By Dr. Wumi Akintide.
In two hundred and thirty-two amazing years, America has grown from her founding thirteen American colonies to becoming not just the “primus inter pares” or the only remaining super power among the leading industrialized nations of the world. America has added the Moon as one of her own colonies, and she is on her way to Mars as we speak.
America has continued to exceed all frontiers of knowledge and power any way you slice it, even though unemployment at the national level is closer to double digits or higher today, but we all can see that the Government in power is fighting tooth and nail and focusing on mending the Economy like a laser beam because it is very clear to the current President and his Party and the whole nation that if the President cannot improve or change the observation, and if the Republicans cannot produce an alternative candidate with the credibility and track record to do a better job than the incumbent President, you can take it to the Bank that Barack Obama will not remain in the White House beyond 2012.
There is no hide and seek game about it. Americans will not want America to become a second fiddle to any other nation That awareness is self-evident because American voters does not deceive themselves and they do not allow their leaders to pull a fast one on them like Nigerians do.
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You hardly ever hear Nigerian say “Happy October First” because there is really nothing to be happy about because our current generation of leaders are decidedly worse than our founding fathers, all things considered. We are worse off today than we were in the decade preceding our nation’s Independence fifty-one years ago.
I recall in 1959, but more so in 1979 when Obafemi Awolowo ran against Shehu Shagari, it was clear to all and sundry and even to the Northerners and the Military Establishment led by Obasanjo who favored Shagari that Awolowo was by far the better candidate who could move Nigeria forward but they wanted Shagari even though the man had said his greatest ambition was to become a Senator representing his home base.
They preferred him nonetheless because they were sure he was not going to rock the boat like Awolowo. Sardauna Bello clearly told Awolowo he was moving too fast for the North. They had to slow him down for the North to catch up and they did using subterfuge.
If Nigeria were to be America, I can tell you that the NPC and later the NPN could possibly have won the majority in the Congress but there was no way in the world that Shagari would have been beaten Awolowo as the man to lead the country. Not by a long shot because Awolowo had proved his mettle in the Western Region and he had a track record that the whole country could see and attest to. It is a different ball game in Nigeria because Nigeria does not understand that a chain is as strong as its weakest link. Nigeria in all of her 51 years as a sovereign state has always celebrated mediocrity in the way we pick our leaders.
That was why and how Obasanjo had ended up macro-managing the 1979 elections to pick Shagari over and above Awolowo even before the Supreme Court had had a chance to hear Awolowo’s appeal in the celebrated case Awo had made against Shagari and the NPN at the time. Obasanjo using his big stick as military President was not interested in what the Supreme Court had to say. He handed over to Shagari willy-nilly because that was what he wanted and he was not interested in the “Turenchi” Awolowo lawyers were going to speak at the Supreme Court. "Ranka Dede" won the day as Shagari became President.
To his credit, the first thing Shagari did as a man of honor was to honor Awolowo with the highest accolade the nation could bestow because the man knew what the rest of the country knew but what Obasanjo did not want to acknowledge that Awolowo was a “sui generis” or a breed apart in Nigerian Politics because of his imperishable legacies.
The same Obasanjo repeated pretty much the same thing when in 2007 when he could not think of a more competent and able Northerner to pick as his successor other than a terminally-sick Umaru he had to know could not possibly survive the rigors of the Nigerian presidency for 8 years. Nigeria has since remained in a virtual mess or cul-de-sac in large part because of the way.
Nigeria has always picked her leaders but more so because the units making up the country are never allowed by the Federal Government to progress at their own pace and potential because the powers that be always want the North to catch up with the South before Nigeria would be allowed to move forward.
Progressive Lagos State, Oyo State, Anambra or Abia or Imo, Kano or Kwara or Kaduna states must, of necessity, be slowed down so Jigawa or Adamawa and some of the Sharia states in the North must be allowed to level up with them or else hell will break loose. America does not have that kind of outlandish mind set.
The states are all allowed to compete to the best of their ability. They are even allowed to compete with or challenge the Federal Government without any problem whatsoever. That was why and how Massachusetts, the intellectual power house of America under Mitt Romney as Governor was able to go for free medical and public mandate for all of her citizens before Obama went for it at the Federal level. Nigeria is facing the Boko Haram embarrassment and tragedy today for precisely the same reason.
Boko Haram and the brains behind them view education and modernization and religious freedom as an abomination. They don’t want to belong to Nigeria that wishes to remain a secular state. They want Nigeria to fully and unanimously embrace Islam and Sharia because in their convoluted mind, Nigeria was conquered by Uthman Dan Fodio and should remain so forever.
Our current President and his ruling party want a dialogue with them. How for God’s sake, do you negotiate with a group that questions your very existence and what you value the most in your life? The State of Israel and Palestinian have been fighting the same kind of struggle since 1948 with no end in sight. Nigeria is putting herself in the same kind of box and Obasanjo wants to start a mediation he cannot finish. He is just embarking on it just to look good and as the self-appointed father of the nation. Just look at what happened to the man Obasanjo met with in his first round of mediation. The poor man was hacked to death within hours of Obasanjo leaving his house. Obasanjo can force an ass to the brook, what he cannot do is force the ass to drink.
I come from the royal ruling House in Akure and I am very proud of that fact. My grandfather and my great grandfathers were among the forty-five Dejis who have ruled Akure for centuries before the ascension of my junior cousin, His Royal Highness Oba Adebiyi Adegboye Adesida who was crowned the 46th Deji on September 5, 2010 after his immediate predecessor, Deji Osupa, Adesina Adepoju who reigned for less than 5 years was deposed with ignominy because his role model was Kabiyesi Deji Odundun who once ordered his wife beheaded in cold blood because the poor woman had shared a joke with him as narrated in my book “The Lion King and the Cubs” that some of you might want to read.
