Our President and His Critics At Large 
 

      As a student of political history one is fairly exposed and aware of what obtains in other countries, developed or developing.  When democracies or others that aspire to become democracies are engaged in political or policy debates their leaders know that the inherent freedom of speech, the limitation of which is always decided by the courts, provides a huge canopy for people with varying kinds of ideas to say their minds.  One regular attitude observable in our polity (Nigeria) is a high degree of intolerance and resentment to unfavorable and unsupportive comments or criticisms because we have not acquired democratic values as a people.

      According to the Punch publications of Wednesday March 14, 2007, our president was quoted as follows: “my critics are empty and jealous”.  As a lame-duck president who is due to leave office in two months, the statement of the President constitutes an amusement.  As a Nigerian patriot, I feel obliged to study the behavior, utterances, style and the general attitude of many of our political leaders in the political environment in which they live and dispense their abilities and talents in the societal and public institutions within which they operate either as builders or destroyers.  When our President says that his critics are empty and jealous of him, one wonders what he means.  First, criticism is borne out of disagreement, dissatisfaction, opposition and such other feelings.  The critics themselves could belong to several categories of thinkers in relation to what they are criticizing or whoever they criticize.  They may belong to a class of one’s admirers, or non-admirers who do not mean any harm.  They may belong to the opposition group which is only trying to be heard and at the same time offer an alternative view point.  A criticism does not have to carry an alternative view point even though an alternative view point is not ruled out of an initial criticism.  Our president’s view may be correct in a way but not in a large measure.  Anyone who is privileged to be elected an executive President; that is, an elected public official combining Head of State position with that of Head of government may be short-sighted to make such a comment. Someone wrote a critique of Open University system in which he raised doubts about the President fulfilling the same academic conditions in his line of study as ordinary students.  This critic, to my mind, raised a salient point.  Who does not know throughout the world that our country Nigeria is a leading member of corrupt nations?  As a former senior lecturer in a Nigerian University, I know many of our ex-military officers who received their degrees on platters of gold.  In other words, the first degrees awarded to these ex-military officers and some of their wives too were compromised.  Is there any conscientious Nigerian who will reject this true revelation of things as exposed above?  That is what contemporary Nigeria is all about.  But we should want to improve and do better and that is why it is crucial today to join the crusade for political, economic, social and moral reforms on behalf of ourselves and our off-springs.

      Mr. President sir, do you think your critic is empty when your government is described as being lawless?  But your government is truly lawless and there are many instances to prove that your government is a lawless government.  A lay man like me knows that by law you have no right as President to withhold any financial allocation to any state or local government.  You cannot find such a power for your office in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.  Why would you withhold the allocation of the entire Lagos State’s Local Governments establishment?  Why won’t you comply with the Supreme Court ruling in favour of Lagos State Government since then?  Why would one of our great jurists Prince Bola Ajibola and some other meaningful citizens have to intervene only to secure a partial payment to Lagos State because of your adamant, intransigent and unlawful posture to satisfy your ego as President? What is empty in the above criticism?  None.

      Mr. President sir, who could be jealous of you? And why?  At the point of termination of your tenure in governance, the entire country is still in the dark, that is, the un-interrupted electricity supply you promised in 1999 has not materialized.  Unemployment today is worse than when you took over government in 1999.  Insecurity of life and property are worse during your governance than the hopeless, purposeless and absolutely corrupt military government that you succeeded. The ugly and unnecessary kidnapping and other violent activities of MEND have frustrated your government because you have no clue to the injustices the Niger Delta people proved to the world beyond any reasonable doubt. The information ‘explosion regime’ your government introduced to Nigeria had become an old order in both the Republics of Benin and Togo for many years before it arrived Nigeria in 2001.

               Though paying off Nigeria’s debt at the Paris Club is a remarkable achievement and a much applauded fundamental economic policy by the citizenry, yet the essential consequent options open to us as a financial giant among developing nations have not been explored till this moment. Paying off our debt to our traditional lenders is not smart enough, if we fail to fully utilize all the inherent yet available economic opportunities the policy presented as a result of our new status as a non-debtor nation. In our bold effort and peculiar circumstance as a developing nation, free of a common economic problem that usually debilitate and stifle development in the ‘third world’, we need to propel ourselves forward by using our wealth in securing our economic future. I am sure that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala knows the next step to take and this is why those of us who try to study the events at the Obasanjo presidency feel that the brilliant and knowledgeable Finance Minister should have been retained even beyond May 29, 2007 if the new President would consider such a retention appropriate and reasonable.

                If the President is not jealous of his own position in the Nigerian political arrangement, why did he contrive the ‘third term’? A true, committed and principled patriot and leader in the Nigerian situation and political antecedent would not contemplate an extension of tenure but would rather strive to promote the virtues of democracy and establish the institutions which will help it grow. As a people, we need to initiate and begin to promote some modern political culture that will continue to sustain our love and enthusiasm in the development of democracy. There is so much in our traditional ways of life that can help us establish a modern approach to a new national political life. There are others too we would also need to abandon in order to allow the virtues of democracy become more acceptable to our national political life.

              Mr. President sir, some of us ordinary citizens who are genuinely interested in the social, political and economic advancement of Nigeria, follow your style of delivery of general policy obligations, your mood, your interest, your political disposition, your professional antecedent in relation to your present official status, your view of Nigeria in Africa and the World and most importantly your personal relationship with those who surround you officially and within your political party; the PDP. If you really believe that your critics are empty and jealous of you, that kind of comment coming from our President, must have resulted from a narrow view of what you represent officially in the scheme of a developing nation such as ours. This observer thinks that you have neither done enough nor achieved enough, given all the resources available to you in terms of human and material resources and their qualities. The South-West which used to be known as Western Region comparatively remains the most developed physically and economically in Nigeria. The material and human resources available to the Regional government at that time can be estimated to be a small fraction of what is available to your government today at the federal level and the state governments where most of your governors shamefully maximize their 419 vices. In most instances, Mr. President, your critics are more of patriotic inkling than being empty vessels and there is nothing to be jealous of in your presidency. Your legacy may likely create bitter disagreements among historians. 
 
 
 
 

Bankole A Okuwa Ph. D.

Professor of Political Science.