With CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE
It is an incontrovertible fact that good and purposeful political
leadership is the sine qua non for development in any country. So, no
country in our today’s world can rise above the dreams and leadership
ability of its national leader. That’s the chief reason why Nigeria is
stuck in the mud of underdevelopment.
Since Nigeria’s attainment of political freedom in 1960, bad and inept
political leaderships interspersed with despotic military regimes have
been our collective lot.
The departing British imperialists introduced the culture of
imposition of leaders on us when they helped Alhaji Tafawa Balewa to
become our Prime Minister at the expense of his political betters,
such as Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But Alhaji Tafawa
Balewa’s mishandling of the problems besetting Nigeria and other
factors coalesced to cause the truncation of the first republic.
Consequently, the Igbo people of South-East of Nigeria fought a
bloody secessionist war, which came on the heels of the January 1966
coup and the July 1966 counter-coup. So, after the end of the civil
war in 1970, Nigeria experienced military interregnum between 1970 and
1979.
In the second republic, Nigeria started practising the Presidential
system of government. And, Alhaji Shehu Shagari became the first
executive President of Nigeria after the announcement of the 1979
Presidential election results showed that he was the winner. But,
alongside other contenders for the presidential seat, Alhaji Shehu
Shagari was a political dark horse, whose emergence as the President
of Nigeria flowed from the existence of the culture of imposition of
leaders on Nigerians.
Thereafter, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari became head of state. Muhammadu
Buhari who exhibited dictatorial tendencies promulgated draconian
decrees to circumscribe our fundamental human rights. He made decrees
which had retroactive effects to punish drug offenders. Yet, laws
ought to be forward-working, and not backward-looking. After ousting
the President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, from office, he put
him under house arrest while the Vice President of the country, Dr
Alexander Ekwueme, was clamped into detention for alleged corrupt
practices. Buhari’s adoption of double standards in treating Alhaji
Shehu Shagari and Dr Alex Ekwueme portrayed him as an ethnic jingoist
and religious bigot.
However, Buhari was removed from office via military coup by Gen
Ibrahim Babangida (retd) on August 27, 1985. It was Babangida, who
embarked on the detestable political transition programme rigmarole,
which climaxed with his cancellation of the June 12, 1993 Presidential
election. That presidential election was believed and adjudged to be
the freest and fairnest in our political annals. In order to solve the
problem of political impasse caused by the annulment of that
presidential election, Chief Ernest Shoneka was made the interim
president of Nigeria.
However, Sani Abacha shoved aside the government of Ernest Shoneka.
Wadume: Police fortify detention facility holding millionaire kidnap
kingpin(Opens in a new browser tab) Abacha, who combined kleptomania
with sanguinary proclivities stole Nigeria blind and liquidated many
members of NADECO, the group which fought relentlessly for the
revalidation of MKO Abiola’s stolen political mandate.
He maintained a suffocating stranglehold on Nigeria and circumscribed
our fundamental human rights, which caused many members of the
opposition groups to flee into exile. Fortunately, God saved us from
the human vampire (Sani Abacha) when he died in mysterious
circumstances. Abdusalami Abubakar, who succeeded him, superintended
over the transition to civil rule programme, which culminated in the
emergence of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as our democratically elected
president in 1999. His emergence as our national leader on the
political platform of PDP heralded the PDP’s domination of political
power at the centre in Nigeria from 1999 to 2015. His successors who
presided over the affairs of Nigeria on the platform of PDP were
Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. But it should be
noted that Chief Obasanjo frittered away the opportunity given to him
to transform Nigeria and better the lots of Nigerians.
Jonathan became president following the unexpected death of Yar’Adua.
But his leadership of Nigeria showed that he was very ill-prepared for
the challenges of political leadership. Tardiness, inductiveness, and
perpetration of corrupt deeds by those in the corridors of power
characterized his political administration. That’s why Muhammadu
Buhari’s political mantra of change during the 2015 presidential
election campaign found resonance among us. Consequently, Jonathan was
swept out of office through electoral tsunami.
Then, Buhari became president, and millions of Nigerians believed him
to be the political messiah, who would right the wrongs in our polity,
revamp our distressed economy, address Nigeria’s ethno-religious
problems, and set the country on the path of irreversible national
development. But it is sad that President Buhari’s occupation of the
highest political seat in Nigeria has led to his demystification.
Since he ascended into the loft of power, our economy has not
witnessed astronomical growth, as only jejune and impractical economic
policies are being implemented in the country. Consequently, now,
millions of Nigerians have been reduced to sub-humans. And they live
below the breadline.Again, the unemployment problem has not been
solved because the economy has not been diversified. More so, Nigeria
has returned to the hobbesian state of nature where life is short,
brutish, and nasty.
Has the federal government successfully reined in the Boko Haram
murderous activities? The answer is no. During the last governorship
election in Kogi State, bloody violence marred the conduct of the
election climaxing in the burning to death of the PDP women leader in
the state by some members of the APC, who were seized with
pyromania.
Worst still, President Buhari’s disdain for the constitution, which
manifests in his disobeying courts orders, undermines and emasculates
our democracy. Sheik El-ZakZaky and Sambo Dasuk had been granted
bail by courts. However, they are still being detained after they had
fulfilled and perfected their bail conditions.
Muzzling the voices of dissent and cracking down on journalists and
activists have become the trade mark and chief feature of the
administration. President Buhari’s misdeeds and iron-fist rule will
lead Nigeria to become a totalitarian and one party state. But it will
spell doom for our country and hasten its disintegration.