Deji Odundun was a heartless despot of the worst order. He did not just sentence his wife to death he had ordered the woman’s head be delivered to her parents. I am not making up this story. Kabiyesi Odundun was able to do that before Pax Britannica and the Rule of Law had come to our shores in Akure. His alter ego, the deposed Deji Osupa had wanted to do the same thing when he left his Palace to go do justice to a wife he had, earlier on, expelled from his palace. He physically beat the hell out of the woman just because he could, and he closed the deal by pouring acid on the poor woman meaning to either kill or maim her for life. It was the last straw that broke Oba Osupa’s back. He was deposed right away and sent into exile.
Boko Haram, for all we know, is asking for a return to those feudalistic days like the one I have just described or like when the Sardauna of Sokoto swore he would never forgive Awolowo for attempting to bring education, clothes and enlightenment to the Shawshaw women in some remote areas of Benue Plateau in Middle Belt area of the North who never wore clothes, and who had no idea how to use any clothes or Tampax to stop the flow of blood when they menstruated. They had to dig up a pit and stay on top of it for the 4 or 5 days they have to menstruate every month. Can you believe that?
Awolowo had wanted to stop all of that by sending cargo planes to distribute clothes from the air to those women and their families. We are able to talk and write about it today because Awolowo had done it. I am not making it up. I am saying it to let any of you reading this to understand what Boko Haram wants to impose or unleash on the rest of us. I repeat the question I ask before, how do you negotiate with a group asking for a return to such terrible days? If the group is really serious about what they are asking, our simple answer to them should be “To your tents O Israel” Let them break away for their own good.
That was why I suggested in my article titled, “A Confession” that those of us who still think the same way in Nigeria need to put our heads together to discuss and agree on whether to stick together or go our different ways in peace and harmony before it is too late. 51 years is long enough for us to take stock and agree on whether or not our collaboration and stay together have been productive or counter-productive. That is the truth we ought to be able to tell ourselves without mincing words.
I am happy to acknowledge that my state Governor, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State in a keynote speech has, pretty much, said the same thing to a conference he reportedly addressed in Nigeria in the last two weeks. I am not advocating the break-up of Nigeria, and neither is Governor Mimiko. All we are saying is that each state must be allowed to move forward at her own pace like Awolowo had done in the old Western Region and like the great Zik had done in the old Eastern Region and like Sardauna Bello had done in the old Northern Region.
Most of the American states operate that way and it is working out beautifully for them. Nigeria too can do the same. I have carefully read today President Jonathan’s speech to Nigerians on the occasion of our 51st Anniversary. I saw nothing new from all previous speeches Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalam Abubakar and Umaru Yar Adua have all had cause to deliver on similar occasions in the past. His central message is that he is not going to allow Nigeria to break under his watch. He was therefore encouraging Nigerians to be patient as usual. We have heard all of that garbage before and the result has always been the same, one step forward and two steps backward.
The President told Nigerians he had seen their problems and he truly feels their pains but my point is that his order of priority in rising up to that challenge is less than persuasive and in my judgment. His speech has proved to be more of the same to me. I don’t know about you. I would believe him when I start seeing signs he truly means business. He is just begging for time to take his own slice of the pie before quitting the stage for others in the PDP to come try their luck again. That is not my idea of a purposeful leadership.
In contrast to the beaten path speech made by the President, I thought Abubakar Atiku in his own message to the nation did a far more productive job and he spoke the truth when he quoted a Chinese proverb as follows, “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a nation badly governed, wealth is something to be shunned and feared” because it could predictably promote rebellion, revolution, instability and insecurity from the oppressed and the downtrodden like the threat Nigeria is currently facing from Boko Haram, I might add.
The rich and the affluent have less to fear from the poor in America because the nation is well governed. Governor Imoke of Cross River issued pretty much the same refrain to his audience in Calabar today when he admonished Nigerian leaders “to give Nigerians a better chance to compete in an unending competitive world and to provide for their peoples’ welfare by creating the right climate for them to attain their potential and aspirations”
Who is better placed than all of these leaders to do what they are urging? It is Mr. President himself and his ruling Party. But the big problem is that the President and the PDP are the greatest obstacles to the achievement of that goal for Nigeria because they still pretend that Nigeria currently enjoys peace and stability. That was a big lie.
How could this President look Nigerians straight in the face and tell them that they have peace and stability when the Independence festivities have to be drastically cut down to size because there is little to celebrate and because Boko Haram is seriously threatening to disrupt the celebrations today and the Niger Delta Militants are also threatening to fight back to protect one of their own who is now President. Egbesu and Oodua Peoples Congress in the Southwest are on the sideline waiting patiently to also take up arms for their own people should Boko Haram carry out their threat to make Nigeria ungovernable.
We all must acknowledge that Nigeria is in serious crisis right now and it is far from being peaceful and secure. Redemption, healing and cure for the mentally-challenged or the drug addict does not commence until the individual admits he or she has a problem. Awareness at our highest level of Government is therefore what is needed for Nigeria to break the yoke and to liberate ourselves once and for all.
Nigerians know what is wrong with Nigeria and what to do to collectively and effectively address the problem but our President and our leaders are still in total denial and it is most unfortunate. Nigeria will make progress and move forward if our leaders and the PDP in particular will break out of their deceit and denial and give the Opposition a chance to rule Nigeria for once in more than half a century.
I rest my case.
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