PENDULUM BY DELE MOMODU
Fellow Nigerians, I’m content to be back again yet again with my political examination but I have to promptly alert that I have but a further damaging prediction to make and it is very straightforward Nigeria is not very likely to select and elect a fantastic and capable President in 2023, if the nation continues to be intact. I am no for a longer period absolutely sure that Nigeria will stay one peaceful and indivisible region by then, particularly if things carry on the way they are, and this administration is engendering, fostering and festering the cracks and divisions. I know that many people today would argue that the complications of Nigeria are not about a single man or girl, and so electing a good and skilled President is not a sine qua non for our existence and advancement. Nevertheless, I wish to disagree vehemently. The incurable optimists and jejune analysts are probable to convey to you that our worries are institutional and not private but that is not wholly accurate, as I will explain in a jiffy.
It is my private belief, obtained from empirical evidence, that every dilemma and resolution start out and finish with the chief at the very prime, particularly sturdy leaders like President Muhammadu Buhari who is nearly the law unto himself, and unto us. The Buhari government has so significantly affect on other arms of federal government such that it can get absent with nearly nearly anything, possibly favourable or adverse. In spite of the a great deal-vaunted constitutional separation of powers, an autocratic and dictatorial character like this will normally ride roughshod about all the safeguards and retain that it is both his way or the freeway! Unfortunately, accurate to its antecedents, this omnipotent federal government of Buhari has blatantly refused to deploy this humongous power to the fantastic and progressive use and gain of Nigeria and Nigerians.
The day Nigerians triumph in electing a pretty capable President, that would be it as considerably as I am concerned. So, what are the impediments militating towards electing that excellent President, who I will anxiety as soon as all over again will need not be a saint?
A single, I’m not sure Nigerians truly know the attributes of a great chief. I’m just about particular if we see a genuine Messiah, we’ll be fast paced arguing until he disappears eternally into oblivion. Some will say he should be a saint. That’s what led us to Buhari who we clothed in the toga of an Angel and apotheosised for fantastic evaluate. Other people will say, he ought to appear from a single particular location or faith. Numerous will say that he is much too younger and inexperienced, or that he has no funds. The saddest portion would be that most of the youths clamouring for a chief of their personal would never ever kind a consensus about who from their technology they really should again. Instead, they would all hanker following the identical situation and, consequently, dissipate their power and possibilities. It is so tragic. Let me get this possibility to go down memory lane and use my 2011 Presidential bid as a circumstance research.
When I presented myself in 2011, quite a few individuals I understood claimed “Dele will have to be kidding! Does he consider the Nigerian Presidency is like the Ovation journal he operates? How significantly has he got to invest?” But they have been correct and completely wrong. Nevertheless I did not have federal government expertise, it is not a obligatory prerequisite to staying a President in Nigeria or somewhere else else. The truth is that in a country like Nigeria one miracles what encounter our leaders have to proffer the persons. For the most part it is the very same expertise in failure, corruption, incompetence and ineptitude. Examples abound in other international locations about all those persons who became Presidents without the need of being occupation politicians. They experienced distinguished themselves in other spheres of human endeavours and have been normally imbued with leadership skills. Barrack Obama was almost a rookie in politics when he tried out his luck as American President. Donald Trump was significantly even worse, possessing in no way been a politician at all but much more of a truth star who had utilized the prospect to convert all over his ailing organizations. He became particularly controversial from the outset of his political marketing campaign but he was able to defeat some of the most important political equipment in The united states.
I was largely influenced by Obama. I was convinced I experienced the academic track record, organization knowledge and acumen to regulate methods, backed by world-wide contacts and publicity. I believed in myself, as Abiola continually preached to us the two in enterprise and politics, and I felt that I had the carriage and charisma, the temperament, the tolerance and detribalized natture, the caring attitude, the braveness, the vision, the resilience and tenacity to choose on the daunting challenge and aims I had set for myself. I had no question that I experienced the capacity to direct a multi-ethnic and multi-spiritual country these as ours. Further than these attributes, I was ready to do what most of our leaders really don’t stress about doing, create a apparent ideology and philosophy for my motion. A nation as poor and impoverished as Nigeria need to operate on the ideas of welfarism. No state can practice rabid capitalism without having money, and absolutely not without having pondering of catering for the bigger will-becoming and welfare of the teeming masses. Nigeria is too poverty-stricken and afflicted by mass ignorance to keep on to operate an outlandishly profligate variant of democracy, that is even alien to those people who released us to democratic concepts and ideals. A sensible, successful and successful leader need to urgently and moderately perform with other stakeholders to restructure the country politically, economically and socially.
I produced strenuous endeavours to backlink up with some associates of the British Labour Get together in London. They were being heading to collaborate with us on welfare guidelines, especially in the areas of poverty alleviation, schooling, national wellbeing insurance policy, housing, transportation and agriculture. However, the Labour Occasion back again house in Nigeria had no appropriate one-way links to the labour unions. It was labour in nomenclature only and did not actually tap into the stupendous property that the labour unions in Nigeria have to provide in terms of numbers, organisation and economic may well.
The Labour Functions of the British isles and Nigeria were similar in appellation but that is wherever the similarity ended. The Events were being surely not at tandem or comparable in basic principle or coverage. In truth, the Nigerian Labour Occasion was at finest a creature of instances and happenstances. I acquired pissed off and headed to what I normally like to explain as GANI FAWEHINMI’s social gathering, the Countrywide Conscience Celebration. It is unhappy and unlucky that Nigeria is governed devoid of any clear technological template. Each chief procedures ruthlessly and whimsically. Booby-traps are meticulously and rigorously laid for perceived enemies of governing administration. It is a variety of relay race in which batons of wickedness, ignorance, mediocrity and backwardness are exchanged remorselessly and ceaselessly. Of program, my consequence was totally predictable in these kinds of a caricature of democratic will and theory.
