Nigeria: Yar'Adua's Slow Motion Picture
Prince Charles Dickson
There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organisation, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators, or that lays the basis for institutional change - and the kind of commitment that will persist, despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future. – Noam Chomsky.
Precisely one year ago, yours sincerely wrote an essay, titled, But...Yar'Adua Has No Magic Answers. In the last one month, it is becoming very clear that except a miracle happens, we are in for some more hardship for another few years. It has been difficult to say that this exactly is where President Umaru Yar'Adua is heading.
GA_googleFillSlot("AllAfrica_Story_Inset");
Despite the best of efforts, analytical commentaries, sights from the crystal ball and all the rumours, we are yet to get a clear picture. While many have asked for more time, others have questioned how long Nigerians will have to wait. Many say he has a plan, others say he is a stooge. We are still to get a cure for our expectation fatigue.
There has always been the need to be focused and plan, and how the lack of it can cause problems. Also, there is no use running when you are going in the wrong direction, so we may as well go slowly. There is however, no problem with that, as long as it is not slow and unsteady. But the fear still remains that we may be doomed if this 'go-slowly' leads to nowhere.
A cursory look at the policy thrust of this government is the very essence of one's lamentation. For those who have asked for more time, it is necessary to note that a change in government, if free, fair and credible, does not mean that government should restart its engine. On the contrary, it calls for a refuelling and moving ahead. Our experience is that government has to start all over again, and the same old music is remixed, and few months after, we notice the same old thread in action. Has it occurred to us that the same issues that the last administration sought to solve, or make jest of, is the same ones we are facing again?
We have sent Ribadu to school, brought Waziri in and danced around Grange and Iyabo. Again, the Ibori, Igbinedion and other ex-governors' saga has not stopped. In the words of Senator Chukwumerije, the Senate has been neither here nor there. This brings to mind when the late Okadigbo mused that he often slept off when he listened to the talk in the Senate.
The Yar'Adua government is still grappling with the Niger Delta question, setting up yet another committee. He is still on the electricity problem, which has seen a metamorphosis from NEPA to PHCN, to God-knows-what next. And as was stated by Audu Ogbeh in an interview, it is funny that you get into your house and see it flooded and rather than embark on a remedy, you declare an emergency. In this case, the emergency is even yet to be declared.
On the Niger Delta, the president's '90 days' has come and gone and one does not see the magic wand. After several truces, the kidnappings have continued. It has even become a profitable business venture with high returns. Children are now targets and plastic companies' staff, lecturers that are white and Nigerians that have white pigmentation, as well as footballers, etc, are not spared.
Can this government end it all? For power, one had thought there would be an insignificant improvement, and as one basked in that euphoria, we were brought back to reality, as electricity has become as scarce as looking for a pin in the ocean. Again, the date for realising peak mega watts has been shifted and this also comes with a drop in what has been achieved after the Mexican soap called 'power probe' orchestrated by the House of Representatives. It's all rubbish
How much will the Yar'Adua government spend on power, after the billions spent by Uncle Sege? Will Nigeria cease to be the favourite destination for Gasoline generator makers? He has given his own date for getting uninterrupted power supply.
The story of the sale of our refineries is one for another day, because after the reversals, nothing has yet been done. The truth is that there is no hope –no hope that PMS would ever sell for N50 in the next four years, whether deregulated, mal-regulated, dis-regulated, subsidised or unsubsidised.
Even with the increase in oil earnings, just like in the days of OBJ, it has continued with more money, more problems. It was Zora Neale Hurston that said, "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." Scary as this may be, we are still at the stage of asking questions. Leadership and the led have not shown considerable reason for one to believe that answers to the numerous problems hitting this nation is anywhere near at hand.
We take one, two and three glorious steps, and while the accolades are yet to subside, we take ten, twenty and thirty inglorious leaps backwards. Ordinarily, the attempt to form a unity government was one that on the surface, could have marked the beginning of a new era, but viewed against the backdrop of our presidential system in which the winner takes all, the fact that the party involved is PDP, the reality that we have never really had an opposition and the lack of bedrock of principle for the accord to work, the idea simply became a recipe for sealing the opposition that has not been too strong after a year.
A government of national unity actually says a lot about the lack of credibility. It speaks volumes of the absence of initiative. The present dispensation has not shown that it is honestly searching for the solution. Government apparatus have not been deployed to the fullest in tackling the core issues that face us as a nation. The common problems which we know are not mysterious, but need only a determined effort and collective will to be solved.
The Yar'Adua government needs to exhibit the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes inspired by the hope of a brighter future. This is so because, whether Soludo reels out the best micro-macro economic statistics of progress, whether the inflationary tables, at the CBN is beautiful or average, the truth on ground is that the nation would be doomed to repeating the last eight years not for lack of purpose, but for the refusal to learn from them.
One of the few achievements of the mistake called Obasanjo, was the fact that few institutions were strengthened by the weakness of that era. Prominent among the few was the judiciary– this being against the backdrop of a president that saw the law as a backyard bin of his Ota farm. However, recent rulings of the several election tribunals are again, posing the question – can the leopard change its spots?
The questions that need answers are: Will Yar'Adua not fight corruption with corruption? Will he allow the strides made by the judiciary to continue? Is he ready for a new improved Police Force? Any hope that the health sector, industries, power and education will be revived this time around? Is there any realistic hope that the new set of kids on the block have the magic wand? What would really change?
Except there is an honest search for understanding, education, organisation and action that would raise the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or lay the basis for institutional change, there will be no answers; rather, we would continually be plagued by the same questions.
