By Emeka Alex Duru
With possible exception of Professor Kingsley Muoghalu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Pius Anyim of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and perhaps one or two other aspirants, most of those that have offered themselves for the 2023 presidency, have merely entertained Nigerians with declarations lacking in delineations. Their paths to the presidency have been slippery, if not delusional. They avoid being pinned down to specifics.
Apart from dropping the hints of their aspiration and making pilgrimages to certain individuals they consider to matter in the country’s political calculations, they have not articulated and presented to Nigerians why they want to be the president in 2023. Some, have in dodging the question, parried it to the convention night when they will be releasing their manifestoes.
Some sound hilarious and others, simply, vaguely. Senator Rochas Okorocha of All Progressives Congress (APC), likens himself to a pilot, inviting Nigerians to fly with him to no precise destination. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the party has declared that in gunning for the office, he intends to continue from where President Muhammadu Buhari stops and consolidate on his agenda. Nothing could be more ridiculous. Incidentally, that is ironically the ladder through which many leaders in the country rise to offices – sell a dummy of messiah to the incumbent to win his favour and get your way to the throne.
But it is for Nigerians to reject those antics as the journey for 2023 commences. There is no doubting the fact that the country currently faces an existentialist threat. 2023 holds a lot for the citizens. Whatever decisions Nigerians make at the polls or allow to be made for them, will go a long way in defining what becomes of the nation afterwards. The task ahead is much and requires the tact and discipline of leaders, not pretenders.
This is where the advice by foremost constitutional lawyer and member of the first set of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), Professor Ben Nwabueze, in his book, Save our constitutional democracy from emasculation, finds meaning.
Nwabueze had argued that, “At a time like we are passing through now (December 2016) when our dear country is in the choking grip of an unprecedented economic recession that threatens lots of people with death by hunger/starvation, by the non-availability or unaffordability of essential, life-saving medications and by the murderous activities of terrorists disrupting settled patterns of life of many communities, it is understandable that Nigerians should care more about saving themselves from this threat of death and far less, if at all, about saving our constitutional democracy from emasculation”.
Perhaps, more than any other time, Nwabueze’s observations are valid today. Saving the democracy from emasculation requires Nigerians to assert their rights and insist on the best. All hands should be on deck. Nigerians are like athletes with eyes on record. There is no time to wait, no room for clowns targeting the crown.
The major problem of Nigeria’s leadership recruitment process is selection and enthronement of persons without hunger for service. From President Shehu Shagari of the second republic through to Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan to Buhari, they have been leaders recruited and sold to Nigerians by shadowy interests.
In Buhari, we have seen the impact of that gross error of judgement, more. Under him, the major fault lines of the country in terms of ethnicity, insecurity, religious intolerance, clannishness and provincialism, have been exposed to frightening proportions. In all indices of national development, we have gone south.
By the latest ranking from Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Transparency International Transparency International (TI), Nigeria has dropped five places in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points and was ranked 154 out of 180 countries surveyed, pushing it back five places from the rank of 149 in 2020, indicating a losing battle against graft and other unwholesome activities. Reports from other sectors are not encouraging. Unemployment, especially among the youths, is on very high side. Inflation is sweeping at alarming rate, with standard of living falling all-time low. At the last count, Nigeria remains the poverty capital of the world. For four years running, we have shared the inglorious podium with Iraq and Afghanistan as the world’s most terrorised nations.
At no time in history had the country been this piteous in reputation and ranking, locally and abroad. It is that bad!
So, anyone coming around to say that he is on a mission to continue from where Buhari stops, does not have anything to offer. Nigerians cannot afford a repeat of the mistake of 2015 when Buhari as a candidate was shielded from the people, on grounds that he was a man of few words. That bogey of a taciturnity or a candidate with few words in which case Nigerians would not be allowed to assess if he has something to say or deliver, should be over, with the turn of events. It was that mistake that made the president grope around for six months without a cabinet. Nearly seven years after, he is yet to locate his bearing. And the country suffers.
What we need now, are men and women with the desire for leadership. They are people who understand the language of former American President, Richard Nixon, who insightfully remarked that the presidency is not a prize to be won but a job to be done. Premier of the defunct Eastern Region, Dr. Michael Iheonukara (M.I) Okpara and his Western Region counterpart, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had this understanding before assuming office, hence they excelled in their short period of governance.
Awolowo in his autobiography, Awo, explained that when his party, the Action Group, won the Western Region election in 1951, he and his team, were quite definite as to the objectives they were going to pursue both at the centre and in the region and had fairly clear ideas as to how to achieve them. A team was already assembled for the purpose even before the election.
In the East, Okapara had through conscious planning, exploited the potential in agriculture and human resources around and lifted the region from near ground zero, to the fourth fastest growing economy in Africa and British Commonwealth.
That these two great minds could accomplish these feats in time without oil wealth, shows that Nigeria can still be redeemed with the right minds in charge. What is required of the citizens is to scrutinise those presenting themselves for leadership at all levels, ask basic questions and make informed decisions.
There should not be room for politics of stomach infrastructure and bullion van democracy in 2023. There is really a lot for Nigerians in the next election. How they seize or lose the momentum, will determine what they get in return.
*DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)