By Ayo Oyoze Baje
Anyone still blaming
the former President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration for all our current
socio-economic woes, one year after leaving office, must be wallowing in
self-deceit or simply living in fool’s paradise. Government is a continuum.
Furthermore, when a leader takes over an institution, be it public or private,
he inherits both the assets and liabilities. As he builds on the assets, he
seeks ways to mitigate the pains inflicted on the people by the liabilities.
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| *Buhari |
One sweet victory leads
to a new set of challenges. It is never a stroll in the park, nor a picnic in
paradise. The top of the ladder, as the wise ones say, is not meant for
dancing, or dithering to take decisive actions. Successful leaders find the
reasons to succeed, not giving excuses for failure.
It would, therefore, do
the spokespersons of our president a world of good to henceforth stop looking
over the shoulder and laying all the blames of the failure of the Buhari-led
government to frontally tackle and reverse the country’s dwindling economic fortunes,
on the previous administration. Political campaigns, couched with sleazy
slogans should have ended over a year ago. Now is the time for those who the
electorate invested their trust and goodwill on to roll up their sleeves and
get down to brass tasks.
After all, what is leadership all about? It is about having the vision to
identify the led majority’s most pressing challenges and mustering the
Capacity, the Character, the Courage and the Commitment to finding lasting
solutions to them. It is about engendering team spirit; working with the best
of hands and brain to deliver the so called ‘dividends of democracy’ to the
good people of Nigeria
Truth is, this
administration needs all the assistance it could get. One of such is an
economic think-tank, made of top technocrats who could read the next direction
the global productive pendulum would swing and internalise it to proffer
solutions to existing challenges. Such a group would have informed the
president on the need to focus more energy, time and resources on revamping the
tottering economy, soon after he took over the reins of governance. But one
year after, there is no crystal clear direction where the ship of the economy
is heading to.
Agreed, the drastic dip
in the price of crude oil in the international market is a clear and present
danger to the lifting our economy out of the wood. It demands creativity in
governance, for our political helmsmen to think outside the box, including the
diversification of the sources of revenue from the mono-product of oil. The
other is to drastically reduce the bloated pay package of office holders and
recurrent expenditure on running government.
While the motive for the battle against the monster of corruption is lofty,
noble and patriotic, the method employed so far has been less than salutary.
This has thrown up the fundamental questions. Is it right for the EFCC, our
anti-graft agency to arrest suspects before investigations, claiming that they
are deemed guilty until they prove their innocence? Does that not violate their
fundamental human rights? Or, for the drive to recoup campaign funds be
targeted at members of the opposition party, the PDP while their counterparts
in other political parties are treated as ‘saints’? Where then lies moral
justice? Are such funds not from the same country-Nigeria?
In fact, one is worried
that the war on corruption is seen as that of one concerned individual, Mister
President. It has not been imbibed as a national ethos – such that it is
promoted and propagated as a way of life right from our homes, through our
educational and religious institutions to our places of work. Besides, it would
do Nigerians greater benefits if the proceeds of graft, as recovered, are used
to uplift their parlous Human Development Index (HDI). Discerning Nigerians
would want the government to go beyond regaling us with the billions of naira
or is it dollars recovered from thieves of state. We have heard similar stories
in the past.
But we are yet to see
viable projects executed with the recovered Abacha loot, a decade or so after
all the media blitz. Perhaps, such could be better deployed to improving on the
epileptic power supply, creating jobs for our teeming youths, provide health
and educational facilities to the most vulnerable members of the society,
especially under-five children, the aged, widows, orphans, the homeless,
pregnant women and nursing mothers.
Also
significant is the need for governments at all levels to begin identifying the
root factors that fuel corruption and dealing with them decisively right at
their base level. Is it mass poverty, lack of protection for the honest and
hardworking civil servants, who leave service only to be denied their terminal
benefit. Or is it simple greed? What about the insidious and persisting problem
of the political class feeding fat on the national till, at the expense of the
long-suffering masses?
Nonetheless, even as we
commend the current administration on the gains made so far in battling the
Boko Haram insurgency, attempts at curtailing corruption in the public service
and reforms in the judiciary, a lot of work lies ahead. Government’s lack
lustre approach to bringing the rampaging, blood-thirsty Fulani herdsmen to
their begging knees leaves much to be desired. A power generation of 1,400 MW
for a population of some 170 million Nigerians is inexcusable. Youth employment
rate of over 23.9 % is a time bomb! Great circumspection is required to
resolving the resurgent, yet condemnable militancy in the Niger Delta region of
the country.
The best way out of our
recurring, self-inflicted, socio-political and economic challenges is the
devolution of political power from the bloated federal centre to either the six
geo-political zones or the states. If the president has not read the details of
the 2014 Confab Report, now is the time to take a break from his globe-trotting
engagements to do so, for the love of our dear country -Nigeria
*Ayo Oyoze Baje is a commentator on public issues
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