The outcome of the last elections
at all levels in Nigeria is a clear indication that Nigerians were done with
the old order and eager to have a change that would move the country to greater
heights.
To be able to flush out the
Peoples Democratic Party, which had been in power for 16 years with a promise
to retain power for 60 years despite its monumental profligacy of unimaginable
quantum, it took the significant alignment of politicians from across four
political parties and an extraction of the PDP to dislodge the umbrella of
corruption, impunity and bad governance from power at the federal level and in
22 of the 26 states of the feeble federation.
The coalition named the All
Progressives Congress wouldn’t have succeeded in the elections but for the choice
of Muhammadu Buhari as its candidate. Buhari is possibly the only clean former
Nigerian leader garbed in a popular toga of an intolerant disposition to
corruption and corrupt practices; and disciplined enough to lead the country
out of the pervasive moral decadence public service and the citizens have been
splashed with.
For decades, not just under the
PDP, Nigeria has speedily slided in abysmal collapse with poverty, unemployment
and malfunctioning infrastructure being the hallmark, while the only subsystem
that perfectly works is corruption, a “government” of its own, that has been
ruling the country to near total ruins. The popular quest for the end of the
throne of corruption and all-round impunity was what manifested in the results
of the 2015 elections.
However, as early as less than a
month into the “new beginning”, it became obvious that we are still held
hostage by the old order as the old opposition do not seem to know the source
of the votes dropped for them to be in power or of what use their victory
should be deployed as they consistently display infantile political antics that
have so far undermined our collective interests and thirst for good governance.
The events at the National
Assembly since its inauguration has compromised the decency of a team of
lawmakers Nigerians thought would facilitate changes that delivers good
governance.
If our contemporary politicians
are truly aware of the depth of the severe crisis our country has been plunged
in and the desire to pull us out of the doldrums, what should have kick-started
a government that had “change” as its campaign slogan would not be the
consistent brawls that have taken the place of progressive deliberations at the
National Assembly and the lamentations of the Presidency.
The obvious internal
contestations within the APC, not just its leadership, point to the coalition
as one that had no common goals beyond contesting elections. This is more
factual of the renegades of the PDP, who christened themselves the New PDP
before migrating out of the dilapidated umbrella to team up with the Action
Congress of Nigeria, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, the Congress for
Progressive Change and an extraction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance to
form the APC. They possibly left the PDP because they couldn’t contend with the
overwhelming weight of influence some of its leaders had on who became what. Of
course, other parties, including the ones that collapsed into what is now the
APC, didn’t have as much of powerful power brokers and the PDP extracts knew
how to reduce them to liliputs.
However, the leadership of the
APC, some of them with good background in pro-democracy struggles but clearly
lacking in democratic credentials as they are swollen with the anti-democratic
illusions that they could dictate who occupies what office, even when the
constitution spelt out democratic options. It is, for instance, undemocratic
for any party, especially a party that rode on the pedestal of the promise of
change to insist on dictating who leads the National Assembly. That was part of
the impunity of the past, a past the APC promised to change. And perhaps, the
party leaders have their candidates, as they announced they do; if an election
held and choices other than theirs were made by vote, a true democrat should
simply accept defeat and return to further permutations. We don’t need the
headache the crisis at the National Assembly has unleashed on us all as that
has become an excuse for our country to be subjected to a sole
administratorship, with the unnecessary delay in constituting the government
that promised to change our collective misfortunes and reposition our country
to a respectable position in the global community; a community that still
considers our country trapped in impunity and lack of patriotic leadership.
It is disturbing that more than a
month after assuming office, President Buhari has yet to form a government. A
country of nearly 170 million people, with problems almost equal to the
population; a country that has almost collapsed cannot afford a sole
administrator to manage her affairs even for just one day. We need a government
and a man who won the Presidency on the third attempt at elections should have
an idea of what he wanted power for, especially when a majority of the
electorate were united on why they voted for him. We needed change and we
believe that change can be delivered with President Buhari on the driving seat.
Lamentations are not attributes
of any good leader. We as citizens have lamented enough and the March 28, 2015
elections gave us an opportunity to stop lamenting as a majority voted for
someone we believed had all the will, the capabilities and wisdom to turn our
collective lamentations to harvests of collective joy, palliative liberation of
some sorts.
The new administration has done
well in putting terrorists, who thought Nigeria is a comfort zone for them, on
the run, though they still pound some parts of the North-East, but limited to
their known areas of combat, and the military has obviously woken up from a
sluggish past.
President Buhari’s emergence has
psychologically renewed hope in every Nigerian that a better future beckons and
this can only be sustained if the new administration acts faster than it has
done at all levels.
It is doubtful if the
administration can fix Nigeria without probing the past. Our past is too messy
and the mess will be difficult to clear without interrogating the how, why, who
and what drifted us to the abyss. No one will doubt the emptiness of our collective
treasury, but we won’t be patient with lamentations. Those who emptied the
treasury should be seen off to jail after appropriate trials in court and their
loot returned to the Federation Account for infrastructural development and job
creation.
Yaqub is an Assistant Secretary
at the headquarters of Nigeria Labour Congress, Abuja
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