I admit upfront that you need a recognisable face and pronounceable name to lead any country of the world, including the Vatican City, officially recognised as the least populated country in the world with its slightly above a thousand- soul population and land size of 0.44 square kilometre. Interestingly, the ruler of that small country is one the world’s most recognisable faces and titles, the Pope. Again, the President of that small country leads 1.4 billion of the over seven billion people of the world. Catholics are subjects of the Pope.
In Nigeria’s recent political history, the least known candidate of a major political party for president would be Bashir Tofa. By the time he died on January 3, 2022, his political stock had not risen beyond being the NRC opponent of SDP’s globally-known MKO.
Yes, the egbe eleye (party with bird symbol) candidate was a successful oil and banking entrepreneur and had measured political success as national financial secretary of the defunct governing NPN, but the contest against MKO was above his political weight class. He was never in national consciousness before Halilu Akilu recruited him into the fray.
There is a reasoning to governance requiring cognate experience. It is akin to the cliché-demand on job seekers, including JJC in labour market. Guys came up with listing a month internship training as cognate experience. In the column for referees, any random fellow you have had a 15-minute interaction with would do. Who cares now that vacancies are mainly for sale.
Component parts will mirror the whole device. Political offices in today’s Nigeria have all the trappings of employment vacancies. Up to the presidency, money rules. Even you don’t have the few millions for nomination forms, once your chances are bright at the poll ‘investors’ will pool resources together. And once the ticket is in, Naira rain begins, from all angles, because politics is now the most-profitable industry in town. What about claim of the country being broke? The question is, has China stopped giving curious long-term loans?
In 2018, Economic Confidential reported 17 failing states in Nigeria. Human and natural tragedies in governance must have tipped the scale to about 25, maybe minus Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Ogun, Delta et al, which are also swimming in foreign gbese (debts).
Yet, politicians unleash thugs on one another and engage in mindless rigging to govern the failed states. Osun is a classical example. Who is fooling who then?
If Nigeria’s supposed constitutional democracy remains the way it is and likely to, considering the unfavourable disposition of President Buhari to reinventing it, it would not matter who emerges his successor. You don’t sustain a way of doing a thing and expect a different result. Even God spoke of times and seasons in the books of Ecclesiastes and Daniel. Children of Issachar won renown for understanding times and seasons. They won their wars and conquered territories. The result was there to show for their efforts.
President Buhari is no doubt nepotistic, but at least he meant well for those now stoning him in the North. You don’t win a Nobel for noble intentions. You need wisdom, which Proverbs calls the principal thing, even as you seek divine help for understanding, in humility. Most times, what appears as a way unto man is a path to perdition with God. I’m still searching for that dominant legacy of President Buhari as mounting months drag him to the end of his service.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who is angling to succeed the President has been variously credited and taunted for the retrofit that rushed South West to the Buhari brand in 2014. He possibly invited his people to a blind date. Even long time associate, Buba Galadima confessed not knowing the true content of the brand they all sold to Nigerians, particularly South eight years back.
History is a stubborn goat, with twisted horns, doesn’t listen to kai (go away).
Many have wondered why supposed fresh faces aren’t jostling for the number one seat. Well, except God decrees it, some random fellow can’t wander from some random place to land the presidency. It is a job that requires knowing people and having their trust. While those jostling now can be listed as knowing people, the trust aspect is the challenge they are combating.
Nigerians have stopped trusting their leaders. They see them as parasites. So the opportunistic ones also leech on them, fanning their ego with baba rere, baba ke (the man himself). Yoruba will say o ri ese were o bu soogun (the fool are always available to be used or extorted). Both sides are in a game of deceit. A late friend would say, “a o jo tan ara wa pe (all na lie).
Yoruba always knock the one deceiving self and warn the one who thinks he is getting away with deceiving others, with bi a se gbon nile oko ni a gbo nile ale (both husband and wife’s lover are into a game of wits).
Unfeeling men of yesterday have suddenly become populists, championing the cause of pain-ridden Nigerians. They are abandoning their baleful way and the contempt in which they have held Nigerians for years. Suddenly they share in subsidy removal pains. Lekki Toll Gate of death and sorrow, where billions have been raked for years, despite public disavowal, is now left ajar for passage, FoC, as they say. They are doing everything to be their brothers’ keepers. Since when? Who is asking anyone to be a Good Samaritan? All being demanded is good governance, insightful policies and tough decisions taken with the highest consideration for the people.
Above all, the askew governance structure, which has proved inadequate and unsustainable, should be reworked, to work for all. But no, the adamant in power are standing with the status quo, running a race to nowhere to hand over the baton to another member of the clique. Only Nigerians can stop them, starting with refusing to be sucked into the noise of 2022, when konta soap is almost beyond the reach of those earning genuine pay. Yoruba will say, if we throw a hand fan up 200 times, it will still fall on its side. Jesus warned about pouring a new wine in an old wine skin. The result, He says, is, catastrophe. Now, they want to pour old wine in old wineskins. The outcome, is better imagined. Let those who have ears, hear what the Spirit is saying.
and then