Nigeria: A Change to Disbelieve In

Joseph Rotimi

The current political leadership of Nigeria campaigned with an air of feigned respectability, change and a somewhat arrogant sense of inevitability. Before the elections, some members of the current ruling party and other leaders of thought opined that if the erstwhile President of Nigeria [Jonathan] gets re-elected the country would disintegrate.

But for more than half a year, we are still marking time where PMB met us. In a previous post, I pointed out that a lot of noise and activities would mark Buhari’s tenure but at the end, little would change. This is because it is easy to display motion and emotion [Buhari’s body language] without progress in Nigeria, especially if you are the ‘right’ leader.

Many contributors have written on the vexed issue of national integration and the structural defects that were coterminous with the birth of the nation. Yet, more than five decades on, we have deliberately failed to address why we seem to live like stone-age men in a century that has seen men going to the moon.

Buhari cannot save or change Nigeria in its present form. Even if he succeeds in his anti-corruption crusade – a very doubtful prospect, what happens when he lives the stage? Every leader in Nigeria seems to have a theme or program while in office that often become a smokescreen for dealing with perceived enemies and maintain power. Anti-corruption would only work within the crucible of enduring institutions that promote justice and equity: a country where everyone matters and have equal opportunities coupled with rights for self-fulfillment.

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What sane men and women would consider corruption in other climes is seen as a right or privilege in Nigeria – just try getting any service from government offices across Nigeria. Government is seen as a distant, irritating, unchallenging, unresponsive but sometimes benevolent entity to be scammed or ignored without any fear of consequence.

I do not buy into the hullabaloo about PMB’s incorruptibility, integrity and antecedent. This is because corruption is not limited to not taking bribes or stealing the commonwealth blind. Incorruptibility challenges you to identifying, and limiting corrupting influences no matter how existentially close they are. In PMB’s case, painting Abacha a saint, or hobnobbing with former disgruntled but corrupt PDP members, or giving known protégés [Jafaru Isa] soft landing with the EFCC doesn’t exactly sound right.

The current spate of arresting corrupt former PDP acolytes of the Jonathan government might be a necessary step in fighting corruption. But Nigerians understand that corruption and corrupting influences are attributable to Nigeria’s structural defect and the ungodly ‘trickle-down paradigm’ of our socio-political milieu – and this goes beyond Jonathan.

The average Nigerian neither understands nor appreciates what human or civil rights mean. We live in abject desperation and think only of survival. Coupled with a fatalistic psycho-religious depression, Nigerians have become a believing people, who are fearful of knowledge and the truth. The politrikcians understand that Nigerians would not hold them to their promises nor challenge them, because in essence, there is really no Nigeria, only a group of people known [for convenience] as Nigerians. When a family that can afford rice [Nigeria’s staple] only once in a couple of months is suddenly saddled with a whole bag, cooking oil, salt and some money to boot, they would do anything for their candidate – no be to just thumb print?

The imperial nature of our presidency directly encourages impunity, personality cults and insulation from the realities affecting common people. It gives the president the ability to detain without charges, flout court orders or submit and withdraw budget documents to the national assembly at will. When the president is blinded by the intrigues of court, his concern for common people is bound to take a backseat.

PMB was once minister for petroleum and subsequently military head of state of Nigeria. Today, PMB is both minister for petroleum and civilian head of state of Nigeria. For more than thirty years, Nigeria has suffered fuel shortages, especially before the yearly budget announcements. The same issue of fuel shortage occurred during the last months of 2015 when Nigerians were virtually sleeping at fuel stations in order to carry out legitimate human activities. For PMB not to have anticipated this, or planned for it during his twelve years long campaign is a testament to the fact that power-seeking is the only politics in Nigeria and not statesmanship.

PMB has not demonstrated mastery over pressing national problems, but Nigerians are still hopeful of a favourable outcome from his presidency. The problem is that we have waited for more than fifty years for the ruling class to get its act together.

If we are still talking of security to lives and property, lack of power, roads, healthcare, sound educational systems, petroleum products after more than five decades as a nation then something is organically wrong!

The same people have ruled us, either in uniform or civilian garb since independence. And if current feelers from PMB’s administration are anything to go by, there are no signposts yet, of a resurgent nation, capable of taking its place in the world.

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