Daily Independent (Lagos)
Ahmed Dikko Ibrahim
14 May 2009
opinion
Like a laden dam, Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo - one of the several spokesmen of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar -burst loose recently, spewing venom and hatred in the general direction of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, from where Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua currently governs Nigeria.
In a widely publicized article, "Yar'Adua Should Go Home in 2011", Dr. Ojo's (or should we say Atiku Abubakar's) disdain for President Umaru Yar'Adua was not disguised. In fact Ojo, all too eloquently, delivered the former Vice President's long-awaited message to President Yar'Adua: I am still angry that you are occupying an office I thoroughly covet and I will ensure you are booted out on or before May 2011.
So intense is the anger of Abubakar and his boys that they are now attempting to make millions of educated and discerning Nigerians amnesiac. It will not work. We have not forgotten and we shall not forget!
By his own admission, Dr. Ojo sent in the anti-Yar'Adua article from his current base - Kenya. That, indeed, is the problem with both Ojo and his ultra ambitious boss, Atiku Abubakar (who now lives in the United Arab Emirates and visits Nigeria occasionally): they have been away for too long to appreciate the repair work President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and his team have been carrying out in virtually every facet of our national life since he took over from Dr. Ojo's godfather, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and his current master, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Ojo too easily pontificates about achievements (or lack of it) in the first half of the first tenure of the Yar'Adua government, conveniently refusing to acknowledge the fact that Yar'Adua inherited a country that was near the abyss owing largely to the titanic and shameful brawl between Alhaji Abubakar and President Obasanjo for most of the second term of that administration.
The war between the two men all but rubbished the little that was achieved in the eight years both men held sway. The economy was in ruins as the nation was fed artificial and outlandish statistics, infrastructure across the country (except in Abuja) was in tatters, kidnapping and gangsterism were the order of the day in the strategic Niger Delta area; total generation capability of the Power Holding Company had ebbed from nearly 4,000 megawatts to less than 1,000 megawatts when Yar'Adua took office in May 2009. And of course, the Obasanjo-Atiku war and the after-shocks of the general elections of 2007 had polarized and tensed up the polity.
Under this aforementioned clime, in the reckoning of Dr. Ojo and his ilk, Yar'Adua was supposed to wave a magic wand to speedily repair the damage done not just to the economy and the polity but the foundation that holds this great country together by the duo of Obasanjo and Abubakar. Well, here is the bad news: no such magic wand exists. But that is why Nigerians have resolved that never again will quarrelsome, selfish and self-seeking men or women be allowed to govern this great country. Never!
Either for the fun of it or to score cheap political points, it is easy to label President Yar'Adua as slow or even underachieving. But the crucial question is why does Yar'Adua need to "speedily achieve" if all was well when he took office? Truth is that the man inherited a near comatose economy and bankrupt infrastructure especially in the critical power sector, in spite of huge sums of money invested in these sectors by the government Dr. Adinoyi Ojo served with relish in several capacities. Yar'Adua quickly understood that to truly take off, the nation needed to retrace its steps and begin afresh.
So for the first time since 1979 a democratically elected Nigerian leader is embarking on long-term planning. For the first time, too, a Nigerian leader is preferring concrete achievements that will last for generations to transient "achievements" that are only designed to earn cheap accolades in the media and the unproductive tag of a populist. We have travelled that route severally in the past and we were terribly worsted. Like President Barack Obama of the United States of America, Yar'Adua has elected to be real and tell the Nigerians the truth at all times. He has also chosen the glaringly anti-populist option of careful, effective and strategic long-term planning.
That President Yar'Adua has refused to grandstand does not in any way obfuscate his very obvious achievements. Under him, Nigeria has been listed as one of the nation's that are largely insulated from the harshest effects of the global economic melt down.
At a time when price of crude oil has nose-dived Nigeria continues to hold its own and, to the glory of God Almighty, only recently the Yar'Adua government became the first regime in Nigeria to award contracts for the construction of 26 federal highways same day, at a staggering sum of over N300 billion. Colossal investments have also gone into the critical power sector, especially the Independent Power Projects (IPP) and the government has consistently held that power generation in the country will peak at 6,000 mega watts in 2011.
Sanity is returning to the Niger Delta with the on-going fleshing out of the Niger Delta master plan. Efforts in this direction have been further boosted by the creation of a separate ministry in charge of the affairs of the Niger Delta area. Dr. Ojo and other critics sermonize about the white paper on the Ledum Mitee Committee's report on the Niger Delta. These critics are either ignorant of how government works or they are deliberately slanting the facts to suite some desired ends. The government does not need to release any white paper on the report of the Mitee Committee.
The Yar'Adua government, like all serious governments the world over, reserves the right to put together eminent citizens to guide it in taking vital decisions, and it is left for persons in government who have a broader and better view of all the facts to work with the report of such a committee in any way or format they dim fit, for the greater good of the citizenry. Most Nigerians, especially those from the Niger Delta area, are aware that the Yar'Adua government has since begun implementing the recommendations of the Mitee Committee.
Same goes for the Justice Muhammadu Uwais Committee on electoral reform. The government's white paper on the report reflects all that is permissible within the context of the laws of the land.
Dr. Ojo frowns at talk that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua ought to seek re-election in 2011. In fact he brutally chastises the suggestion as unpatriotic and self-serving. The President himself has since said that it is rather too early to talk about re-election, but of course one will not be surprised if in the coming months calls for another term for President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua become deafening.
If, for example, by 2010 electricity generation is upped to almost 6,000 mega watts; the Niger-delta area becomes calmer and sane as a result of the well coordinated efforts of the administration; the nearly 30 federal highways under construction inch close to completion stages; sweeping reforms in the oil and gas sector lead to a boom in the economy, and the palliatives currently being extended to the nation's farmers begin to yield agricultural dividends, pray, why won't Nigerians beg Yar'Adua to go for another term?
Dr. Ahmed Dikko Ibrahim, a political scientist, lives in Abuja.
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