A thank you note

Here is saying a very big 'Thank you' to all of you who have, and continue to take time to visit and follow this blog. I truly appreciate.

-richard mammah

When the citizen is his worst enemy

The declaration by President-elect Muhammadu Buhari that he would abide by traffic rules upon his inauguration come May 29 has continued to generate reactions of a diverse hue. Among other commentaries is a strand asking him to reconsider! In making this point, the purveyors cite the tragic circumstance of February 13, 1976 when General Murtala Muhammed was assassinated in traffic.


In their view this was only made possible on account of what they term, a similarly populist security disposition, ignoring the other facts that coups and attacks on other government functionaries had also taken place during administrations before and after Murtala’s and which had more paranoid security systems.


Indeed, the mere fact of citizens asking their leaders to carry on with the bewildering practice of willful violation of the law of the land – under the nebulous guise of ensuring their security – points to a deeper crisis of perverted psyche and mental dislocation. It is a stark demonstration not only of the very little value we place on ourselves, but also of how much down the road, we the people, have travelled to now be unconscionable accessories to our debasement and dehumanization.


I had not finished with my cogitations over this state of abeyance when I chanced upon a post by my friend, Innocent Chukwuma, who dared to make even more outlandish requests! Read him:


‘I woke up this morning thinking that the best symbol of true change the Buhari government can give Nigeria is to convert Aso Presidential Villa to a museum dedicated to study and reflections on how not to govern a country. In its stead, he should make the Defence Guest House, where he is currently staying, the State House. The Guest House is accessible, simple, elegant and presidential enough!’


Before those-who-love-their-leaders-more-than-themselves pick up stones to hurl at Chukwuma, let’s permit him to close his submission:


‘It is simply not possible to retain Aso villa (a city in its own right) and think that the gulf between political leaders and citizens in Nigeria can be bridged. Anybody who has been to the villa knows that it is not part of Nigeria though within the territory.’


That is the point. The first and real challenge of change in Nigeria today is not infrastructural, no matter how laudable that equally is. It is symbolism. Over time, the symbol of governance has been dictatorial, militaristic, alienated and oppressive. We got a military-contrived constitution fraudulently imposed on us. Our leaders take delight in not being like us. Governance is so strained, so distant, that the people really do not hope to get anything from ‘them!’


There is a sense in which this is historical. And here we flashback to the end of the colonial experience in Nigeria, and indeed Africa. According to Frantz Fanon and others who have studied the phenomenon intently, one of the factors that seriously retarded the development of the former colonies is the fact that the emergent ruling class that replaced the overlord was more concerned with taking up the booty rather than properly organizing self-sustaining societies that would last. Contrast the stories of Zimbabwe and Singapore and you will see what we are talking about.


The truth that must then be established is that there is a ringing connection between how we think and what we receive. If the people think more valuably of themselves, they will get better results.


The problem with Aso Rock to put it squarely is that it is too hollow and therefore not true. Aso Rock is a bloated piece of real estate, too opulent for its intended occupant and therefore takes too much resource to maintain. While this also has its direct antecedents in the siege mentality of our military past, it, like our blighted federal structure, is an anachronism that seriously impedes national security!


There is a second point. In countries around the world that encourage a more self-accounting infrastructure and which paradoxically continue to help subvent the bloated lifestyles of our leaders through foreign aid allocations, their state houses contribute substantial revenues to the national till. Tourists daily throng the White House area just as they do in 10, Downing Street. So why not the villa?


A final failing is what Chukwuma was talking about. Queen Antoinette was so alienated that when the rioters of the revolution-era France came protesting the high cost of bread, she instructed her aides to give them the substitute of far more expensive cake! Aso Rock as constituted today, and indeed our overall infrastructure of governance, encourages our leaders to be unfeeling morons. This too must change. I still believe.

Who will help my children?

This piece is flowing from a reflection shared on Facebook last week. It is a sad tale about a young lady who said she was writing the now-ended Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations to prepare for a career in architecture. Asked about her subject combination, she was incredulously off-track: she was an all-art student!


There were immediate reactions to the post. One however stood out most cryptically and it came from the University of Ibadan professor, Obododimma Oha. Hear him: ‘There are many like her. Some don't even know what they want to be and what they are looking for at school. Even university students! Sad.’ Need we say more? So we write about the challenge of a generation.


The crisis we are addressing is indeed most graphic because we are today in the post-knowledge age. It is an era in which nations are no longer being judged by the mass of their population and the abundance or otherwise of their natural resource endowment. Rather the focus is on brain power. And it is therefore how developed a nation’s human capital base is that gives it the competitive edge.


Today’s youth is therefore confronted with challenges that we may not have properly bothered to fully investigate and find responses to. It is a generation that is caught between and betwixt in the manner of the archetypical transition child. With not many ennobling role models in sight, it is not routinely motivated and almost cannot find inspiration. It is one that is expected to give its best without being helped with the appropriate tools, skills and mind-sets. To paraphrase the saga of the Israelites in the era of the ‘Pharaoh who did not know Joseph,’ they are being told to make brick without straw!


Another parallel we can sum up is the archetypal dilemma of Nwoye Okonkwo. As an offspring of the strongly driven hero of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Nwoye could not match Okonkwo’s energy-sapping standards. Coupled with this was the fact that the overall society was also in a state of flux attendant upon the coming of the white man. With Okonkwo bearing down harshly on everyone and insisting that all that was needed to excel in the world were the sheer physical strength that men brought to their tasks, coupled with the adrenalin rush that attended fear-driven individuals who did not want to fail, Okonkwo was plainly being imperceptive and therefore most surely headed for destruction.


