They are too old to run

OR personal relief and weekend relaxation, let us leave out our immiseration for some minutes. Let us, for some minutes, teleport ourselves to that better Nigeria we envision. Pretend that all is well with the country – as they say of “saner climes” or that money-guzzling Dubai – and serenade in your imaginary El Dorado. I think you can best be reset for the right questions… and right answers. When you are back to life and to reality, ask yourself a few questions on Nigeria’s political journey so far. The questions might not be comprehensive, they should just be like the regular musings of this weekly column. When you take a look at Nigeria as it drifts, what comes to your mind? Is it a matter of leadership question or is it followership problem? Are Nigeria’s problems as a result of Mgbeke that is not skilled in the art of being a barber or is the problem the blade that is blunt? What is wrong with us as a country? What is wrong with us as a people?

Many people have tried to pinpoint what they think is the issue with Nigeria. Socio-economic malaise lives here. Why? Cultural confusion is ingrained in the populace. Why? When look at the life of some other countries through some of the things we read about their politics, leadership, elections and selections, it is obvious that we only want to be like some democracies. Why? If Britain is taken as a test case in our choice of countries, why can we not be like the kind of Britain that has been in the news in the last few days? Johnny Nash sang “there are more questions than answers.” I have, more than once stated that in this column. Why are there more questions than answers in the case of everything Nigeria? When we were younger, we tried to explain “the Nigerian factor”. Famed Frank Olise of the NTA of yore once did a report in which he asked Nigerians “What is the Nigerian Factor?”

After the death of Queen Elizabeth last month, a comic picture of the elderly but graceful queen emerged as she received (then new) British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, a few days earlier. The creators of the photo story had obviously latched on the late Queen’s acclaimed stupendous sense of humour to label the photograph. Locked in a handshake with Ms Struss, the Prime Minister was created to have said to the 96-year-old, longest-reigning British monarch: “You don’t look like you will last much longer.” The Queen, a master in her own right in humorous observations and anecdotes was also created to have replied the Prime Minister: “Neither do you.” Queen Elizabeth died a few days later. Liz Truss lasted just 45 days as the British Prime Minister. Truss’s abrupt reign thus stands her out as the shortest-serving PM who would be remembered only as the Prime Minister whose achievement is that she did well to bury the Queen.

In Nigeria, it wouldn’t have been that straightforward. If the queen’s country was prone to political quagmire the kind Nigeria is usually enmeshed in, and is known by, she might not have joked that Truss would not last long either. The Queen would have thought of the consequences of such an expensive joke. The Queen would have ruminated on ‘if the prime minister would not have used her office to dethrone her’. She would have been worried and hysterical when she thinks of the brouhaha that would underline, headline and play out in the selection process of a new leader. Easy things are not easy in Nigeria. Straight things are usually not straight here. Integrity is in very short supply and anger is in abundance. She would know that it’s no joke in this country! We as Nigerians remember the example of “Doctrine of Necessity”. England or Britain or the Queen would not have thought that the constitution would be jettisoned and the parliament would have to devise a means to ensure that we run our country according to the constitution. Or, when the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua was announced, what brought about the “doctrine of necessity”? What does it mean?

One of the things that define us is how our huge young population look at us as a country. Our life as a nation is being described through the imagery this stratum of our population has shown the world. If we are willing to learn, that there  are standard bearers to learn from.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE 

• Tinubu, Atiku In Fresh Row

• Why Nigerian Shipowners May Lose Out From $19bn Dangote Refinery

• Jandor Escapes Death As Thugs Attack Campaign Team In Badagry

• US Security Alert: DSS Calls For Calm, Vigilance

• MONDAY LINES: The Warnings From Sanusi And Danjuma

• EDITORIAL: Buhari, Redeem The Pledge To Complete Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Before Christmas

There are credible leaves if we wish to take a leaf. Truss and her successor, Rishi Sunak are emblematic of the political utopia we desire in Nigeria. The British politicians are the ideals of young, forward looking and idealistic leaders that would lead Nigeria. Truss was born in July 1975, Sunak was born in May 1980. Demographics tell us that Nigeria has a huge young population. It will be awkward to expect these young people not to make demands, especially in the face of decades of misrule, faltering governments and bumbling regimes. They want leaders they can relate with. They want answers to many things, chief among which is: “Why are we so backward as a country in many spheres of human life?”

Chinua Achebe claimed in “There was a Country” that one of the reasons we have no Truss or Sunak thriving in our clime is because the British colonialists gave the ram to the masquerade without relinquishing the ropes. The hesitant colonialists had allegedly designed Nigeria to remain an appendage of Britain. “When Osei Boateng of the New African, in a November 2008 cover story titled “Nigeria:: Squalid End to Empire,” meticulously outlined how colonial “Britain rigged Nigeria’s independence elections ‘so that its compliant friends in the North would win power, dominate the country, and serve British interests after independence’ it only confirmed what most of us already suspected,” Achebe states. He had more citing documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) published by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

Would we still blame the young when they see the good things in some countries that are not happening in their own country? The escape from the country syndrome has become a source of worry to the government. More than ever before, Nigerians are jumping ship without a second thought. Ngige once said we had so much doctors that the migrating ones don’t have any effect on the country. This song has changed and the government has begun to devise means to keep Nigerian professionals from trooping out of the country.

We need a means to institute how quality youngsters in the mould of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak and Olukemi Olufunto Badenock can rise to the pinnacle of political careers in Nigeria. If we had a system that supports this, young Nigerians might not be swarming around a 61-year-old Peter Obi as a ‘young contestant’ in a political field in which they have condemned Tinubu and Atiku as too old to run.