With just few weeks to the formal takeoff of electioneering, opinions vary on the current inclination of leading political gladiators to core national issues, writes KUNLE ODEREMI.
For 22 years of civil rule, Nigeria is still beset with combating vices that trailed prolonged years of military dictatorship in the country. From the tenure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and Dr Goodluck Jonathan as well as the incumbent retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari, the sore points include the parlous state of the economy, mass poverty, insecurity, corruption and infrastructure decay. Each successive administration from May 29, 1999 took individual initiatives to tackle those challenges that have continued to deny the citizenry the real benefits of democracy after undergoing an excruciating experience under military rule.
In his inaugural speech in 1999, former President Obasanjo underscored the enormity of the task ahead. His words: «Fellow Nigerians, let us rise as one to face the task ahead and turn this daunting scene into opportunities in a new dawn. Let us make this the beginning of a genuine renaissance. Fellow Nigerians, the entire Nigerian scene is very bleak indeed; so bleak; people ask me: Where do we begin?” Though the two-time Nigerian leader believed there was hope in Nigeria getting out of the wood, he cautioned the citizens not to perceive him as miracle worker. Apart from patience, he said the people must be prepared to make sacrifices in the renewed effort to restore the most populous Black nation in the world. He admitted: «I know what great things you expect of me at this new dawn. As I have said many times in my extensive travels in the country, I am not a miracle worker. It will be foolish to underrate the task ahead. Alone, I can do little. You have been asked many times in the past to make sacrifices and to be patient. I am also going to ask you to make sacrifices and to exercise patience.”
Suffice to add that some semblance and flashes of strides were made in a few sectors. Those gains pale into insignificance given the gamut of challenges that have subsisted within the length and breadth of the country. Economic sabotage and militancy in the Niger Delta has depleted Nigeria’s supply to meet quota from the Organization of Petroleum exporting Countries (OPEC). Violent crimes, including terrorism, kidnapping and banditry reign across the country, just as corruption has taken a phenomenal upswing. All these issues have conspired to worsen the socio-economic condition of Nigerians, with the consequence of an expanding ungoverned spaces in the land.
Tinubu’s agenda
A snippet of the seven-point agenda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu is said to include provision of transformational leadership that has the ability to unify all of Nigeria and lead to the attainment of shared goals and vision. The second is technology, which is to leverage modern technology for digital transformation and economic growth. The third is security by creating conditions that allow citizens move and transact freely across the nation. Infrastructure is fourth on the agenda, aimed at extensive infrastructural development by building basic foundational services (24 hours access to electricity, roads, bridges etc) that connect (power) people and businesses ultimately improving the quality of living.
The fifth is said to be homegrown businesses, that is, building platforms that enable and empower homegrown businesses to scale and compete favourably in the global market. Education comes sixth on the agenda. According to his camp, Tinubu plans to deploy initiatives targeted at promoting knowledge and equipping learners of all age groups with the skills and values needed to address modern-day challenges globally, as well as propagate and activate strategies that promote a sense of pride and awakening amongst all Nigerian citizens.
Atiku
The abridged version of the policy document of PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar tagged: My Covenant with Nigerians, is a five-point development agenda, which his associates said is designed to restore national unity through equality, social justice, and cooperation among various people. His spokesman, Paul Ibe explained that the document “will establish a strong and effective democratic government that will guarantee the safety and security of life and property.” It is seeks to build a strong and prosperous economy, create jobs and wealth as well as lift millions out of poverty; promote a strong and true federal system; improve and strengthen the education system and equip students with all necessary skills “required to be competitive in the new global order which is driven by innovation, science, and technology.” Some of the fiscal strategies his administration will employ to include domestic reforms to improve IGR, promoting export growth to improve foreign exchange earnings, blocking leakages and financing projects through strategic partnerships with the private sector; deal with insurgency by relying mainly on alternative approaches to dispute resolution; make state governments more viable as centers of development; decentralise security institutions.
For the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, his agenda is based on the provision of national security, human security, food security and tackling insecurity created by unemployment.
