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JONATHAN’S
LAST FEC MEETING—President Goodluck Jonathan (8th L); Vice President Namadi
Sambo (7th L); with Federal Executive Council, FEC, members after the
valedictory council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. Photo:
NAN.
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By Tabia Princewill
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it
was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of
hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing
before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way”.
This quote by Charles
Dickens personifies the Nigerian story and the constant battle for our
country’s soul.
The war is fought, on one
hand, by feeding falsehood (based mostly on sentiment and ethnicity) to the
undiscerning masses and nurturing our people’s penchant for ill-informed ideas,
therefore building support for irresponsible, negligent leaders. Jonathan’s men
didn’t create the system all of this is based on but they certainly helped
perfect it.
And in a curious turn of
events which amounts to nothing more than the dumbing down of our public
discourse, whereby, as they would clearly like it, common standards of justice
or personal conscience should no longer hold sway, they expect that all should
be forgiven simply because they agreed to concede defeat.
If one told all the
swindlers, thieves, con artists or murderers out there that all one needed to
do to be pardoned, or to go free was to “admit” or “concede” defeat, the
world’s prisons would surely be empty, and crime rates would assuredly sky
rocket.
Conception of justice
Is this the message we
want to send? That in Nigeria, no matter the evidence available, so long as one
is rich and powerful, some people are continuously above the law? What an
infantile, self-serving conception of justice. What blatant disdain and hatred
for the common man: do the poor get justice?
The rule of law the peace
committee calls for, in dealing with Jonathan’s men, which is simply code for
being pampered and handled with kid gloves, does not apply for the average
Nigerian. The EFCC courteously “invites” politicians in for a chat (they can
refuse to come, they can even refuse to attend their own court hearing) but the
poor are carted off in police trucks for petty offenses, some never to be seen
again, awaiting a day in court that never comes.
I hear eminent Nigerians
defend the indefensible, using childlike arguments and ideas to mask their
support for incomprehensible evil. The former President’s men asking for more
“respect” for their boss shows just how much politicians completely
misunderstand the concept.
Respect for our leaders
or rather, for the office they occupy does not make them untouchable or
godlike, nor does it mean we must ignore their erring should it occur.
If Jonathan fought
corruption as vigorously as it is now claimed, why did he pardon Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha? Why does everyone accused of corruption claim to be
misunderstood? Why did he give posthumous honours to dictators?
What favour did he need
to curry, him, a President? If the PDP governed Nigeria with such virtuousness,
why did it become a collection of “bad boys” running for office?
The candidates it
presented under the former President in particular, had infamous rap sheets in
and outside Nigeria, aka “records of arrest and prosecution sheets”. They were
known for their dodgy dealings.
Some of the President’s
closest allies were too. All the bad boys, the hustlers, sometimes alleged
murderers whom even Obasanjo had quieted down and somewhat distanced the PDP
from where seemingly let loose under Jonathan.
That he didn’t know of their
activities is frightening: who then was in control? Many feel it is the
untenable defense of a village boy who unexpectedly came to power and wanted to
act as the “big boys” did before him, “chop and clean mouth” but without the
networks, or the devilish cunning and sophistication of a Maradona to get away
with it.
But that was another era.
The excuse that some others before have gone free will never make murder
acceptable in society so why corruption? It isn’t an ethnic based gang up, a
North vs. South affair, which the dumbing down of our public discourse portrays
it to be.
It’s the return of law
and order, the appointment of a competent sheriff who says in his town, cowboys
will no longer so much as spit on the sidewalk without a fine.
It took a Hausa man to
order the cleanup of Ogoniland. It’s a slap in the face of ethnic
politics, so it stunned many that Buhari should concern himself with a region
which viciously and virulently attacked him, spurred on by the antiquated
ethno-religious beliefs of Jonathan’s nearest and dearest.
Northern members of the
PDP were uncomfortable with such a stance, as was any decent, rational Nigerian
who knows a man can be good or bad no matter where he is from.Jonathan’s men
polarized us based on our origins, making us talk about where people were from
so we wouldn’t notice what they did or didn’t do, ushering with the help or
suggestion of one Marilyn Ogar, who is happily now only a footnote of an
unhappy time, state security into electoral matters, a further absurd but
dangerous development.
Dangerous development
Those times of confusion
and lawlessness will not be missed. Shakespeare once said: “love all, trust a
few, do wrong to none”.
The PDP under Jonathan
loved all (its members), trusted all (those who were part of the would-be Niger
Delta cause which apparently ended up being code for the indiscriminate looting
and impoverishment of all), and therefore wronged all.
How many ordinary people
in the Niger Delta have benefitted from the Jonathan years? Yet, all the pipeline
vandals- criminals in other climes – are now dollar millionaires while the
Niger Deltans or Nigerians with day jobs suffer immensely from bad roads and
poor power supply.
Federal Government appointments
WE must see the futility
of appointments going to any particular person or group not based on
competence, but on their tribe or state. How does one build a modern, efficient
civil service or government with such unfortunate, provincial thinking?
Federal character served
its purpose but in a modern Nigeria it serves only to ignite old hurts and
hatred, especially in a post-Jonathan era where campaigns were ethnic based and
the South-South’s loss of power creates a psychosis, a loss of contact with
reality or a fixation over being left out, whereas in our nation’s history, the
South-East continuously decided of its own accord, to isolate itself from the
rest of Nigeria.
The psychosis might be
born from real, past injustices, but today it is time to come back to the table
of adult negotiation and hard work rather than hiding behind a “nobody likes
us” mantra, like school children on a playground. When will the specter of
Biafra cease to determine all ideas in the South-East?
At what point did the
Jews decide after the Holocaust that rather than obsess about Germany and the
wrongs done to them, they would work hard to bring prosperity to their land?
Governors of Igbo states haven’t done particularly well in terms of social
spending and generating revenue for their citizens.
That has nothing to do with
Buhari. After 16 years of single party dominance Nigeria should look like
Singapore after Lee Kuan Yew. But in the usual dumbing down of our politics,
politicians will focus on ethnic based attacks and sentiments to hide their
failures.
Tabia Princewill writes the Vanguard column, Tip of a New Dawn. This piece was originally published in Vanguard
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