It is very much true that every country has the government it deserves. Government is also a product of the society. Nigeria is not an exception in this case. But the truth is that greater majority of Nigerians are not happy with the governance of our country. Larger percentage of the Nigerian populace is not responsible for the bad governance and corruption. It’s only a tiny minority of the Nigerian population that has held Nigeria to ransom. They are responsible for maladministration, poor governance and mismanagement of our resources. It’s worthy to note that, these very few Nigerians who have managed to be in power/governance (past and present) have succeeded in making corruption a household name in Nigeria. They have taught Nigerians corruption by their flamboyant life styles, excessive looting of government treasuries, over valued contracts awarded to themselves and cronies etc. They are leading us by example, and Nigerians are good followers.
A government which uses corruption to rule teaches her people that corruption is an acceptable way of life. Revelations upon revelations of corrupt practices by government officials succeeds in conditioning people towards being corrupt. Matters are made worst by high recognition of corrupt people as well to do people in our society. The magnitude of this monster (corruption) is overwhelming. Accordingly, “The United Nations (UN) says Nigerian Kleptocrats have milked the nation to the tune of about $100 billion dollars through various acts of grand corruption. The cost of which it lamented by far exceeded the damage caused by any other single crime” (Daily Sun, Wednesday December 3 2008, page 9.) No corrupt government is sincere; therefore they govern us by deceit.
Corruption is the biggest barrier to good governance. Both cannot work together. A case study is the horrible state of affairs in Nigeria. Things are not working the way it should. Power supply is almost unavailable, road network is still poor, and strike actions by academic staffs are still a regular occurrence in the educational sector. The government appears not to have a concrete plan of action to tackle these problems. I was not surprised when the Campaign for Democracy took stock of 2008 and concluded that, “No serious governance actually took place. Then it warned that a situation where the country is virtually on auto pilot without serious governance is not healthy” (Daily Independent, Wednesday December 31 2008, page 1).
Corruption and bad governance cannot continue indefinitely in Nigeria, otherwise the entire population will become endangered species. Nigerians have more work to do to salvage our great country. Every Nigerian should realise that he/she has many roles to play in the governance of our country. Every person has a duty to play. I have said this, because governance is too serious a business to be left in the hands of politicians alone. We should never let the politicians alone without all of us making suggestions or contributions towards good governance.
Government should be a collective effort. Every person should think of a suggestion to make to government, whether local, state or federal government. Emphasis should be on moving our nation forward. The politicians don’t know better than us. Experiences have also shown that. Let’s remember that two heads are better than one. Not only do Nigerians have to make suggestions or contributions to government. We also need to start asking questions to government on why so and so are not happening.
Many Nigerians are almost giving up hope, but that’s a wrong idea. Every one needs to become conscious of workings of the government. Governance affects our lives and that of our children. Our contributions are vital towards making governance a success. Nigerians should become a watchdog over every tier of government. If you have not been asking questions to government, please start now. If you have been asking questions, please increase your efforts. This should be applicable to all ministries, parastatals, etc. Not making efforts to make suggestions, contributions or ask questions to government will mean to accept whatever we get from government.
Am aware that dialogue with the Nigerian government can a times be like a dialogue with the deaf. This will require a great deal of shouting, a great deal of gesticulation and repetition. Which means that Nigerians should be consistent in making suggestions to government? Nigerians should consistently ask questions to government. Together with this approach, our leaders will start being responsible and responsive. May be we might start having a better government. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
IBB, This Is My Response to You.
Dearest General Ibrahim B. Babangida (Former military president of Nigeria), this is a response to the interview you granted MNet channel of DSTV, some details of which were published on Thisday newspapers of 5th February 2009, online version. Before I proceed, I need to let you know that I was planning to write you a letter before I read some details of your interview on Thisday newspapers. Suffice it to say that your interview necessitated this response, in addition with some details of the original letter that I wanted to write you.
I do not quite agree with some of the things you said on the interview. Specifically you said that you and the then Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) knew that the new democratic government to be installed in 1993 would have been toppled through another military coup deta’t. Therefore in order to avoid this, your government cancelled the freest and fairest elections in the Nigerian history. You simply said that security threats led you to cancel the best election Nigeria had produced. You also said that the situation was not ripe to hand over at that time. Furthermore, you also implied that what happened to the Interim National Government (ING) was eventually the fate that would have befallen the civil rule which your administration would have handed over to.
