In search of a new political class

By Yinka Odumakin

‘IN Nigeria, political parties change and increase in number every election season. The acronyms that distinguish them are ideologically empty. They are merely arrangements among friends or strange bedfellows for the sake of cornering  state power …

“Interestingly, hardly any of the leading politicians in contention invokes the ideals or vision of the founding fathers to foreground their actions. They have no political ancestry, being mostly political orphans with no solid convictions or even ethical moorings or moral qualms whatsoever. In quite a number of cases, the major political actors possess no credible educational qualifications. Most are in politics because there is nothing else to do: businesses have failed, professional practices have collapsed  and unemployment has often driven  many to the limits  of creative survival. They, therefore, act mostly in pursuit of their immediate personal or small group interests. All eyes seem to be fixated on the national treasury, the giant book on oil royalties.”

Pathetic creatures

That was how Dr. Chidi Amuta succinctly captured the character or more appropriately the non-character of our political crass (class?) in Nigeria in his foreword to the latest book of my brother, Olusegun Adeniyi, Against The Run Of Play. I dare say that no one has captured a conglomerate of mostly pathetic creatures in whose hands our lives have sadly been thrusted better than this erudite scholar. Thanks to Ibrahim Babangida’s elevation of the new greed (he misnamed them “breed”) the transformation of our politics into a banditry and predatory circus has taken a full swing. Veterans of crime-cocaine pushers, 419ners, armed robbers,professional pimps, assassins, certificate forgers and allied misfits have found politics as the new crime you can engage in without much fear of doing time.

So it was one day that Senator Nuhu Aliyu got up on the floor of our Senate to scream “Point of order, Mr. Senate President, there are criminals on this floor.” Although he was eventually shut down, it has been alleged that the former Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, was moved to shout when he saw a man he once arrested for robbery sitting with him in the chambers as a “distinguished senator! ”

Our county is in the firm grips of these beings and we go to all sorts of prayer grounds asking God to prosper our land. We have forgotten that God operates by immutable laws of sowing and reaping. Can a man plant cassava and reap yam? It is apparent that the Class of 1966 has destroyed the political class in Nigeria but we didn’t appreciate the disaster they wrought on us. They deliberately programmed us for national failure for the sake of their private gains and we still cheer them as our “navigators”.

I recall as a youngster how we ran after Awolowo for kilometres whenever he came on campaign ground screaming “Awo” without taking a dime from anyone. We quoted him, Zik, Aminu Kano, Mbadiwe and other thinkers with relish. In the Second Republic, we sat glued to our TV sets whenever the Senate was in session. It was not for “Ajekun iya ni o je” but for eloquent and erudite submissions by the likes of Senators Abraham Adesanya, Jonathan Odebiyi, Banji Akintoye, David Oke, Cornelius Adebayo and their real distinguished colleagues across the land. In the last 18 years of our civil rule, there is no politician who has given us a good quote line!

Hopeless politics: Nothing typifies the hopelessness of our politics than the present health challenge of our president and the uncertainty in the land. There is palpable anxiety and the only group that is doing anything are three members of the Class of 66: Generals Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdusalami Abubakar. The trio converged at the Minna residence of  General Babangida last week and it was alleged they met to find “solution” to our present challenge.

What came to mind immediately was how Babangida and company went to shop for Obasanjo in 1999 and the rest of us were like ballot boxes brought out on Election Day. After they enthroned Obasanjo, his testimonies afterwards has been “I picked Yar’Adua” and “I chose Jonathan” yet we trod and trot boastfully about our democracy.

Today, we have a ruling party that never became a political party though it was able to defeat the behemoth that was threatening to control Nigeria for 50 years. In two years it has been unable to put together a Board of Trustees. Its NEC has met only a few times with nothing serious communicated to the public. Only the promoters know how many factions they have been broken into in just two years in office. The absence of leadership by the ruling party is the very reason the “military wing” of the PDP is the only group active on the scene today and scheming to pilot our future once again.

Two of the trio who met in Minna had a spat years back with one calling the other a “fool” and the other responding that he is a “greater fool”. Pastor Tunde Bakare waded in then that it takes a country of “idiots” to be governed by “fools”. This country is going nowhere for as long as we are in the hands of the current political operators in Nigeria-APC, PDP or whatever. The tragedy of our situation is that every now and then, I meet Nigerians who are intelligent enough to give leadership to any country in the world but are not interested in getting involved in politics.

The ones who have shown interest in politics are scheming to be vice-president or ministers under the dregs. Ask any of them to tell you who should be the next President of Nigeria, they would reel out names from the club of dregs but not among themselves. They have abandoned the space for ruiners  and people who have no vision or mission for the society. In every election cycle, those who could give leadership to the country line up to make choices among those who should not chest out for leadership in any country that wants to fulfill destiny. They are good at holding pity party without addressing the foundation of our crisis.They have surrendered to the rule of dregs and they still hope things would get better.

Dregs in charge: By the way, Glenn Beck spoke about dregs “I have been surprised at finding so many uneducated people who do not know about the dregs of society. Dregs are the least valuable part of anything: the dregs of society are the least valuable parts of society – those who do not contribute anything, those who take, those who depend upon living off others – they also can be defined as “parasites”.  Humans have the ability to transform from parasites into contributing members of society, if they have ambition and a willingness to learn.”

The rule of dregs will lead to what Any Rand depicted of a domed society:

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.”

Unitary constitution

I am for restructuring of Nigeria. I am in complete agreement with Chief  Obafemi Awolowo when he wrote in 1967: “Besides, it is not difficult to forecast that the work of government in Nigeria under a unitary constitution is bound to become unduly complex, inextricably tangled, extremely unwieldy and wasteful, and productive of disunity and discontent amongst the people. Unless we have veritable supermen at the helm of affairs, the administrative machinery would eventually disintegrate and break down under the crushing weight of ‘bureaucratic centralism” —Obafemij Awolowo in Thoughts On The Nigerian Constitution (1967) on page 56.

Nigeria will go under if we don’t restructure. But I am now fully persuaded that a restructured polity also needs noblemen and women to run its affairs.They abound in our polity and they must begin to step forward now to join a sprinkling who are currently on the scene to change the game.A gathering of the nobles is required at times like this.

 

Feedback

Re: Daura State Security?

THANK you for your article with the above topic. The appointments and some  actions of the President makes me think he takes the unity and the future of Nigeria for granted. Like the ex-military man that he is, he thinks that he can always have his way by clamping down all opposition and dissenting voices.

It is obvious that that he is heading towards creating a private police with his Daura State Security. It is likely that the President may knowingly or unknowingly be working towards the restructuring or disintegration of Nigeria. Very soon Nigerians will tell him enough  is enough.

—Tony Ekwe.

 

 

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