By Paul Onomuakpokpo
A tragic irony that has
imperiled our collective well-being and has indeed precipitated the nation’s current
political and economic ruination is the readiness of the citizens to brook
their leaders’ dereliction of duty while still wishing that they chart an
uncommon trajectory of national development.
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| *Aisha Buhari |
We watch our leaders
loot the treasury and appropriate our national resources as the extension of
their private estates. But let some years roll by, then we suffer
collective amnesia and we launch into a revisionism that
casts national villains in the mould of heroes to whom the
citizens are eternally obliged.
If the President
Muhammadu Buhari presidency fails to break itself from floundering and is
unable to positively impact the citizens, there would still be people who would
insist that he contributed immeasurably to national development. After
all, he detained many public thieves and recovered their loot. Already,
the citizens are being told that they should be patient because the so-called
dividends of democracy can only be brought to them after the current government
has cleared the unimaginable rot left by its predecessor.
Although the camp of the supporters of Buhari is thinning out having been
disillusioned by his ineptness, the citizens who are not amenable to this
delusion of waiting for good governance to manifest but insist on evident
performance are easily branded as enemies of the positive change that is
launching the country into prosperity.
And this is why our
shock at the lack of direction and the gaudiness of the lifestyles of our
leaders at a time there is so much suffering in the land is muted. The list of
the manifestations of the hardship is endless: Workers and pensioners
have not been paid salaries for months; those who can no longer endure are
taking their own lives and children can no longer go to school .Those who
are in school abroad who can no longer pay their fees because of the foreign
exchange crisis have turned into thieves, prostitutes and beggars. But amidst
this, the children of our leaders are schooling overseas. No wonder they do not
care that teachers are not paid at home and schools are being shut down. Are
these the people we expect to think about how they would improve our education?
How many children of
Buhari are in the country’s public schools? Our public consciousness is often
jarred by the reports of how our big men like Buhari have their
children ensconced in some overseas universities. However, there is
always the ludicrous argument that Buhari is using his money to send his
children to school abroad. But this argument is rendered nugatory by the fact
that as our leader, he must clearly demonstrate his confidence in our
educational system by making his children to be part of it. Again, how did
Buhari become suddenly rich that his children are now schooling abroad? Is this
not the same Buhari who lamented that he was so poor that he could not pay for
his party’s form indicating his interest in the presidency?
Buhari’s lack of patriotism, and insensitivity to the plight of the citizens
are being aggravated by his wife. She is in the news for toting a Hermes Birkin bag
worth $105,000, which is more than N40 million in our local
currency during her trip to the United States
Just a
year ago, during the inauguration of her husband as president, she scandalised
the poor citizens who voted her husband into office by wearing an
out-of-the-way wristwatch. To be sure, no one says that the wife of the
president is doomed to wearing clothes that would only portray her as one of
the wretched of the earth. Yes, she should wear what would befit her office as
the wife of the president. But even if Mrs. Buhari made her mark in
fashionable society before, now that her husband is president, her sartorial
taste should reflect a consciousness of the difficult economic
circumstances of the citizens. More importantly, what the poor citizens want to
remember the wife of the president for is that she spoke on their behalf while
her husband was the president. She may not write a newspaper column
like Eleanor Roosevelt. But they want to remember her, like Eleanor Roosevelt,
as having spoken for human rights, children’s causes and women issues.
Forget about all the
pretentions of our leaders to work for the interest of the citizens. We must be
alert to the fact that due to the mis-governance of our leaders, we are
confronted with the danger of a replication of the post-apartheid South African
society as depicted by Zakes Mda’s in the Ways of Dying. Mda fictionalises a
South Africa
Despite the economic crisis facing Nigeria
The poor citizens who
are hungry, selling some of their children to feed their siblings who have
dropped out of school, and the other citizens who are contemplating
suicide are not impressed with whatever their leaders are wearing. They feel
that they are in an emergency and they expect their leaders to also think like
that. They expect their leaders to demonstrate a sense of urgency that is
similar to that of a medical doctor performing a surgery on a patient. Can you
imagine such a doctor being concerned with how beautiful her dressing is? Can
you imagine such a doctor being pre-occupied with the politics of 2019?
Indeed, all the
citizens expect is for their leaders to provide succour. They expect their
leaders to provide the genuine hope that though today is bleak, their future is
bright . But with the kind of leaders we have now who want to be remembered by
how much their caps strove to reach the sky and their sartorial elegance and
that of their spouses, the citizens may have to wait longer for reprieve. Or
those who cannot wait may just have to swell the data of suicides in this
turbulent economic time.
*Dr. Onomuakpokpo is a
columnist and member of the Editorial Board of The Guardian (Nigeria
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