By Paul Onomuakpokpo
In their tepid search
for solutions to the current economic crisis, our political leaders are fixated
on two culprits that gnaw at the nation’s wellbeing.
It is either the past
that is chastised for not catering for its future or the militancy in the Niger
Delta that has driven oil revenue to its nadir.
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| *Buhari |
We are on the right path to economic
redemption only when we appreciate the fact that the affliction that is the
source of the recession is simply that our politics reeks of a crude conflation
of national and personal interests by political leaders. Actuated by the credo
of politics that negates national interest, politicians pursue purely selfish
goals and present them to the citizens as targeted at engendering national
transformation.
Thus no matter how
potentially workable the recommendations from the citizens for the development
of their nation, most political leaders do not have that capacity to
accommodate them. And this is why all ideas about development, no matter how
ill-bred , must come from their cronies because they would not pose any threat
to their interests. Or why have all the great proposals for the development of
the nation for over five decades not launched it into the league of the
developed?
Now that there is a
flurry of suggestions from the citizens as regards how to overcome the
recession, our leaders may only take the ones that would not threaten their
personal interests. President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to invite experts
to help him salvage the economy. Some citizens want him to invite the nation’s
best economists to proffer solutions to the economic problems. Some have even
canvassed the return of former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The former minister has already said she would not be ready to serve under the
Buhari government when she is invited as she wants other people to contribute
their own quota to development. Okonjo-Iweala may not even be an acceptable
choice having been tainted by her association with the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) when she served its government. She is still subjected to excoriation for
triggering the crisis in the first place by her feckless economic management.
But the president has not really said that he needs experts. If the president
had needed experts to run the administration with him, we would have known from
the beginning. Before the president announced his ministers, he kept the
citizens in suspense. But he did not justify the suspense as those whom he
unveiled as ministers were not the experts that the citizens expected. They
were rather recycled old politicians. It was the same attitude that he did not
need any experts, that he could single-handedly change the nation that made him
to ignore naming his economic team early.
If the president had
needed experts, we would have seen this in the choice of his kitchen cabinet.
The president filled his kitchen cabinet with his family members and friends
from Daura. As far as he is concerned, these are the people he can trust and
the issue of expertise does not arise.
Less than three years
ago, some of the nation’s leaders were drawn from all the parts of the country
to articulate how to solve its problems. These people who would normally
disagree on several issues overlooked their differences for the sake of the
nation and worked together. The result was the national conference report of 2014.
Nigerians expected Buhari to implement these recommendations. But to the shock
of the citizens, he disclosed that he would never even open the report. Does
this president need experts? Does he not know that some of the proposals that
could be given by any experts for the development of the nation are already
contained in the report?
Because the president
does not need experts to manage the country with him, he is asking for
emergency powers that would enable him to solely determine how to run the government.
After all, the president loves the country more than other citizens. As he
often reminds us, he has made so much sacrifice to preserve the unity of this
nation. Perhaps, as regards this peculiar patriotism, he has only former
President Olusegun Obasanjo to contend with. After securing the emergency
powers, Buhari is free to replace the board of the Central Bank with his wise
men from Daura.
In changing the
fortunes of the nation without causing them personal discomfort, our senators
and the president are fellow-travellers. They do not want any experts to advise
them to do away with their humongous salaries and allowances. Part-time
legislature? So why did they kill, lie and cheat to be in public office? And
because the senators do not want to make any sacrifice, they have conveniently
made suggestions to the executive to take the country out of recession.
Just last Tuesday, a
former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) , Nuhu
Ribadu, repeated a point that other citizens have kept stressing . At a lecture
during the Nigerian Institute of Management 2016 Annual Conference in Abuja
So those who think that
they have ideas about how to run the country should keep them to themselves.
Let the likes of Aliko Dangote who want Buhari to sell some of the nation’s
assets keep their proposals to themselves .The best they can do is to accept
the new mantra of change beginning with them. They can do this by not giving
any advice to the president; they just have to wait until the promised change
comes. The citizens who cannot pay their children’s school fees should keep
them at home and wait for the president’s wisdom to improve their economic
condition. And those who are complaining of hunger, if they cannot endure, they
are free to follow the path some of their fellow citizens have taken before –
swell the economic hardship-induced suicide statistics.
*Dr. Onomuakpokpo is
on the Editorial Board of The Guardian
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