KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
With REMI AKANO
e-mail: remiakanosr@believeandrepent.com
It can bear repetition. Alhaji Umar Musa Yar’Adua does smell like roses after the phosphorus-like odour that used to ooze from Nigeria’s seat of power in Abuja. So as I recall saying recently, he would be my idea of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under normal circumstances.
The now suspended general strike was certainly unnecessary and the suffering and losses at all levels avoidable, but it offered us an opportunity to appraise the style of the new “king” on the block. And I personally liked what I saw. I liked the “presidential” reticence which left him room for his “intervention” at the crucial last minute. It’s the way it ought to be. I also noticed the restraint of the Police which ordinarily should be the case but which had become such an exception under the previous dispensation. That I am sure was the “instruction from above.” My hope is that it would become the norm for the citizen’s right of dissent is respected. Did you also note the language of spokesmen for government – temperate and civil; a far cry from the abrasive and abusive effusions that we’ve been forced to live with? There is one little exception though.
Incidentally, that little exception came from Segun Adeniyi, the new presidential spokesman, who in his well-written insider report on what went on and who did what inside Aso Villa during the crisis, inadvertently, I believe, described those who were urging Yar’Adua to “disown Obasanjo” as “the mob.” I cannot find it in me to believe that this was anything but a slip; so, we’ll give that part of his statement a miss.
However, his write-up, informative as it is, does offer an insight into the emerging mindset of the administration. And it shows a glaring lack of appreciation of the key issue in national governance today. In spite of the seeming sincerity and honesty being affected by the new leadership, there is this nagging feeling that they are still missing the point, the “koko” as fans of music star D’Banj would put it. And that “koko”, whether we like or not, is due process, leading to justice, equity and enthronement of righteousness in the land. To play around this, is to misread the mood of the nation and backstep to an era we’ll love to forget in hurry.
Let’s explore this together. Segun Adeniyi wrote and I quote: “…he (Yar’Adua) is also of the view that any government policy that impacts directly on the welfare of the people must meet the criteria of rule of law and public morality.” Adeniyi went on to report how the President directed officials to look into those controversial issues even before Labour’s 14-day ultimatum. He intimated that on the issue of Value Added Tax, for instance, the question asked was whether it could be sustained on the basis of legality? The 15% salary increase, according to Adeniyi was treated as an issue of honour and so Yar’Adua ruled that “government just has to honour its obligations” I am sure you’ll join me in applauding all of that.
But let’s read on: “Now to the issue of fuel price hike done shortly before the administration came in. There were presentations by Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency PPPRA, NNPC and other stakeholders on all the indices that informed the decision…What should government do in the face of harsh economic realities? …The consensus remains that in a democracy, the people have to be consulted and the relevant stakeholders carried along on important decisions that would affect their welfare. Taking into account the hardship that normally goes with fuel price hike, which has been rather evident in across the nation, the president decided tat since kerosene and diesel are more essential for the vulnerable elements of our society, prices of such products should be reversed to the old rates. As for petrol, having factored in the economic indices, a reduction of five naira was also approved even as this would go against the projections of NNPC and PPPRA.”
Adeniyi continued: “Of course it is politically expedient to just reverse everything, but one fact often ignored is that Nigeria is a poor country with the potential for changing our fortunes if we do the correct things, though the problem remains that the people, for good reasons, do not trust those in power to act in their interest. That explains why public opinion is today against government on the vexatious issue of petroleum pricing…”
This is the beginning of my point of departure with Adeniyi and his principals. They admit that “the consensus remains that in a democracy, the people have to be consulted and the relevant stakeholders carried along on important decisions that would affect their welfare” but proceeded to act unilaterally. “There were presentations by Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency PPPRA, NNPC and other stakeholders on all the indices that informed the decision…” The question here was to whom were these presentations done? They decided to bypass the one body, the PPPRA Board, a government dominated body through which some semblance of consultation could have been done. The indices were prepared by the NNPC and PPPRA and other stakeholders. Obviously some stakeholders are more stakeholder than others!
He spoke about how politically expedient it would have been for his principal to simply reverse everything. We are therefore supposed to applaud his courage for taking a difficult decision. I say, on the contrary it was expediency to dispense with the consensus “that in a democracy, the people have to be consulted and the relevant stakeholders carried along on important decisions that would affect their welfare.”
At the heart of the matter is that decisions were taken in the twilight days of a government run by the Peoples Democratic Party, to which Yar’Adua belongs. The correct thing was for the outgoing president to have intimated him with the decision before it was taken. In the process of such intimation, he should have had all the facts and figures. If he had, it should have enabled him prepare for the fall-outs. Adeniyi’s write-up gave no hint of that. In fact that pointed issue has been studiously avoided. So if he was not briefed, why was it difficult for him to suspend those decisions when they became contentious and proceed to institute consultations with all stakeholders and thus be able to take decisions from a position of knowledge, which he could rightly own?
Or are we dealing here with the kind of position Adeniyi himself foresaw in his ThisDay column last year? In a piece titled, “Where are the Davids”, he had written: “From Abuja to virtually all the states, the outgoing public officials are thinking, not in terms of what is best for the people but rather scheming for self-preservation as we see the unsettling prospects of incumbents and other tin gods seeking to install their wives, their sons, their cousins, their concubines and other cronies in power…Having wasted the past, they have now taken it upon themselves to also legislate on our future by imposing on us their puppets so they can continue to rule beyond their tenure.”
Obviously Adeniyi was so irked by any thought of Yar’Adua as a puppet that it was at this point that he committed the faux pas of describing those who dared to hint at it, as members of a mob. But what followed that particular slip incidentally talks to the heart of the state of our nation. Wrote Adeniyi: “The pundits who argue that the (then) outstanding issues on ground can be resolved simply by Yar’Adua disowning Obasanjo clearly miss the point. Even if he does that to please the mob, it would still not obliterate the fact that the April elections were messed up, a fact he has admitted and made a solemn commitment to redressing by reforming the electoral process so as to bring integrity to the ballot box…”
That is the “koko” that Aso Villa has gotten and yet not gotten. The man or woman who runs Nigeria has to have been the one who polled the highest number of votes cast in a free, fair and credible election. The gentleman currently attempting to call the shots does not exactly answer to that description. Conjectures by certain well-meaning people, including Adeniyi before he joined the administration that Yar’Adua would still have won were the elections “not messed up”, remain just that – conjectures, not empirically provable. He does not hold a mandate, properly so called; what he has is the result of fraud, brazen robbery and violence. He needs to understand that and let it inform his choices! I once had occasion to offer suggestions in this column.
But I doubt that he does, going by his characterization, according to Adeniyi in his last ThisDay column, of his election victory as a low-score lead in an examination that had no passes. No sir, it is actually like scoring very high grades through “expo”. And you know what JAMB and WAEC do to such results? They are cancelled.
To everybody who professes Christianity, due process must be non-negotiable! I said it here before. God had to go through the painful due process of allowing his son to die on the cross that he may retrieve control of the earth given away to satan by Adam! He could have done it any other way. He did not, because he would not violate his own law. Yar’Adua may not know this, but I am sure Vice President Jonathan and Adeniyi do. Let’s face the “koko” please. (thegreatcompany.blogspot.com)
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