Now I have these questions for you. If you and the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) knew that military would have toppled the democratic government, why didn’t you arrest the military personnel involved, or retire them, or try them or even make them redundant or redeploy them. Nigerians will find it difficult to accept this reason. Secondly, why didn’t you allow the winner of the June 12 1993 elections to deal with the matter himself? After all Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as a civilian president were able to retire all military personnel who have held political appointments. President Musa Yar’Adua has at various occasions retire or redeploy military personnel. Therefore the late MKO Abiola would have been able to deal with the military. It would have been better if the military had toppled late MKO Abiola himself, than you cancelling the June 12 1993 elections.
My second question is this? Since you said that the situation was not ripe then to hand over, why drag Nigerians through the long transition programme? Why did you waste our scarce resources to erect party structures etc? Do you also remember that a lot of Nigerians died as a result of crisis that followed the June 12 election cancellations? Since the situation was not ripe then to hand over power, why did you put Nigerians through very difficult and dangerous route? Nigerians will be waiting for a better explanation. I will leave history to judge you.
Dearest IBB, the mistake of cancelling the freest and fairest election in 1993 was entirely yours; this is because of your failure to diffuse whatever security threat you identified then, and your inability to deal with the military which was your primary constituency, even as a four star General. Also the principle of collective responsibility puts the blame square on your door steps.
However, no person is above mistake. Many world leaders have at one point or the other made mistakes. In your own case, a window of opportunity exists now for you to redeem the mistake you made in 1993. That window of opportunity is for you to use your influences to campaign for electoral reforms. Nigerians will forgive you and be more glad if you could help to reintroduce Option A4 Electoral system in Nigeria. Option A4 system was your brain child, therefore you need no explanation that it should be the best system for Nigeria. Nigeria has derailed largely because of our corrupt electoral system. I am appealing for your support in this campaign for the reintroduction of Option A4 system.
There have been a lot of speculations about your presidential ambition, but my candid opinion is for you to firstly help and reintroduce Option A4 electoral system back to our statutory books. Perhaps you might become a true statesman if you help achieve this. God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group”
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
I do not quite agree with some of the things you said on the interview. Specifically you said that you and the then Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) knew that the new democratic government to be installed in 1993 would have been toppled through another military coup deta’t. Therefore in order to avoid this, your government cancelled the freest and fairest elections in the Nigerian history. You simply said that security threats led you to cancel the best election Nigeria had produced. You also said that the situation was not ripe to hand over at that time. Furthermore, you also implied that what happened to the Interim National Government (ING) was eventually the fate that would have befallen the civil rule which your administration would have handed over to.
Now I have these questions for you. If you and the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) knew that military would have toppled the democratic government, why didn’t you arrest the military personnel involved, or retire them, or try them or even make them redundant or redeploy them. Nigerians will find it difficult to accept this reason. Secondly, why didn’t you allow the winner of the June 12 1993 elections to deal with the matter himself? After all Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as a civilian president were able to retire all military personnel who have held political appointments. President Musa Yar’Adua has at various occasions retire or redeploy military personnel. Therefore the late MKO Abiola would have been able to deal with the military. It would have been better if the military had toppled late MKO Abiola himself, than you cancelling the June 12 1993 elections.
My second question is this? Since you said that the situation was not ripe then to hand over, why drag Nigerians through the long transition programme? Why did you waste our scarce resources to erect party structures etc? Do you also remember that a lot of Nigerians died as a result of crisis that followed the June 12 election cancellations? Since the situation was not ripe then to hand over power, why did you put Nigerians through very difficult and dangerous route? Nigerians will be waiting for a better explanation. I will leave history to judge you.
Dearest IBB, the mistake of cancelling the freest and fairest election in 1993 was entirely yours; this is because of your failure to diffuse whatever security threat you identified then, and your inability to deal with the military which was your primary constituency, even as a four star General. Also the principle of collective responsibility puts the blame square on your door steps.
However, no person is above mistake. Many world leaders have at one point or the other made mistakes. In your own case, a window of opportunity exists now for you to redeem the mistake you made in 1993. That window of opportunity is for you to use your influences to campaign for electoral reforms. Nigerians will forgive you and be more glad if you could help to reintroduce Option A4 Electoral system in Nigeria. Option A4 system was your brain child, therefore you need no explanation that it should be the best system for Nigeria. Nigeria has derailed largely because of our corrupt electoral system. I am appealing for your support in this campaign for the reintroduction of Option A4 system.
There have been a lot of speculations about your presidential ambition, but my candid opinion is for you to firstly help and reintroduce Option A4 electoral system back to our statutory books. Perhaps you might become a true statesman if you help achieve this. God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group”
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
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