Political space has been polluted —Lai Oso
A lot of citizens are apprehensive about the implications of the catalogue of woes confronting the country as the 2023 general election approaches. The expectations are that political gladiators ought to factor in those core challenges in their current intense campaign. The tone and texture of the campaign, according to eminent scholars and other prominent persons, run against contemporary realities. A renowned scholar, Professor Lai Oso finds objectionable, the unfolding scenario in the buildup to the general election. “The political atmosphere has thoroughly been polluted by non-issues. The critical existential challenges facing Nigeria are not being discussed,” he declared. But the don said the situation should not be blamed solely on the political gladiators since it fits into their style of politicking. He said the media, especially social media share part of the blame. He noted: “it is in the interest of politicians not to put critical issues on the public agenda but the media have a duty to direct attention to them. Civil society activists have also not helped.” Professor Oso decried the tendency by politicians to deploy religion and ethnicity for altruistic purposes. Thus, he noted: “ Weaponisation of religion and ethnicity has greatly derailed the political process.”
There is media intimidation, verbal terrorism —Tunde Adeniran
A former minister and ambassador, Professor Tunde Adeniran also finds awkward, the attitude of politicians to salient issues as they crisscross the land. He was particularly incensed that candidates for 2023 elections are placing premium on inanities, with their army of hangers-on on the loose. He warned: “It is sickening and worrisome that the candidates are relegating critical national issues to the background and getting preoccupied with inanities. It is more disturbing however, that the various supporters have made the situation worse. They behave merely as hired hatchet workers on propaganda blitz which they carry out so poorly by their reckless distribution of insults. They choke the political communication space with so much venom and disgusting filth that the anxious electorate could hardly breathe. There is media intimidation, verbal terrorism so much that members of the public are now scared to ask legitimate questions about their fate and the defining characteristics of those threatening to govern them. in the process, the voices of less aggressive competitors are being silenced and substantial members of the Nigerian public are becoming withdrawn, increasingly fearful that tomorrow come worse than today.”
Clarity of agenda
To other observers, the ongoing war of words among the major candidates for the general election is part of the fallouts of the faulty party system in the country. It has created extraneous and contagious issues in the polity. Some untoward tendencies and such challenges are identified by a former general secretary of the Arewa consultative Forum (ACF), Elder Anthony Sani. He opined that the absence of issue-based horse-trading exacerbated the syndrome of vote-buying by contestants. “In a clime where politics of identity has supplanted politics of real issues of real concern to real people, you do not expect anything more than what you have observed. Nigeria is supposed to practice multiparty democracy where it should not matter the colour of the cat provided it can cat the rats. But whether by design or default, mistrust and suspicions have found ingress into the democracy by promoting cleavages of the nation along ethnic, religious and regional lines. More distressing is the fact that the political leaders expect to hose down the flame of divisions are the ones who fuel them the more, hence the current politics of identity by elbow-throwing grievance groups clamouring for government preferment.”
Nonetheless, Sani suggested the way out of the menace of vote trading as appropriate behavioural pattern by voters. The ACF elder said: “As a matter of fact, it is lack of issue-based democracy that encouraged aspirants to buy party delegates during party primaries. And it is only natural that candidates who emerge from party primaries through buying of delegates would see nothing wrong in vote-buying, thereby foisting plutocracy on our practice of multiparty democracy. One way of overcoming this is for voters to make judicious use of their democratic right and ensure votes count so that the ensuing leaders will be accountable and render politics of identity irrelevant and superfluous.”
A principal national officer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who pleaded not to be named, said he was deeply worried and concerned about the tension arising from the accusations and counter-accusations by some political leaders along ethno-religious inclinations. He said the major concern of majority of Nigerians now is what candidates are planning to do different to restore public confidence in government and the political system. His view was corroborated by a vocal former military officer from the South-South, who also asked to remain anonymous for strategic reasons.
He said what Nigerians want is assurance by the candidates and their promoters on their martial plans to rescue the country from the abyss. “I do not want to be partisan, so I plead to remain anonymous. I am disappointed in the way and manner the candidates are going about their business. They owe Nigerians the duty of explaining what they plan to bring to the table in order to make a difference,” he added. However, the general secretary of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Dr Kunle Olajide said the current seeming altercations among the candidates on some issues bordering on character was healthy. He said it could assist Nigerians to know more about the individuals. According to him, “Sometimes, it is necessary for the citizens to know what have gone wrong in the past between them, to know what their plans were in the past, especially since they interacted with one another and now, they are going for the same position.”
With the political transition programme as announced by the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) that will lead to the general election entering another phase in a matter of weeks, the blueprints of the leading candidates might become the focal point and proper scrutiny of the generality of Nigerians. Professor Oso says the media has a significant role to play in that regard, especially now that INEC has released the list of candidates for the elections. Many concerned citizens hope that the candidates and their political parties will focus more on critical issues that have held the country for decades; denied it of the quintessential the voice of the Black race globally.
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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