Date Published: 05/21/09
Yar’Adua Vs Atiku : Who Holds the Ace?
By Edward Wabundani
Nigeria is no longer working. Our leaders have failed us. We have reached a point of no return. Nigerians should wake up and scout for an alternative leader. The leader who can create a new context, through which he can view our collective desires as a people. We need a leader who can direct his attention away from the distracting details of governance. But from such perspectives such a person will examine and explore ways to handle head long, the challenges facing our great nation.
This is imperative taking into cognizance the lacklustre performance of President Umaru Yaradua’s administration in the last two years. The fact remains that the administration has failed to demonstrate leadership. Evidently it lacks focus. Instead of taking deliberate steps to prosecute people-oriented policies that would uplift the larger society and return the country to strength and prosperity, the government seems to follow the same retrogressive and vindictive footsteps of the country’s immediate past maximum leader, General Olusejun Obasanjo.
From indications, one of the lessons Yar’Adua religiously learnt from his benefactor is speaking from both sides of his mouth. This is exemplified in his (Yar’Adua’s) reluctance to speed up his earlier resolve to implement the Justice Mohammad Uwais Report on Electoral Reforms. Similarly, the government’s partisanship demonstrated in the outcome of the recent governorship re-run elections in Ekiti State and Local Government elections in Hong, Michika, Shelleng and Lamurde in Adamawa State are equal pointers to Yar’Adua’s double standard in the much talked about fulcrum of the rule of law and due process. No one seems to take the President and his team serious on any policy issue any longer.
That is why most Nigerians seem to be regretting they are citizens. Each time they drive on the roads, they get angry that the roads are bad. When they switch on light either in the house or office, there is permanently no light. The hospitals do not have drugs-they are more or less consulting centres. The taps have remained permanently dry. The costs of foodstuff in the market have soared up by over 300 percent. Unlike before, human beings now scavenge for food in the dustbins. Each time the organized labour embarks on strike to press for their welfare, Nigerians get angry, agitated and distressed.
Inspite of the government’s seven point agenda, to better the lots of Nigerians, the country’s most dangerous reality poverty, caused by lack of a purposeful leadership has driven out the youths into numerous crimes such as 419, drug abuse and all manners of shady deals. The country is enveloped in gloom and despondency, just as poverty is making mincemeat of Nigerians. This is simply due to the fact that, Mr. President and his co-travellers have failed to deliver dividends of democracy to the people.
Despite Mr. Yar’Adua’s loud noise about the ills associated with corruption and his pledge to stamp it out of the polity, the malaise has continued unabated. The government which seemed to be obsessed with paying lip service to such sensitive issues has so far neither convicted any culprit nor has it frontally tackled the menace.
Unemployment is another cankerworm that the Yar’Adua regime wants Nigerians to believe it will tackle under his seven point agenda. He claimed that his government will concentrate on giving functional vocational training to job seekers and encourage the training of existing labour force to meet industry demands. But alas, this was not to be 2 years into the first term of this administration. This is because from records available at the National Directorate of Employment, and the Labour Ministry, the numerical strength of unemployed graduates for instance, has reached an alarming rate.
These challenges are as a result of bad leadership. The leadership that lacks vision and direction. The one that alienates every other Nigerian, with the exception of the few cabals privileged to be appointed by the administration to stir the ship of governance. It is unarguably that some of the factors responsible for this government’s inability to perform are the fundamental basis of their appointment. Most if not all of the appointees are believed to have been appointed simply on some mundane considerations such as religious background, sectional and family relationship.
It is against this background that Nigerians need to commence the search for a possible remedy of the ugly situation. The overall aim is to rectify the problem associated with the country’s crisis of confidence in leadership in which it found itself. Consequent upon that, the person so chosen should be able to evolve a workable development agenda for sustainable socio-economic reforms and political stability.
The Turaki Adamawa and immediate past Vice President Atiku Abubakar fits this cap. The man, considering his wealth of experience in governance has what it takes to strengthen our democratic institution which currently has reached a near comatose level. As a man of profound wisdom, the Atiku Presidency would improve the quality of life of Nigerians. This he would do, through effective concentration on priority areas like the economy, creating gainful employment and ensuring accelerated infrastructure development. Atiku’s humility and transparent ordinariness for a man of his class is simply amazing. It could only have come from the heart, maybe a preordained benefactor of mankind. He loves working with all categories of people irrespective of religious, sectional and other parochial considerations. Therefore, I have no doubt in my mind that if given the chance to rule as Nigeria’s President in 2011, the man will carry everybody along in the Nigerian project. For instance, employment generation, war against corruption, democracy and good governance, education and social services are among the programmes that require immediate interventions as a matter of priority.
These initiatives are practical and attainable by any responsible government especially at the national level. Their attainment will no doubt require a paradigm shift; to make it leaner and better managed for effective result. The Atiku Presidency if given the mandate will reengineer the current reform system in order that benefits accruable from them are targeted frontally.
The fate of under development facing Nigeria under the present administration is attributed to the ruling PDP’s disdain for due process and finesse. Even from its formation level, the PDP leadership enthroned the culture of impunity as epitomized by the flagrant disregard for ethics of democracy and good governance. Both Mr. President and members of his cabinet have incurred the wrath of the electorate. No amount of federal might or PDP fortress can rescue them from the impending catastrophe. But surely, there is no doubt; Atiku Abubakar can rescue the rest of us.
Edward wabundani can be reached on quiveer@yahoo.com.
