03 Nov 2007 |
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An open letter to Hon.D.S.Bankole After the charade that passed as election in April this year, I adopted a “siddon look” attitude towards Nigerian politics. I watched like many other Nigerians as former President Olusegun Obasanjo waged an assault on all facets of democracy, banning candidate A, selecting candidate B, juxtaposing candidate C and committing all sorts of atrocities. No where is his malfeasance so repugnant than in the national assembly. A body designed to be the epitome of what is good in a democracy and one that represents the nation's diversity. The election that brought a lot of our assembly men and women can not be said to be fair and democratic. Least of all it can not be said to represent the wishes of the Nigerian people. The leadership that was foisted on the national assembly was intellectually shallow and tarred with integrity issues. It is more pronounced in the house of assembly, David Mark and Patricia Etteh's biggest qualification was their closeness to the former president. Of the two, the latter is the most intellectually challenged. It did not take long before the nation saw what many of us had already seen. When I heard about your nomination for the exalted office of the speaker of the House of Representtatives, I said a silent prayer. I have never met you nor do I know you personally but your education/resume stands you in good stead. Your peers will later elect you as their speaker and thus confirm what many of us thought will usher in perhaps Nigerians finest hours. As a caution, I must warn you that this opportunity comes with an enormous amount of responsibility. As a member of my generation, your new position comes with even more scrutiny. You belong to a generation that is perhaps the most travelled and one of the most read generation in Nigeria today. We are also known to be passionate about Nigeria, frequently writing and pontificating from a supposed higher moral ground. Now that you are in office, you go into that exalted job with the assets and liabilities of your generation. I must say that it is in our collective interest that you succeed in your new assignment. It is in the light of this that I write you this letter. I implore you to pay attention to your friends as well as your critics, even more so to your critics. You will not be an effective leader if all you want to hear is what pleases you. Our friends are reassuring while our critics keep us grounded. They are not mutually exclusive. While your ascendancy was largely in part because of the zoning arrangement in your party and the April election that got you a seat in the national assembly has been condemned as not free and fair, it does not have to be this way. Posterity demands that together with the intellectual gadfly Hon. Farouk lawan of the integrity group, you come up with ways to reverse the decline of democracy in Nigeria. Before we become another case study of democratic failures such as Ecuador, progressive individuals like yourself have what it takes to arrest this development. As a first step, you have to start work on the constitution, the framers of the Nigerian constitution left many questioins unanswered and many gaping holes. On their part, (the framers) have done their best. The task of amending the constitution now falls on this national assembly and particularly this new leadership. Many of the issues that you will tackle will include but not limited to electoral reform, state and local government autonomy, the immunity clause, government accountability, social security and revenue allocation among other urgent national issues. At the moment, Nigeria is not your typical federal state, it is more of a unitary state with a presidential system, it is your job to change this. Now to the issue of zoning as adopted by the PDP, it is my humble belief that together with other progressive elements within the national assembly you find ways to jettison this undemocratic way of choosing leaders. The party of Donald Duke, D.S.Bankole, Farouk Lawan et al can not be said to suffer from a lack of political leadership. In the days and months ahead, I will be writing you as the need arise, be assured however that you will be in our thoughts and prayers. Here is wishing you a successful tenure. Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia writes from Indianapolis, Indiana and can be reached at abdu_mumi@yahoo.co.uk
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