Prince Charles Dickson
There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organisation, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators, or that lays the basis for institutional change - and the kind of commitment that will persist, despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future. – Noam Chomsky.
Precisely one year ago, yours sincerely wrote an essay, titled, But...Yar'Adua Has No Magic Answers. In the last one month, it is becoming very clear that except a miracle happens, we are in for some more hardship for another few years. It has been difficult to say that this exactly is where President Umaru Yar'Adua is heading.
GA_googleFillSlot("AllAfrica_Story_Inset");
Despite the best of efforts, analytical commentaries, sights from the crystal ball and all the rumours, we are yet to get a clear picture. While many have asked for more time, others have questioned how long Nigerians will have to wait. Many say he has a plan, others say he is a stooge. We are still to get a cure for our expectation fatigue.
There has always been the need to be focused and plan, and how the lack of it can cause problems. Also, there is no use running when you are going in the wrong direction, so we may as well go slowly. There is however, no problem with that, as long as it is not slow and unsteady. But the fear still remains that we may be doomed if this 'go-slowly' leads to nowhere.
A cursory look at the policy thrust of this government is the very essence of one's lamentation. For those who have asked for more time, it is necessary to note that a change in government, if free, fair and credible, does not mean that government should restart its engine. On the contrary, it calls for a refuelling and moving ahead. Our experience is that government has to start all over again, and the same old music is remixed, and few months after, we notice the same old thread in action. Has it occurred to us that the same issues that the last administration sought to solve, or make jest of, is the same ones we are facing again?
We have sent Ribadu to school, brought Waziri in and danced around Grange and Iyabo. Again, the Ibori, Igbinedion and other ex-governors' saga has not stopped. In the words of Senator Chukwumerije, the Senate has been neither here nor there. This brings to mind when the late Okadigbo mused that he often slept off when he listened to the talk in the Senate.
The Yar'Adua government is still grappling with the Niger Delta question, setting up yet another committee. He is still on the electricity problem, which has seen a metamorphosis from NEPA to PHCN, to God-knows-what next. And as was stated by Audu Ogbeh in an interview, it is funny that you get into your house and see it flooded and rather than embark on a remedy, you declare an emergency. In this case, the emergency is even yet to be declared.
On the Niger Delta, the president's '90 days' has come and gone and one does not see the magic wand. After several truces, the kidnappings have continued. It has even become a profitable business venture with high returns. Children are now targets and plastic companies' staff, lecturers that are white and Nigerians that have white pigmentation, as well as footballers, etc, are not spared.
Can this government end it all? For power, one had thought there would be an insignificant improvement, and as one basked in that euphoria, we were brought back to reality, as electricity has become as scarce as looking for a pin in the ocean. Again, the date for realising peak mega watts has been shifted and this also comes with a drop in what has been achieved after the Mexican soap called 'power probe' orchestrated by the House of Representatives. It's all rubbish
How much will the Yar'Adua government spend on power, after the billions spent by Uncle Sege? Will Nigeria cease to be the favourite destination for Gasoline generator makers? He has given his own date for getting uninterrupted power supply.
The story of the sale of our refineries is one for another day, because after the reversals, nothing has yet been done. The truth is that there is no hope –no hope that PMS would ever sell for N50 in the next four years, whether deregulated, mal-regulated, dis-regulated, subsidised or unsubsidised.
Even with the increase in oil earnings, just like in the days of OBJ, it has continued with more money, more problems. It was Zora Neale Hurston that said, "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." Scary as this may be, we are still at the stage of asking questions. Leadership and the led have not shown considerable reason for one to believe that answers to the numerous problems hitting this nation is anywhere near at hand.
We take one, two and three glorious steps, and while the accolades are yet to subside, we take ten, twenty and thirty inglorious leaps backwards. Ordinarily, the attempt to form a unity government was one that on the surface, could have marked the beginning of a new era, but viewed against the backdrop of our presidential system in which the winner takes all, the fact that the party involved is PDP, the reality that we have never really had an opposition and the lack of bedrock of principle for the accord to work, the idea simply became a recipe for sealing the opposition that has not been too strong after a year.
A government of national unity actually says a lot about the lack of credibility. It speaks volumes of the absence of initiative. The present dispensation has not shown that it is honestly searching for the solution. Government apparatus have not been deployed to the fullest in tackling the core issues that face us as a nation. The common problems which we know are not mysterious, but need only a determined effort and collective will to be solved.
The Yar'Adua government needs to exhibit the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes inspired by the hope of a brighter future. This is so because, whether Soludo reels out the best micro-macro economic statistics of progress, whether the inflationary tables, at the CBN is beautiful or average, the truth on ground is that the nation would be doomed to repeating the last eight years not for lack of purpose, but for the refusal to learn from them.
One of the few achievements of the mistake called Obasanjo, was the fact that few institutions were strengthened by the weakness of that era. Prominent among the few was the judiciary– this being against the backdrop of a president that saw the law as a backyard bin of his Ota farm. However, recent rulings of the several election tribunals are again, posing the question – can the leopard change its spots?
The questions that need answers are: Will Yar'Adua not fight corruption with corruption? Will he allow the strides made by the judiciary to continue? Is he ready for a new improved Police Force? Any hope that the health sector, industries, power and education will be revived this time around? Is there any realistic hope that the new set of kids on the block have the magic wand? What would really change?
Except there is an honest search for understanding, education, organisation and action that would raise the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or lay the basis for institutional change, there will be no answers; rather, we would continually be plagued by the same questions.
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