There are professional politicians in Nigeria, whose morbid preoccupation is with how to become President. This alluring obsession with power is insatiable and ill-defined.
From our political history the following facts prove that Nigerian politicians have succeeded in deceiving the people not some of the time, but all the time. This has been made possible by the prevailing ethos of docility and the acceptance of leaders, who cajole the political space with the singular ambition to be President. The painful part of the story about presidential pursuits in Nigeria is that no sooner the person becomes President than he begins to focus, not on good governance but on how to be President in the distant future. They get away with it because wehave a population that is totally indifferent to the primitive political culture that has prevailed in Nigeria since 1960.
Who are the political aspirants? These are people, who benefited from the corruption of the past years and so, have the means to play presidential politics. So, as it was in the beginning is now and so shall it be, world without end. They inflict on us their presidential ambition, till time indefinite, but can they deliver? Have they delivered in the past?
In 1980, the lying tongues in government declared that there would houses for the people, education would be free for all, therewould be food for all, health-care for all, by the year 2000. The same lying tongues in government declared that all the above would be available by the year 2010. Then, the lying tongues in government said that there will be Nirvana in Nigeria by 2020-20.
Today, the impossibility of this wild policy is plain. Government sources are harping on the fact that this is another lie.
Dr. Samsudeen Usman, who has served in ministerial capacities, which permitted hopes that he was sure in his20-2020 judgment and predictions, has reneged on the vision, now an illusion.
We are in the tricky hands of mavericks, who take the people for rides, while they swim in corrupt practices. The people are hard-put but who cares?
. Next time, we shall be told that we could not make the 25th category because our ingenuity failed.
The Ministers’ excuses were lame, incoherent and surprising. If he had made the permutation and erred, he could have been forgiven, but he seemed to have relied on the predictions of foreign-based institutions.
He is just realizing that the military did not plan. The military could not have planned because that was not their priority. They took decisions in a hurry that benefited them. The Planning Ministry has also not been planning!
The Federal Government has long been on its way to fix the electricity failure. Agreements on trade signed with other states should have been made available to the Chambers of Commerce andnot be locked up in the vaults of the Ministries concerned.
I had hoped that with people like Usman in government, things could turn around. I have lost the last once of hope I had.
Both the PDP National Publicity Secretary and the CBN Governor did not prescribe solutions to the state of the nation and its economy. Repeating old clichés and blaming every other persons or institutions do not go far enough. Where are we headed?
With virtually two years to go, we do not seem to have advanced the national political agenda. Yet, there are deafening noises about 2015.
Conflicts are caused by poor governance, which in turn results in radicalization and armed struggle.
Some have paid lip service to youth unemployment, but they neglect the fact that the fall in the quality of education in Nigeria produces unemployable young and this has resulted in poor performance, which leaves employers no alternative but to sack incompetent staff. Government does not sack incompetent staff. They are tolerated.
§ Incompetence, corruption, lack of proper judgment in statecraft are all part of the reasons for our stagnation and backwardness
§ Things do not change in our country because there are qualified Nigerians, who do not subscribe to public debates nor criticize the rot, which they know exist because they hope to be appointed to Committees when the bubble busts. They turn up at every Committee to offer inane suggestions that do not touch upon the origin of the crisis, whichis often the consequences of wrong decisions or bad governance.
§ For example, are you remunerating ex-leaders for poor governance, while those, who carried the burden of the Federal Republic hardlyreceive their pensions, which officials embezzle with impunity?
§ What rule of law punishes the marginalized under class but deals mercifully with pen robbers?
§ Legal practice is such that lawyers have no room for public interest engagements.
§ Who are the non-performing leaders? Who put them there? There is some hypocrisy afloat. By whose standard of values do we judge non-performance?
§ Nigerians need to meet in National Dialogues to fashion out our way forward. A stitch in time, they say saves nine. Had we known is a foolish man’s apology.
§ Nigerian leaders have turned away their hearts from righteous living and have embraced vessels of gold and silver, which no man teeth away. So, why the blind acquisition drive?
§ those, who have had the opportunity to create good conditions of life for the sons and daughters of God but turned to greedy ways will be remembered for their failures till time indefinite and their rebuke will last forever.
§ For God is not mocked. What nations and people sow, they shall reap here and in the hereafter. So, what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world
and suffers the loss of his own soul?
The floods will continue to overflow the citadels of evil, where God is not glorified. The winds will continue to sweep the covens of the wicked. The kingdoms of darkness will continue to collapse. The reign of terror will cease. The deep will swallow up the workers of iniquity. LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED that they see not; and make their loins shake continually. Let the song of the drunkard by silenced. Let their habitation be desolate. Oh Lord of all creation do not allow your enemies to destroy the human race with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that are in the arsenals of states.
Lord frustrate their knavery and establish the universality of your reign on Earth.
All those, who create troubles for social humans on Earth, add iniquity to their iniquity and let them not come into your righteousness. Pour out your indignation upon them and let your wrathful anger take hold upon them. (Psalms of David)
Break the oppressor’s designs and give us peace.
1 comment
This is very incisive.