NIGERIA: RUDDERLESS GIANT ON A BLIND ALLEY

NIGERIA: RUDDERLESS GIANT ON A BLIND ALLEY
By Mas Damisa
Giants, whether animals (like elephant) or man are not known to be physically smart or fast in movement. There are exceptions, though. Those trained to do so and who subjected themselves to the required discipline are different. They could run unbelievably faster than normal.
However, countries or nations could choose how to move. They could move either slowly or fastly as they choose. China, India and Indonesia are large countries that have chosen the fast lane. Their economic, industrial, technological strides and political stability are testimonies of their choice.
Although Nigeria is in the league of giant countries, her choice appears to have been to crawl conveniently. A rudderless ship sailing on a blind-alley? Y-e-s! No country develops economically or technologically without first making a good choice of a suitable political system, except Nigeria. Lets get the facts right by going back on memory lane.
Alh. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was made the Prime Minister in 1957 by the British Colonial masters, and they also conducted the 1959 pre-independence general elections which returned him as Prime Minister. Opposition parties and progressive forces believed that the 1959 elections was rigged in favour of the conservative Northern Peoples Congress who was favoured by the British Colonialists to lead Nigeria to independence in 1960. The Balewa government could not conduct a credible election in 1963 as the year’s election ended in dispute even though it was eventually awarded to the NPC. Balewa and NPC’s interference in the Western Regional affairs in 1962 disabled them from conducting a free and fair elections thereafter and so, Balewa’s federal government wobbled on till January 1966 when the army decided to terminate it via a coup de-tat. Thus the first republic ended in a fiasco.
The nature of military regimes made them undemocratic, arbitrary and dictatorial, and so were regimes laden with impunity that could not have been the choice of the people but imposed on them by external forces. From General J.T. Aguiyi-Ironsi, to General Yakubu Gowon, General Murtala Muhammed, and General Olusegun Obasanjo (1966-1979) Nigeria’s geo-political structures, administrative and economic systems were mutilated beyond redemption. Thus ended 13 years of political insanity.
Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo starving to make history as the first military head of state to voluntarily hand over power to civilians, and deviously determined to do so with a view of covering-up his corrupt practices in government, made the choice of Alh. Shehu Shagari as the man, among better men of excellent track records. The defining character of Shehu Shagari’s regime can be summarized in two words: corruption and ineptitude! Worse still, the 1983 general election was massively rigged to return Shagari, which the military lapped on to topple his government in December 1983.
Given the rot in the system, the army led by Gen. Muhammed Buhari tried to sanitize the polity, enthrone discipline and put in place an appropriate fiscal policy but his regime was cut short by a combination of subversion and inordinate political ambition within the armed forces on one hand, and the perceived high-handed and ethnic bias of the Buhari regime, on the other hand.
If there is any regime in Nigeria that could be defined as incurably deceitful, full of policy inanities and irredeemably corrupt then General Ibrahim Babangida’s government earns the trophy. He conducted the freest and fairest general election so far but frittered the accolade by annulling the same elections, thus aborting the epoch of a truly electoral representative government of the people! He left office after he defecated governance with faeces called Interim Government headed by a Shonekan whom Babaginda single-handedly appointed. There is nothing useful to say for the three-month tenure of Earnest Shonekan who was shoved away by Gen. Sani Abacha.
Between 1983 to 1999 (16 years) the military embarked on a relay race between generals in governance and made a thorough mess of it as before. Cooling off in prison, having been convicted of treasonable felony by Sani Abacha, General Olusegun Obasanjo was foisted on Nigerians by the military regime of General Abubakar Abdusalami in 1999 as against Chief Olu Falae for whom the people voted. Of course, Obasanjo awarded himself a second term of office in 2003 via a heavily rigged election and made it worse in 2007 when he inflicted on the country the most perversed election in history. The chief beneficiary of the so-called election, late Presidet Umaru Musa Yara’dua himself admitted he came into office via a ‘flawed’ election. At his demise on May 5, 2010, Dr. Jonathan Goodluck who, via a strange “doctrine of necessity” was made an acting President in February was sworn in as substantive President. So what are we saying all this while?
It is that in the 50 years of existence as an independent country, Nigeria has never really had a Prime Minister or President that was actually elected by the people! They were always imposed either by colonial agents, the military high command, rigged election or the doctrine of necessity!
Any wonder that Nigeria never had a good and appropriate national direction? And this because none of her leaders ever had the peoples’ mandate? And so, if Nigeria is described as a rudderless giant on a blind alley, is the assertion factual, accurate and sincere, or unpatriotic and harsh?
What hope is there that the government of President Goodluck Jonathan will give Nigeria a free and fair election in 2011? This question needs further emphasis because his political party, the People Democratic Party (P.D.P.) has proved beyond doubt that its enslaved to a do-or die election. If there is any hope at all, it certainly is not in P.D.P. or its government but on God and the people!