Risk viewed conventionally is an observable reality that people
sprint away from as it is both covertly and overtly considered an unpleasant
situation. But contrary to this belief, Peter Drucker, a United States of
America born management consultant in his book; Managing For Result,
underscored the inescapable posture of risk-taking in human existence and
essentially classified it into four categories; the risk one must accept, the
risk one can afford to take, the risk one cannot afford to take, and the risk
one cannot afford not to take.
Indeed a virulent reality, however, from the
recent/unpleasant political and socioeconomic occurrences in the country, it
has become a barefaced truth that for Nigeria to accelerate economic
growth and make social progress, the people must use the 2019 general elections
as a vehicle to confront/correct the ‘inbuilt’ anomalies
debilitating our nationhood.No doubt, across the country, the
geographical oneness of this nation is daily threatened by poor leadership and
corruption induced failures of implementation of people-purposed projects. A
challenge that is rooted in the political player’s erroneous view of
traditional morality not having a place in political affairs as politics has
its own rules- thereby prompting many to view attainment of public office to a
personal effort and their positions not as a trust for the public good but an
opportunity for private gain. This is the greatest challenge confronting the
nation; politics devoid of morality.
And it needs not be said that formulating
rules/strategies by Nigerians that would help understand both the changes in
the larger political spheres and checkmate the activities of these ‘great
powers’ that daily scramble for the nation’s commonwealth has become a risk
that the masses must take as extraordinary conditions call for
extraordinary solutions. Nigerians need a renewed emphasis to
honestly admit certain things and get rid of certain myths. And I think we
face one of those moments- the recent call by Nnamdi Kanu to the members of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to stay aloof/boycott the forthcoming 2019
general elections in the country except the Federal Government grants a
referendum to Biafra .
Without minding what others may say, the
tendency to ignore the contributions of Ndi Igbo to the economic development of
this nation and stripe it of its enviable achievements is as old as ‘the
earliest history book and as contemporary as the morning’s newspapers’ But that
notwithstanding, the wisdom behind Kanu’s suggestion to his members and
the ndi-gbo by extension is not only distasteful but vague, variable
and ungraspable for so many reasons.
For instance, as argued by Nigerians with
critical minds, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu the founding leader of the
secessionist Biafra, before his demise contested the presidential
election of 2003 of which he could and have been president of Nigeria had it
been he won, building on that democratic effort, and harnessing the gains to
address the injustices confronting the region should be the civil step
expected of Kanu.
Again, having the nation restructured has no
doubt become a campaign so vital, but if Kanu has ethnic/tribal resemblance
with Jews as he claims, he should have learned from history that human progress
has never been ‘automatic or without persistent effort and sacrifice’ as wisdom
borne from experience pointed out that the Jews progressed because they
possessed a tradition of education combined with social and political action.
And in uniting social actions with educational competence, Jews became
enormously effective in political life.
Thankfully, it is factually documented that
‘millions of Jews for half a century remained relatively poor but they were far
from passive in the social and political arena. They lived in homes in which
politics was a household word. They were deeply involved in radical parties,
liberal parties and conservative parties- they formed many of them. Very few
Jews sank into despair and escapism even when discrimination assailed the
spirit and corroded initiatives. Their life raft in the sea of discouragement
was social and political action’.
Very instructive, one point Nigerians must
not fail to remember is that the nation currently calls for a departure from
the old order. And a decision not to participate actively in the forthcoming
2019 general elections will translate to supporting the excruciating pains
Nigerian workers currently face as government across the nation continue to
deprive them of legitimately earned salaries and pensions.
Not voting the right Nigerians will
continually present our hospitals (whether the state or Federal government
owned) as an absolute death centre where people go to die rather than
to be healed while leaving governance in the country as a programme that is
neither system nor strategy based.
Further amplifying why Nigerians should take
the responsibility of voting the right people in the forthcoming election as a
risk they must take is the recent remark credited to Ambassador
Tibor Nagy, Assistant Secretary of state for the Bureau of Africa
Affairs., United state of America Africa stated thus;
‘The corruption is so endemic in so many
countries that it really will require a generational shift to literally wrench
it out of the systems. That is one of my biggest hopes with the young people
coming up because I have met so many young people in Africa, everywhere—every
single country—who are just sick and tired of what the older generation, people
my age and even older, have been tolerating. No amount of program is going to
address and eliminate corruption. It has to be a total cultural change from the
leadership to the bureaucrats to the policemen on the street’,
From the above, it has become important that
Nigerians take into cognizance that the formula for the nation coming out
of the present political/socioeconomic wood will not be based on electoral
boycott, passivity or argument/debate but by the quality of Nigerians to be
elected that are gifted with integrity, intellect, energy, drive and new ideas
crucial to transform/ create a civil society where the irresponsible will be
sorted from the responsible.
To achieve this, Nigerians must resist every
attempt to further the division in our country, uphold the basic universal
values of rights from which the right to peace is fundamental. They must not
allow themselves to be used by the disgruntled elements to foment trouble and
wreak havoc because of election nor have their votes sold for whatever reason.
*Jerome-Mario Utomi is a Lagos
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