Two, the uninformed electorates. Most Nigerians never know how terrible the circumstance is. You only will need to vacation to some remote components of the region to see and comprehend the magnitude of the problem. The poorest of the poor flip out to be the worst fanatics of these inept and visionless leaders. They accept and savour no matter what crumbs are thrown at them periodically from the lofty heights that the charlatans have manipulated by themselves into. Considering that a guy who’s down fears no drop and feels very little good can ever happen to him, the lumpen proletariat cannot see anything at all wrong with the pittance getting provided to them to provide their respective souls and long run.
Three, the media as the fourth estate of the realm is also culpable in this grand conspiracy in opposition to good candidates. My experience was extraordinary. I discovered the unbelievable. Journalists really look down on on their own. We feel to lack self-esteem. Despite my personalized successes (I’m not getting immodest) and global model, my colleagues were not ready to market me as a credible substitute to the other contestants. They had been delighted to force others onto the front webpage but not 1 of their personal. I made uncountable media rounds and visits, leaving absolutely nothing to opportunity, but satisfied brick partitions in most newsrooms, which was my organic constituency.
Until currently, I struggle to fathom the rationale for their mind-set. Some say that it was simple envy or jealousy. Other individuals suggest that it is a trait synonymous with the oppressed who simply cannot see past their noses and slavishly and sycophantically abide by their oppressor. Unfamiliar to most of my good friends, if a Dele Momodu was not certified to guide Nigeria, it may be an impossibility for any of them to climb that Herculean height even within their career. Most likely, quite a few of them lacked a feeling of historical past. Many of our Nationalists had just one type of journalism stint or the other, Herbert Macauley, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro, Ernest Okoli, Samuel Ladoke Akintola and even Ooni Sir Adesoji Aderemi whose newspaper was the forerunner to the Nigerian Tribune of right now and other folks. So, I typically questioned when journalists turned dregs of the society that they can no for a longer time aspire to the greatness that their predecessors attained.
4, The Godfathers in Nigeria barely contemplate non career politicians. They normally go for difficult core politicians and armed service chieftains who are in fact almost certainly much better politicians with out a civilian garb. Following observing, and later reading through, previous President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s job interview final 7 days, I pray associates of the privilegentsia will be inclined and all set to throw their bodyweight behind international champions alternatively of the regular lacklustre candidates. Nigeria is also richly blessed to keep on to throw up those who have not attained considerably at home and abroad. I know some individuals who don’t know how Nigeria will work might want to dismiss The Godfathers as inconsequential, I won’t join them. They may possibly not be able to give you votes in common elections but they have the potential to identify the candidates at the best bash levels. In effect they direct the voter’s brain and alternative by putting only their have candidates as the alternate options from which the people today are to choose. To me, that is the best voting card. The joker in the pack!
There are quite a few vested interests in who turns into the up coming President of Nigeria.. The ex-navy Generals are correct at the major of the pyramid. You can’t ignore the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, former military services Generals Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo (the longest serving chief), Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi, Theophilus Danjuma, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, Alani Ipoola Akinrinade, David Jemibewon, and many others. There are also very influential and powerful standard rulers together with the Sultan, the Ooni, The Alaafin, Emirs, Obas, Obis and Amayanabos amongst other individuals. It is a testament to the energy and influence of the conventional rulers that authorities falls back again to them at the very first trace of main crisis which include, insecurity and social upheaval. The Captains of Market would usually want someone who can protect their small business interests. They are pretty important to the emergence of candidates of equally foremost political parties. Candidates want tonnes of money and Nigeria is not nevertheless a country where by you can depend on regular people generating significant donations. In this class, no candidate no subject how saintly can overlook the Dangotes, Adenugas, Elumelus, Rabius, Ovias, Otedolas, Alakijas, Adebutus, Otedolas, Sayyu Dantatas, Okoyas, Bola Shagayas, and quite a few of the massive personages and corporations operating in Nigeria. Religious Organisations are not remaining out. Apart from generating mega bucks, they wield massive influence on their associates. They include the Imams, the Adeboyes, Oyedepos, Olukoyas, Kumuyis, Esther Ajayis, Tunde Bakares, Paul Adefarasins, Tony Rapus, Agu Irukwus, and so lots of some others. Bear in mind, politics is a match of quantities, so they are all adding up.
Five, you will have to component in INEC, the armed forces, solution companies, judiciary. I can confidently verify that none of them is genuinely impartial. Lastly, I undertaking to say that as a make a difference of actuality, the hoodlums, thugs and miscreants have turn out to be incredibly influential in Nigeria, powerfully emboldened by our determined and despicable politicians. Based on the federal government of the day, the stability forces are not able to arrest any individual when the gangsters go on rampage.
6, our celebrities, social media influencers and bloggers are expected to impact who to vote for, but they frequently choose to assistance the authorities of the day, keep aloof or even go for awoof from the optimum bidder. It is these types of a disgrace how superstars waste their remarkable acceptance on worthless candidates.
7, the significant Brothers are lurking all-around someplace. These are the overseas powers who are in Africa to mint money and exploit assets where by achievable and out there. Really do not let any person idiot you that their curiosity is altruistic or in any way noble. They like most folks are in it for what they can seize! No make any difference how significantly they sermonise about Democracy, the economic pursuits of their international locations keep on being paramount and irrevocable. They will hardly ever help a sizzling-headed prospect who will rock the boat. They are extra potent than all our leaders place alongside one another. Overlook them at your own peril.
There is so considerably to create but small room. I shall be back…