Coalition for Nigeria – the urgency of now!
OpinionFeb 6, 2018
By Donald Duke
Expectedly,
the launch of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement, shortly after former
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari,
has elicited a diverse array of commentary. From excitement that
something is at last happening in the polity that reverses the bore, to
hope, confusion and of course condemnation. Good enough, hardly
indifference, for then it would have been a failure. There are also
those who proffer neither ideas nor solutions, but seemingly have the
answers to all that is right and wrong in our country.
This
missive is not about convincing anyone about the merits or otherwise of
the coalition, its aims, objectives or its founders. No, it is about the
urgency of NOW! One thing we all can agree on, regardless of our
diverse backgrounds, privileges or circumstances, is that we could do a
lot better than we currently are. That our nonchalance, selfishness and
greed is eclipsing our collective futures and thereby threatening our
very own survival to an extent we can hardly fathom.
There are
those who endlessly criticize, yet do nothing, perhaps condemning us
collectively to the ranks of irredeemability and there are others who
hope that somewhere, somehow, someone would arise to lift the despair
and desperate situation that is Nigeria. And, a tiny few who are ready
to pick up the gauntlet. Literally take the bull by the horns knowing
that there must be a resolution, either in favour of him or the bull.
First caveat, I am not here to give a character attestation on anyone,
least of all former President Obasanjo, he is too well known and varied
that whatever one may say is perhaps a shade, indeed a slight shade of
the man.
There are those and there are many, me inclusive, that
believe he ought to take a back seat in the polity and be the Statesman
that we would want to define him be, at least until things get awry,
then we wonder where he is to marshall our collective complaints and
speak on our behalf. I, like many others have my grudges too, but for
now, all this talk of Obasanjo is diversionary. The kernel of our
discuss is our collective existence.
The talk today is youth
participation in our polity and then charitably women. After all, their
demographics easily account for seventy percent of the population. Have
we, the so called ruling class earnestly considered handing over the
baton of leadership? Let us consider the recent PDP primaries, the same
old guard turns up, the average age of the aspirants is no less than 60
going on to 70. Have we considered that a child born at the advent of
this republic, 1999, is a voter today and one ten years old then is
likely a parent, now saddled with concerns of the future of his or her
offsprings, the answer is an emphatic no. At its last convention, the
PDP lost an incredible opportunity to redefine itself.
She could
have head hunted a breed of younger, urbane and forward looking
leadership of both gender at a parity and accordingly rebranded herself
as the new PDP, taking a leaf from the UK labor party of the 90’s that
was out of power for about 15years, rebranded herself as the new labor,
with a centrist manifesto and brought to the fore the then dashing duo
of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The optics were great. But for the PDP,
no. The dinosaurs unable to breed and refusing to quit, extinguish the
entire land. The APC fares no differently. Hardly any room nor scope of
replenishinold blood with new.
Before we get carried away with
youth, let me proudly proclaim that I too was once branded youth and
seen as a member of the vanguard of a new generation. At 30 a state
commissioner, at 34, a member of the National Economic Intelligence
Committee and concurrently a member of the National Economic Council and
at 37, state governor. At 45, I was done and pensionable.
The
point is, there is nothing unique here, except that I was fortunate to
be mentored, whereas, the bulk of our current young persons are not
consciously being politically mentored, thereby creating a huge lacuna
in the leadership structure going forward. Without digressing too far,
let me remind this audience that unmentored youth could be a lethal
weapon. The bulk of the folks who orchestrated the 1966 pogrom were in
their mid to late twenties. Full of unbridled zeal and ideals, but
hardly any institutional breeding or knowledge of history. The result
was a fatal civil war. Catastrophically, we still deny ourselves the
knowledge of history, so we seemingly are on the verge of repeating it.
Over
the past couple of months I have met with and spoken to dozens of young
people about the importance of participation in the polity. The level
of apathy and disenchantment is frightening. For every hundred urban
youth, not more than 20% possess a voters card with an alarming
indifference that it matters for nothing. Whereas, European societies
with an older population are witnessing youth participation and electing
younger persons to office, the reverse is the case in Nigeria and
indeed Africa, with a younger population. Until the forceful retirement
of Mugabe, the average leadership age on the continent was about 75, it
may have dropped to 65 with his departure and the coming on stage of
Gambia’s Adama Barrow and Liberia’s George Weah. But then, are we not
shortchanging ourselves of virility? Muhammadu Buhari himself has
admitted that age is a constraint to his performance in office, I
needn’t say more.
But young Nigerians, political power is never
handed over as an inheritance.You plot and seek it as an entitlement.
Our forebearers in the first republic did same from the British. It’s
not a moral obligation to handover and or step aside, it is a grab.
Between 1996 and 1999 when we assumed authority in Cross River State, we
plotted with like minds to overthrow the status quo and they fought
back, but with our numbers, careful and skillful calculus we prevailed.
Above all, we sought office for the right reasons. Society like all else
is dynamic and moves with the times. Today we ascribe it as analogue
and digital. The ways our fathers operated certainly cannot be the way
we should, that would be stagnation and retrogression.
Every four
years or so there is much made of youth participation in politics, it’s
an attractive sound bite, the difference this time is that there is no
longer time. Young people urgently need to get a grasp of the issues and
appreciate that it is their future that is at stake. Participation from
the ward to the federal levels is imperative. A young 27- year -old
impresses me in this regard. His name is Bukunyi Olateru Olagbegi.
Certainly not accepting the status quo of his age grade, he goes about
setting up a political party called the Modern Democratic Party to
create political space for his ilk. That is consciousness and activism
and should be encouraged. We need more of his type in the political
sphere to an extent that they can no longer be ignored.
Back to
the Coalition for Nigeria Movement, if all it achieves is to rekindle
and galvanize the entire strata of the population to becoming
politically active, it would, in my opinion, be a huge success. In that
quest, all hands ought to be on deck, the good and not so good, for the
weight is great. I would be gladdened to see a President Buhari,
Jonathan, Obasanjo, Abubakar and as far down as Gowon join the movement.
Let not Obasanjo alone enjoy the limelight of the all knowing, more
than ever, their experiences ought be brought to bear.
It is
apathy that encourages the governing class to govern with contempt, with
the belief the electorate is too docile and disenchanted to scrutinize
or have oversight of their performance. And largely this is true. That
it takes an eighty something year old to awaken us to the foibles of
governance, perhaps through the experience of his own shortcomings, for
me, regardless of his personal reasons, says there is a vacuum somewhere
that he wittingly fills. Should we on account of that begrudge him, for
me, that is a firm NO.
Rather, let us fill the gap that he
recurringly exploits so expertly and adroitly by ensuring that the
leadership no longer takes governance for granted, knowing there is an
intolerant electorate out there. Then attention will be paid to job
creation and not foreign exchange affordability, herdsmen nor
retaliating communities will dare not ransack lands, maim persons and
destroy property with reckless abandon without fear of repercussion from
authorities, where empathy and compassion will be the yardstick for
governance and not hard heartedness and high handedness, appointments to
offices will reflect the diversity of the nation and IDP camps would
not be the new horror chamber.
That budgets will be presented and
passed on time and there would be consequences for failures to perform
in government. That we cease to live in fear of our personal safety and
rather lookout for the wellbeing of each other. There is no doubt that
ours is a broken society and this is no time to sit back and criticize,
no matter how self satisfying and alluring it maybe. Let us save that
energy for things more vital and urgent. Obasanjo is transient, Nigeria
will certainly fare longer. There is clearly an urgency of NOW!.
