It is becoming evident by the day that President Yar’Adua has promised far more than he had originally envisioned (or aptly hallucinated) during the run up to his inaugural ceremony. It was barely twenty-one months ago that the phrase ‘servant-leader’ ignited a patriotic Hope for visionary leadership in our national psyche. Then, Hope was credible and substantive considering the promisor had discharged his duties effectively as the Governor of Katsina state. His political and ancestral antecedents lent seeming credence to his clamoured pledge; although the process that brought about his ascension reeked of unspeakable malfeasance. Yet, we invested our trust in his laudable words. We deposited our benefit (of doubts) in his 7-point agenda. And being the first university graduate President; we thought we had made an informed decision. With bated breath we have waited for twenty-one months for the dividends of the Hope we’d invested in the ‘servant-leader’. But recent socio-political events in our nation portend yet another monumental calamity for Hope.

It is apparent that the Yar’Adua administration’s commitment to the anti-graft campaign has been anything but substantive. From the ongoing political persecution of Messrs Ribadu and El Rufai to the self-induced comatose visited on the EFCC by Messrs Ibori and Saraki through their hatchet-woman. And from the recent assignment of Prof. Dora Akunyili to a portfolio that seem (with glaring intent and purposes) like a poisoned chalet to the phenomenal conundrum visited on the polity by the paraplegic implementation of the 2008 budget. It is clear as ‘pure water’ (distilled in Oshodi Market) that Yar’Adua’s 7-point agenda is a veritable dissertation on ‘scamology’ (a.k.a.419). I will not be totally bemused if it comes to light in the future that the 7-point agenda was plagiarised from Wikipedia. A president that failed to deliver a much clamoured cabinet reshuffle in a timely, decisive and effective fashion cannot be reasonably expected to co-ordinate the resources and demonstrate the uncanny resourcefulness and strategic leadership that is requisite in bringing about  sustainable step changes in the material fortune of Nigeria.

Our hopes and expectations were raised when Yar’Adua was pronounced as the first university graduate to preside over the affairs of our country. We expected, in the least, an erudite and analytical approach in decision-making and public administration. Two years on, we are still to perceive a semblance of clarity of vision and intellectual acumen from the ‘servant-leader’ who whipped up our patriotic passion in his inaugural speech. And there seem to be no let up in the myriads of strategically deficient and corporately flawed decisions from this administration. Most compounding is the continued macabre dance in the Northernisation of key national public positions with the consequential national haemorrhage of meritorious men and women who can chaperon us to the Promised Land.  

If Yar’Adua was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a flagging corporate business, who two-years into his tenure has not implemented a single strategic business decision that has translated into an effective and practical operational success for the company: undoubtedly, there will be a groundswell clamour for his immediate resignation for non-performance and gross incompetence. But that is not the political nuance of our beloved country. Instead, we are perpetually foisted with men who are proficiently deficient in the art of national leadership. Men whose uncanny abilities are best displayed in railroading our national aspiration (and necessity) to full democratisation of our political system. Men who will expend every effort to forestall the Nigerian electorate from passing equitable electoral judgement on their years of bench-warming and visionless rulership.

Consequently, the mass majority of our compatriots are continually are abandoned to the vagaries of untoward hardship and unholy destitution of their material and psychological well-being. Hence a university degree has become a requisite qualification for armed robber, and the Niger Delta militant groups have become the most resourceful graduate recruitment enterprise. Whilst there is total impasse in Yar ‘Adua’s 7-point agenda as it relates to science and technology developments; the sheer proficiency and dastard wizardry of ‘graduate’ armed robbers’ as demonstrated in recent robbery onslaught on some major Banks is evident of the socio-economic implosion that is imminent in Nigeria. Gone are the days when less-informed armed robbers toiled from door-to-door harassing innocent residents. Modern day ‘graduate’ marauders are adept at maximize their gains/loot without breaking a sweat. They travel to their ‘operation point’ in speed boats, and with flagrant impunity they target commercial banks and their ‘well-loaded’ bullion vans. Policemen pose no deterrent or threat, for they are armed with mere ‘dane guns’. The Inspector General and his potbelly cohort have ‘presided over’ the lion share of the fund meant for arms procurement. And the litany of wailing and suffering prevails on the land and the ‘servant leader’ continues to procrastinate on his inaugural pledges. While his lieutenants intensifies their rape on the national treasury and the ravenous mortgage of our national future on the sub-prime market of institutionalised corruption.

Femi Moronwiyan

Frimley Green, UK

Robot  # 1 | 31.12.2008 05:11

It is becoming evident by the day that President Yar’Adua has promised far more than he had originally envisioned (or aptly hallucinated) during the run up to his inaugural ceremony. It was barely twenty-one months ago that the phrase ‘servant-leader’ ignited a patriotic Hope for visionary leadership in our national psyche. But recent socio-political events in our nation portend yet another monumental calamity for hope. ...Read the full article.

folashade  # 2 | 29.01.2009 11:04

Umaru Musa Yar'adua is simply not worth the rant. I would'nt break sweat if I were you but rather reserve my energy for more intellectually stimulating subjects. His government has given the word ' incompetence' a new meaning, his insouciant demeanour will sour a pot of soup and his parody of a cabinet reminds me of Snow-white's seven dwarfs. You cannot expect a man that is blind to lead the way with a torchlight. Thanks all the same!