Since we seem fated to
chafe under the carapace of duplicitous politicians, we are justifiably cynical
about their promises. In their desperation to get power, politicians harangue
us with these promises in varied shades. But there is often that lurking caution
that we should treat these promises as mere hallucinations of people who flay
at anything in sight to assuage their hunger for power.
Yet, how do we measure the authenticity of our
politicians if we accept as a given that politics is not a site of credibility?
How do we align with the self-immolating notion that politicians are free to
live in a world that is divorced from the reality of the rest of the citizens?
We should not rule out the possibility that it is politicians who do not want
to meet the demands of their offices but want us to take them seriously who are
the purveyors of the expectation to gloss over the tragedy of the violation of
their promises.
Thus, notwithstanding the dilettantism that
hallmarks the promises of politicians, it is necessary that they unfold before
the citizenry the agenda that actuates their quest for public office. But here,
they must not be oblivious of the need to meet the higher obligation of their
thinking through their promises and ensuring that they are the ones they can
execute. Clearly, we take cognisance of the fact that some politicians do not
make any promises. How would they tell the citizens a vision of the future they
are taking them into when they are only political neophytes who are being
imposed on the people by their godfathers? We encounter these political godsons
on the grotesque occasions that are anomalously christened campaigns where they
are spoken for by their godfathers. Not for them the need to embrace the
prospect of their potential voters swooning over a picture of a future of
plenitude they have succeeded in bringing before them during electioneering.  |
| *Atiku Abubakar |
We are riled at the ease with which President Muhammadu Buhari and his
political party have repudiated the promises they made under the banner of
change. So, it is easy to think that there is no need investing hope in the
promises of our politicians. In the dizzy days of their quest for office, they
promised restructuring and the parity of the dollar and naira . Buhari promised
that he would not belong to anybody but belong to everybody. He promised to
fight corruption in such a manner that no citizen would dare to even contemplate
sleaze of any kind in public office. But all these have been repudiated. On
Buhari’s watch, Aso Rock has been turned into a cocoon where the corrupt
luxuriate while the perceived enemies of the president and his cronies are
easily denigrated as enemies of financial probity who must be punished.
So, we may justifiably snigger at the promises
of politicians . Yet, we need such promises as an inkling into the minds of
those who have offered to lead us. We need to focus on the visions of
development those seeking the highest office in the land would bring. The
primaries and other forms of the prelude to the 2019 presidential election have
thrown up a phalanx of presidential candidates. Clearly, we can see what most
of them do not see – the stark fate of not going far in the presidential race.
Or they see but they do not bother. Since only a few Nigerians are immune to
the obsession with highfalutin titles, these ones who are doomed to aborted
journeys are probably satisfied with the prospect of being identified as
ex-presidential aspirants, or better still as ex-presidential candidates. Thus,
only Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar are considered as the two
main contenders in the coming presidential election. But we need not bother
ourselves with Buhari since we are familiar with his positions on many issues.
Atiku’s emergence seems to blur the fissures
that have been pulling the nation apart under Buhari. Even though Atiku like
Buhari is a Fulani from the north, there seems to be the notion that this fact
does not matter. There seems to be no fear that Atiku would replicate
ethno-religious bigotry the citizens have been subjected to under Buhari. So,
the citizens do not really have any problem with their fellow citizens. It is
rather Buhari who through his provincialism engendered ethnic distrust in the
country.
However, Atiku needs to assure the people of
the different regions that he has the right vision to improve their lot.
Because of Buhari’s failure to rein in Fulani herdsmen, the people of the south-east,
south-south and middle belt have been subjected to pillaging and carnage at the
hands of the herders. Their farms are being destroyed while their women and
daughters are being raped. In the Niger Delta, Buhari has failed to put in
place policies that would ensure that they benefit from their oil revenues.
Buhari has failed to clean the Ogoniland. And in the south-east, Buhari has
neglected them because they belong to the five per cent who did not vote for
him. The only time that the people of the south-east know that the government
of Buhari exists is when he sends his military operatives under the ghoulish
rubric of Operation Python Dance to kill the agitators for equity.
The south-west under the auspices of Afenifere
on Tuesday met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in order to agree on the
presidential candidate they would support. They are likely to support Atiku.
But before Afenifere, the south-west, south-east, south-south, the middle belt
and other parts of the country support Atiku, they have to ensure that he has
met some minimal conditions.
Atiku should tell the citizens what he would
do about restructuring. Clearly, Atiku has been talking about restructuring. He
has been travelling to different parts of the country to give lectures on
restructuring. So he is ready to promise to restructure the country when he
gets to office. But the issue is that Atiku needs to spell out the measures he
would deploy to prosecute his agenda of restructuring in order to make it
believable.
Atiku should also tell Nigerians how he would resolve the problem of herdsmen’
terrorism. We do not expect him to get to office and blame herdsmen’s lunacy on
vanishing Lake Chad or the influx into Nigeria
of terrorists displaced from Libya
Atiku also needs to give a blueprint for the
development of the Niger Delta. His mission should not be like that of Buhari
who would take the resources of the Niger Delta to develop his northern region
only to threaten the people of the Niger Delta with war because they are asking
for their equitable share of the revenue their oil resources have produced.
While Atiku may give his blueprints for
development and the eventual improvement of the wellbeing of the citizens, he
should go further to outline how he would realise them and be held accountable
for them. It is only after the people are sure of the sincerity and pragmatism
of Atiku’s promises that they should work for his success in the presidential
election. Or else, their support for him to become president would amount to
their giving their backs to another ogre like Buhari that would live off their
blood and torment them.
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