our politicians. The raging issue threatening the fragile soul of the PDP is just how to ensure that President Jonathan is returned to Aso Rock either by hook or crook. The intra-party crisis is not peculiar to PDP alone, even the newly registered APC is battling hard to calm frayed nerves across its state chapters. In Kano for instance, former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau is not ready to recognize incumbent governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who recently defected to the APC as the party’s leader in the state. Same thing is witnessed between incumbent Aliyu Magartakarda Wamakko of Sokoto state and his predecessor, Attahiru Bararawa. So, honestly speaking, the rising political feud among party members is mainly about themselves and how to hold major stakes within their parties. It is high time we realized this game plan and speak truth to power.
As it stands now, political gladiators and opportunists are dusting their uninspiring political credentials ahead of 2015. More retired army generals and former high-ranking civil servants are carefully watching from the sidelines with rapt attention before casting their political nets. Also, civil society groups, pressure groups, faith-based bodies and youth organizations are perfecting plans to outdo each other in the game of lobbying and praise-singing. They all want to have their own share of the election bounty. Also, media practitioners are not left out. Already, billions have been set aside to pay writers of jaundiced and puerile opinions in support of aspiring politicians. Things are gradually beginning to unfold. In due season we shall all become witnesses to what these leaders think of you and I. In their warped thinking, you and I are morons, cowards and people with no mind of their own. Let us prove them wrong this time around by refusing to listen to their uninspiring tales.
Genuine media practitioners and other critical stakeholders in the Nigerian project have serious roles to play in ensuring that greedy and incompetent politicians are identified early and voted out during the 2015 elections. Those with less than average performance record should also be spotted and voted against. Nigeria is too great a country to be left In the hands of political marauders, opportunists and narrow-minded individuals. God bless Nigeria.
Abdullahi Yunusa wrote in from Imane in Kogi state. [email protected]
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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