Shall we dance with the president? 

By Levi Obijiofor 

Friday, 17 August 2007 

One of the news stories that ought to catch our attention this week was the report that the Presidency was planning to celebrate the first 100 days of the installation of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government. Already, as The Guardian reported three days ago, a committee has been set up to oil the music drums, to prepare the meals and to select the best wines. In all counts, the proposed celebration is unwarranted. And I will explain why shortly. If he accedes to elaborate plans to mark his government’s first 100 days in office, at a cost yet to be determined, Yar’Adua would have demonstrated that he is not immuned, afterall, from the same virus that afflicts political and military leaders in Nigeria so soon after they assume office.  

Is a government’s survival in office for the first 100 days worthy of celebration? Perhaps it is, in the context of the history of the recent national elections and the rampant and audacious manner in which the elections were rigged. The “conquerors” of our votes should be excused for planning to celebrate their eminent victory. Just when Yar’Adua was beginning to receive media commendations for his first few splendid decisions and just when the nation was adjusting to a different style of people-oriented government, the Presidency and the Information and Communications Minister are proposing to dump a pot of political mess on Yar’Adua’s path. Yar’Adua must resist the temptation to regale himself with the smoothly choreographed achievements of his government. Celebrating the first 100 days in office is unnecessary, a waste of resources and a lousy way of stamping one’s authority on national problems. 

A report in The Guardian of Tuesday this week quoted Information and Communications Minister John Odey as saying that Yar’Adua’s first 100 days in office “will be used to assess the impact of government on key sectors of the economy, while the administration expects the media to highlight both the things that the government is doing right and things it is not doing correctly so that they could be addressed”. Well, in that case, let’s start with the things the president is not doing right because this farce called the president’s first 100 days in office is a gratuitous distraction from serious national issues. This proposed celebration of Yar’Adua’s first 100 days in office casts a huge insult on voters who elected Yar’Adua on the expectation that he would settle down to deal with huge economic and socio-political problems that afflict the nation.  

Yar’Adua must demonstrate that he is a serious president, not a president that promotes the epicurean philosophy of eating, drinking and merry-making on the belief that our lives would expire after tomorrow. A president who has been in office for just about three months should not be dancing to the fawning adulation of wolves and pretentious fans who are hugging the corridors of the presidential villa in search of favour, fame, contracts and money. Celebrating the first 100 days in office is inappropriate even if Yar’Adua’s government did not start the practice. It is also profoundly unethical for a newly elected government to be patting itself on the chest so early in its tenure.  

The Information and Communications Minister should be advised to reconsider his grandiloquent plans. A government is judged not by ministers who serve in that government but by the citizens who experience the impact of government policies, as well as the appropriateness or inappropriateness of government decisions. The right to evaluate a government must remain with the citizens. If the Presidency and the Information and Communications Minister are obsessed with popularising Yar’Adua, I would suggest they should organise open-day forums in selected rural town halls across the country. The essence of those public forums would be to enable Yar’Adua to actively engage many citizens on a face-to-face basis in order to understand their concerns and their assessment of his government’s performance.  

The public forums should be conducted in selected rural centres because the rural areas represent the heart and rhythm of life across the nation. Rural dwellers are capable of providing Yar’Adua with an undiluted assessment of how his government is travelling in the first few months of its four-year term. If Yar’Adua and his ministers are interested in hearing unadorned truth, the government should tour the rural areas to feel and share the pains and the joys of the people who really represent the heartbeat of the nation. Abuja might provide Yar’Adua and his ministers the pristine environment they love to live in but life also exists outside of Abuja. A government that is keen to receive an honest report card on its performance should administer evaluation forms to people who reside outside Abuja and the city centres. 

It has been said that Yar’Adua is a man who reflects deeply on a range of issues before taking a decision. I endorse that practice. It has also been said that Yar’Adua likes to attend to every argument with the forensic skills of a coroner in order to determine the pros and cons. That should be the hallmark of a wise leader. However, I find it hard to believe that this is the same man who has allowed his ministers and advisers to drag him into a project that is likely to sully the image of his government so early in the day. Yar’Adua should instruct his ministers and those agile party planners who are keen to celebrate anything to shelve their plans for a celebration of the president’s first 100 days in office. There are more serious issues that require national attention than jumping to dance music on the floor of the presidential villa.  

For example, in the southeast corner of the country, in particular in the Niger Delta region, regular bouts of gang fights, shootings and kidnapping have become a part of the daily menu served to the residents of the region. All these represent the unintended consequences of the government’s failure to resolve the festering crises in the region. Resolving the crises in the Niger Delta and restoring peace and civil order to the region should be in the priority list of the president. Other issues that should command the priority attention of the president include but are not limited to improvements in the economy, a genuine reduction in the level of poverty, provision of medical infrastructure and medicines, enhancement of the existing facilities in hospitals, and improvements in the conditions of service of medical practitioners in the country, provision of good roads, and effective supply of electricity across the country. These are daunting challenges and no one expects the government to fix the problems overnight. But they deserve presidential attention nevertheless.  

So far, Yar’Adua has kicked off his presidency by undoing in a majestic manner some of the errant decisions made by his predecessor.  He has already cancelled the dubious sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries. He has shown his respect for the judiciary by enforcing, for instance, the Supreme Court judgment on the tenure of Anambra State Governor Peter Obi. Yar’Adua has also put concrete meaning to the phrase “full disclosure”: one of the first things he did on assumption of office was to provide the public with a list of his assets and the value of those assets. On the platform of history, Yar’Adua has promptly distanced his government from his predecessor’s brusque and authoritarian style. For example, he ordered four weeks ago the release of funds meant for Lagos State local governments which were withheld impetuously by Olusegun Obasanjo for more than four years in defiance of the Supreme Court decision.   

Robot  Villager

# 1 Shall we dance with the president? ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 04.10.2007 08:06