President Goodluck Jonathan Maj.Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
I had faith in Nigerian democracy before it was created, and I still have faith in it now. I know it was not created in order to disappear; instead, it will endure and flourish because Nigeria is the child of hope, and the country can neither be broken by tribalism nor demoralised by political adventurism.
Unfortunately, we cannot learn anything new from a dope; and those people who want our nation to remain in political darkness are no better. Abraham Lincoln said many years ago that, “You can only fool all of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the times”
. That is why we must look back at our nation’s problems since independence and realise that the most significant socio-economic progress has not been made in the society. For example, while poverty and graduate unemployment had failed to come down in more than two decades, the economic stagnation persisted because our leaders refused to muster the requisite courage to tackle Nigeria’s problems at the source. Instead of doing that, they take pride in riding private jets with their incredible, unjustifiable, unconscionable and near-criminal wealth in a country where typhoid fever and tuberculosis have reduced many citizens to nuisance due to lack of common antibiotics in the teaching hospitals.
Former American President Theodore Roosevelt once said: “It is not what we have that will make us a great nation, it is the way we use it”. Despite all the oil money in Nigeria, sadly, our leaders have failed the citizens for more than 30 years – failed to give them good education; failed to give them proper support and safety; and failed to help them turn their lives around. Today, our education system is so bad that many students cannot even compete successfully with their counterparts elsewhere; which simply means that a Nigerian student who has spent four years in the university may return home without any additional knowledge than when he or she left. In many cities of our country, we see open sewers emptying into canals while innocent children are swimming in the filthy water. And those of us who complain about the present evils in the cities and speak nostalgically about how much better life was for people in the past should please take a vacation to some villages that have not yet been “contaminated” by socio-economic progress since Awolowo left government 1959!
Whereas, during the 1980s,12 nations in Latin America moved from dictatorship to democracy as Nigeria did in 1999. Although the GNP of Latin America fell during the same period because of the failed political and economic policies of their democratic elected leaders, nevertheless, an exciting new story is being written across the region since the 1990s. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and even Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, have joined Chile in adopting economic policies that are producing substantial growth in their countries and in the per capita incomes of their citizens. And Brazil alone, with over half the population of South America, has made a remarkable economic turnaround in the past 13 years. Brazilian exports to the United States have increased more than 80 per cent; import tariffs on products such as automobiles have dropped to less than 20 per cent (compare to the Federal Government approved 75 per cent in Nigeria) while their industrial production continues to rise.
But here in our country, with annual population growth rate increasing more than five times higher than the growth rate of developed nations, and millions of children suffering from malnutrition when per capita income of hardworking families has barely increased in over 20 years, it is not surprising that Nigeria has been predicted to experience an increase in absolute poverty over the next decades. Racked by runaway inflation, a crumbling infrastructure, widespread political corruption and disastrous economic policies that have stunted the nation since the military rule, the question now is: What then is the promise of our democracy?
Of course, one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that Nigerian citizens will be in for another rough years of political abracadabra if they refuse to choose the next president with caution in the upcoming election. Many times, the citizens have been told to choose between a left or right, whereas there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down – up to man’s age old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order; or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And the most important lesson for Nigerians at this moment is to remember that great leadership will always be needed to meet the challenges we face in the world, particularly in our country.
t is also important to realise that there are landmarks all over the world including Nigeria named after Abraham Lincoln, Charles de Gaulle, Herbert Macaulay, Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa and Nnamdi Azikwe – all past great leaders of the world when democratic government was one of intelligence, not fear-mongering and crime. And historically, leaders cannot be recognised as great unless they have led successfully during the time of adversity. That is the reason why Winston Churchill once said that one of the Britain’s 19th century Prime Ministers, Lord Rosebery, “had the misfortune to live in a time of great men and small events”.
The truth is that the present democratic system in Nigeria, one hijacked by political hustlers and prostitutes, is not only determined to divide us, it is even starts to destroy the entire nation. And only those who recognised this dark moment as an event as great as waging war, and try to meet the challenges of this historic era in the country will earn the mantle of greatness. That is why Lincoln also advised that, “And now, beware of rashness; but with energy and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victory.” In other words, there should be no argument over the choice of the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But as a realist and public affairs observer, I can emphatically predict that there is only one guaranteed way Nigeria can make progress in the 21st century– and we can even start making it within the next two year by choosing someone who is highly qualified for the office in which wisdom, intelligence, and good character are the assets to be our next president rather than electing a persona non grata!
Adeyeye is Proprietor Crown Heights College, Ibadan