But Umuofia had its Obierika, the wise elder who helped situate the dilemma in the death of Ikemefuna and later on put in perspective the issue of the white man’s coming and the disruption it was to introduce into their lives. The white man came, quietly and somewhat innocently, Obierika would reminisce and Umuofia did not see the disruptions inherent in his entry. “Now he has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.’ Indeed one of the wishful exertions of this writer is about how Achebe’s text would have spawned entirely new readings if this elder of balance was given more space to breath!


Back to the crisis of the next generation. On account of errors in its upbringing, this generation now suffers from its unhelpful possession of an entitlement mentality. This has to do with a feeling and attitude that it should literally get everything on a platter of gold. It is a manna-fed generation.


In terms of history, this may be a post-Independence outflow. Here we are referring to the disruptive influence of colonialism and the latter-day reactions that come from post-colonials having to come to grips with a new reality that getting back flag independence may not be worth more than the shop-floor value of the flag itself!


But it is more than that. While the generation that clamoured and fought for Independence at least had the ultimate prize of freedom - no matter how badly defined - in front of them, the current generation has believed a lie that Nigeria owes them everything and they do not have to do anything about it. It is just enough that they are born Nigerians! And many elders are not doing much to re-orientate them. Yes, Nigeria owes the youth all. But the question to ask next is what do they do when the nation is not delivering on its promise? They invariably have to roll up their sleeves, burn the midnight oil, labour at learning a skill and make a life for themselves, anyways.


Our children need help. We need to help them understand their reality. And it is only then that they can begin to behold their future. I still believe.

Jagaban and the change we desire

The March 28 presidential polls ended with a publicized verdict. The candidate of the All Progressives Party, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari trounced incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan to emerge winner.


For the political gladiators on the APC side, it was indeed a hard-fought contest. Initially scheduled for February 14, the election dates were to be shifted in circumstances that clearly suggested that the ruling PDP was feverishly trying to prevent their looming defeat. Too much ground had however been lost. The APC still won.


Critical to the APC victory was the activity of one man. As National Leader and alleged prime financier of its efforts, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, aka Jagaban, put in enormous time and resources into the scripting and execution of his ‘commonsense revolution.’ And in doing this, he was to demonstrate once again that youth do grow. The fledgling political neophyte who left his corporate post to pitch his tents with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during Ibrahim Babangida’s ‘crafted’ transition project in the late 1980s had now matured into a political colossus of sorts.


To be sure, Tinubu’s road to his current status as principal patron of the incoming administration has not been without controversy. However, what is more germane for us at this point is to situate his new role within the context of our historical moment as a nation and to attempt to help him appreciate his history-assigned role in the days following the victory at the polls.


Here, two imperatives clearly stand out. One is a re-examination and sharpening of the visionary paradigm on which the victory was secured and the other is the shortlisting and promotion of the appropriate personnel that would drive the vision so outlined.
Understandably, there has been a lot of movement in the days after the election but this writer has observed that much of it has been on the latter and very little of the former. Which is sad. It is the dog that wags the tail and not the other way round.
Vision, my dear Jagaban is everything. Without vision, a people perish, the Bible outlines. It is all too important that we can almost begin to foretell the end of this matter even now. And the probable outcome that we are seeing is not looking good.
On that critical day of reckoning, you may want to exculpate yourself by arguing that you were not the one elected to govern.


That would not be true in a fundamental sense as not only do we all know that the President-elect could not have emerged without your buy-in; you have equally continued to loom large as the man with the critical vote as has emerged in instances as the choice of the National Chairman and the Presidential and vice-presidential candidates; as well as the overruling of the President-elect’s barring of AIT from covering his transition activities. It is still playing out as we write, as regards the jockeying for personnel placements in the new dispensation. There is therefore no controversy that the ball yet lies in your court. The question to ask is how well you are playing it?


And history indeed is a most patient witness. Like has been the case with leaders like Olusegun Obasanjo and lately, Goodluck Jonathan, who had so much opportunity and clout to push our nation to far more successful heights than their limited visionary prisms could fathom, if you continue to carry on with your current focus on ‘who gets what’ at the expense of ‘what is to be done’ you may very well wake up a few weeks or months into the future, asking yourself that oft-repeated question: when exactly did all the support and goodwill that the Nigerian people invest in your mandate leak off? With the benefit of hindsight, Obasanjo can point to matters like ‘Third Term’ and Jonathan to ‘Ojota;’ would you let yours be ‘shoddy and unprincipled transition management?’


Let us break it down. Every administration is defined by its core essence. Thomas Sankara called it ‘historical mission’ and Shehu Yar Adua used the words ‘National Purpose.’ Great leaders like Mandela, Lee Kuan Yew, and arguably, Murtala Muhammed, are remembered for it. Your core mandate now is in our view not carion-hunting but to help your nominees get the vision right. And make no mistake here; just like ‘the Transformation Agenda’ was truly ‘all sound and fury, signifying nothing,’ your mantras of ‘Change’ and ‘Commonsense revolution’ today really mean nothing.


And yes, you may not have been the one elected, but so was Nehru. Invest in enjoying your future Jagaban. Make the right choices. It is that simple.