Second anniversary of failure
By Levi Obijiofor
IN May 2007, President Umaru Yar'Adua was given a lifetime opportunity to repair eight years of psychological, political and economic damage inflicted on the nation by Olusegun Obasanjo. Yar'Adua promised on oath that he would serve Nigeria to the best of his ability. And he actually started off on a good note. He placed the value of his assets in the public domain. The Nigerian media misread that gesture and made a ceremony out of it.
In his first year, Yar'Adua overturned some of the crooked decisions made by Obasanjo in the last hours of Obasanjo's tenure. Yar'Adua returned to the Lagos State government the local council funds withheld by Obasanjo for four years. He also returned to the nation the ownership of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries which Obasanjo had auctioned days before his exit from Aso Rock.
One year into his four-year term, Yar'Adua promised the nation that he would re-jig his cabinet in order to infuse a sense of urgency into his government. Nigerians clapped. And the waiting began. The nation waited for the new cabinet, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. It took Yar'Adua more than six months to configure his new cabinet. But the calibre of people he nominated for national assignment gave a clear indication that Yar'Adua lacked the capacity to administer the nation effectively. He removed tired men and women and substituted them with a cohort of tired men and women.
Yar'Adua failed in the past two years to transform the nation in all aspects of socioeconomic development simply because of his odd choice of ministers and advisers, his sluggish approach to governance and his inability to balance the competing demands of the high office he occupies. In the past two years, Yar'Adua failed to live up to his oath of office. He must take sole responsibility for that failure. He has all the power and financial resources to make a difference. A country such as Nigeria, which is endowed with rich human and natural resources, should not be commemorating two years of failure.
Here is how Yar'Adua can repair his damaged image, if he is willing to sit up. He should take on one project, any project at all. He should then tell Nigerians that by this time in 2010, everyone would notice a significant difference. He can take on healthcare. He can take on road construction and repairs. He can take on electricity, although I would advise him not to do so, owing to his failure to fulfill previous promises. He can take on infrastructure development.
By taking on just one project, Yar'Adua must assume direct leadership to prove that he can achieve what some state governors - past and present - have accomplished with fewer resources. Take road construction and infrastructure development, as an example. In Lagos, Governor Babatunde Fashola has transformed the city. In Enugu State, Governor Sullivan Chime has become a folk hero by virtue of the number and quality of roads he is building. In Anambra State, former governor Chris Ngige continues to enjoy public adoration because of the road projects he completed during the few but turbulent years he was in office. If these men with limited resources can pick on specific projects and succeed, why can't Yar'Adua leave a memorable legacy for the nation?
Whatever Yar'Adua chooses to tell Nigerians today as his achievement in two years, he must not mention the boring rule-of-law mantra. It is an abstract concept that has made no impact on the people. No one believes in Yar'Adua's rule-of-law ideology essentially because the government does not believe in it too.
Exactly one year ago today, on the first anniversary of his government, Yar'Adua told the nation: "I believe that what Nigerians expect of this administration and what I am determined and committed to do is to lay a solid foundation that will protect reforms and programmes that will transform this country from an underdeveloped one to a developed nation." On the second anniversary of Yar'Adua's government, Nigerians are upset that Yar'Adua has made absolutely no positive impact on their lives and he has not transformed the nation as he promised.
Last year, Yar'Adua said the problems in the power sector were attributable to the absence of a law on which the government would declare a state of emergency and the fact that Nigeria has already traded its natural gas. He acknowledged that regular electricity is critical to Nigeria's socioeconomic development. On this basis, he promised to declare a state of emergency in the power sector. To everyone's astonishment, Yar'Adua weakened public optimism when he said the declaration of an emergency would be subject to a number of conditions, one of which is that "The issue must have been exhaustively discussed."
For goodness sake, who doesn't know that there are major problems in the power sector? What is the wisdom or folly of seeking a consensus on a subject that has imperilled human lives and businesses across the country? Do we really need a national agreement before Yar'Adua can address the problems in the power sector? This is the kind of strategy usually adopted by lame duck politicians who have no clues about how to govern.
This sluggish approach to government business is the reason why Yar'Adua has been sitting on other issues that require urgent attention. Consider, for instance, the report of an enquiry into the abuse of Uzoma Okere, a young woman who was assaulted in the first week of November 2008 by a group of naval ratings in full view of their boss. More than five months since the report was submitted to the Presidency, the government has simply refused to release the official report.
The current use of disproportionate military force by the government to quell the instability in the Niger Delta region will continue to sully the image of Yar'Adua's government. The insecurity in the Niger Delta region is not the kind of crisis that can be resolved easily through brutal force. Violence inflicted by the government on the people in the Niger Delta will generate retaliatory violence from the activists. Violence breeds violence, isn't it? Peace can still be achieved through negotiation by all groups.
Outside the Niger Delta region, criminal gangs and armed robbers have continued to hold Nigerians hostage in cities and villages. The police are ill-equipped to fight crime. The police are also poorly remunerated. If Yar'Adua's government has failed to successfully fight criminal gangs and armed robbers, it has also failed to tackle grinding poverty. In mid-February 2008, the government announced with fanfare the introduction of a spectacular project which, it argued, would eradicate poverty in Nigeria. That project was called Community Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (CEEDS). The government said CEEDS would eliminate poverty from the homes of 30 million Nigerians by the year 2011.
While the government claims to know by magical contrivance how many million Nigerians would benefit from CEEDS, Yar'Adua's government has no idea about the exact population of the country, including the number of people who can be classified as poor. Therein lies the fallacy of CEEDS.
When Yar'Adua set up the Electoral Reforms Commission headed by former Chief Justice Mohammed Uwais, he sounded like a man determined to remove from our collective psyche the culture of systematic abuse of electoral laws by politicians and their supporters. But by the time Yar'Adua and his ministers and advisers had finished tinkering with the recommendations of the commission, the revised version of the reforms sent to the National Assembly had lost its verve and seriousness.
Yar'Adua has disappointed a lot of people. Where the nation expected him to show leadership, he has shown telltale signs of incapacity to lead at the national level. Where the nation expected Yar'Adua to improve his public image by improving public hospitals and the healthcare system, his inaction suggests that public hospitals are facilities where the sick go to die and rest in peace. Where the nation expected Yar'Adua to provide basic infrastructure, he seems to suggest that we are not entitled to basic services because we were not all created equal.
Yar'Adua has two more years to make a difference. If things continue the way they are, he might turn out to be a president who achieved nothing or little in the presence of tremendous opportunities. Olusegun Obasanjo's economic failures and administrative incompetence are beginning to pale in the face of Yar'Adua's failures in the past two years.
