2019: Another opportunity for hope

The death of Nigeria’s first executive and only Second Republic President, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari, GCFR few days ago, have taken many of us back into the history books and archives to refresh ourselves on events that shaped and defined the life, administration and other issues related to the ex-president. With the death of Chief Alex Ekwueme, Shagari’s Deputy last year and the man himself as well as many others before them like Ummaru Dikko, the major and leading stakeholders of the Second Republic are all but gone.

One of yesterday’s main men who is also a leading Second Republic political figure, now a nonagenarian and still alive, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai was once reported to have said that all the current Nigeria’s political and socio-economic problems have their genesis from the 1983 coup, a coup that didn’t only toppled President Shagari but truncated democratic rule that was just over four years old, established after about 14 years of military dictatorship.

One may easily dismiss Alhaji Yakasai’s claims as those of someone who was a personal victim of the coup, however probing further; there is a lot of substance in it. One, Nigeria was never better off in the long run after the coup. In fact what is happening today is far worse than what hypothetically led to the coup. General Muhammadu Buhari who took over may have made visible significant attempts towards stabilizing the situation in bis own way, but generally speaking, the post-coup era which ushered in the military quartet of Buhari himself, Babangida, Abacha and Abdusalami never made the nation better than the pre-coup era.

Secondly, history has shown that democracy is about learning and maturing over time. Truncating it after six years like in 1966 and after just four like in 1983 denied it of the adequate time and opportunity it required to thrive. Many have argued that the problems of democracy can only be solved by more democracy. The inadequacies we are seeing in our polity today would all have been experienced, solved and learned from thirty five years ago and today we will only need to be reflecting and reaping from the benefits of the past experience, if democracy had been allowed to thrive.

The year 2019 is significant in different respects; it is not only an election year, it represents a democratic milestone of 20 uninterrupted years that had witnessed five (and potentially six in few weeks) elections that ensured power changed hands between civilians. By African standards, this is a big reason to be hopeful, for if this can be sustained, our challenges would be overcome in due course.

From the general break down of internal security to territorial defence threats, massive corruption to electoral fraud, unprecedented poverty to social challenges, the journey has been very turbulent from 1999 to date. Nonetheless, the solutions are still within if the system and process can be sustained and improved with deliberate attempts through policies and reforms sincerely, consistently and diligently implemented while also doing away with the one-step-forward and two-steps-backward disease that have been bedevilling us over the years.

For example, in due course every region, tribe and religion will get the adequate opportunity to rule. No region will rule or call the shots forever just like none will remain marginalized till eternity. No one thought in the near future, a minority like Dr. Goodluck Jonathan will defy all odds to emerge and remain president. Therefore, a time will come when all regions must have ruled and people will realize that all that matters is good governance and not who the governor is. This is evident from the fact that Nigeria’s current president and commander in chief is from the North, about 90% of the heads of the nation’s security and para-security architecture he appointed are northerners, but the region is now the insecurity capital of West Africa or perhaps the whole of Africa.

Despite having enough dose of it, democracy alone even if sustained is not going to solve our problem. It must be accompanied with many conscious and deliberate efforts. The attention is traditionally always towards government, but the truth is that the bulk of development worldwide has never directly come from government. In fact, relying on government for development is a major sign of underdevelopment. Looking up to government for everything only breeds the culture of irresponsibility. The ingenuity of a people is what moves a society forward.

One thing we need to address moving forward is the love for easy wealth and the shortcut to success syndrome prevalent among the current generation of Nigerians. Conservatively, three out of every four Nigerians do not only see money and wealth as the only guaranteed ticket to success or as the only true accomplishment, but want to acquire it easily and effortlessly. With this, the corruption mentality is always at its default settings, especially among our youths. This is why corruption does not only remain our way of life, but corrupt people remain our role models. Until and unless, we can build a society which there is a limit to what money can get you and what lack of it can deprive you, we can only dream of progress.

Some other things democracy cannot guarantee you are unity and cohesion. It may give you opportunity to establish unity of purpose among yourselves if you sincerely wish to, but cannot guarantee you anything. It is year 2019, 105 years after amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates and almost 60 years after independence, but to be a detribalized Nigerian is still a virtue. When notable Nigerians pass away, you will hear their eulogizers praising them as ‘detribalized’ as one of their top virtues. Is this not a huge minus in a century which there is probably no reasonable society left (except may be us) whose aspiration is to build a nation populated by people of the same ethnic group or religion only?

Democracy can only work when you allow it. Therefore, it cannot stop you from rendering it useless or helpless. It is quite surprising how average Nigerians have overestimated the relevance and power of the Permanent Voters Card (PVC). This is why they have an illusionary feeling that they can vote anybody out during elections. The truth is that our political process and parties have worked very hard to limit our electoral options. We have limited or no power over our choices and hence we are always left with bad options to choose from most of the time. As long as Nigerians will not summon the courage and wherewithal to back smaller parties and facilitate citizen’s candidacy, outrightly voting out nonperforming politicians and replacing them with competent ones will remain a mirage.

In all these, one last thing we have and must hold on dearly to is hope. Our current crop of leaders and stakeholders at various levels and capacities must do their best to make sure that citizens still have hope. If they can’t transform hope into substance, they must work hard not to kill it. This is not going to happen by allowing (under whatever guise) our universities to remain closed for over 50 days now or at any other time in the future. I don’t think even countries at war like Syria or those frequently under the threat of natural disasters like Indonesia will afford to keep their apex institutions of learning closed for reasons that are simply avoidable and then resort to blame trading in place of collectively addressing the problem.

In their different New Year messages, Nigerian past and present leaders have in various words and contexts encouraged us to remain hopeful, positive and optimistic. This is even when signs on ground and the realities facing us calls for so much pessimism and hopelessness. Within these few weeks of festivities, I had to personally counsel many young Nigerians to not give up and keep their hopes for a better country alive, even if I myself don’t have much of that hope left inside me. In a country where a huge scandal like that which exposed a state governor on video allegedly receiving bribe in dollars can disappear into thin air within weeks, how can you convince yourself and others to remain optimistic? All 2019 prophecies notwithstanding, I’ll go with our elders who will say, hope is the only reason why we are still alive.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez