7 June 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
Finally, I would like to say one thing very clearly: at the end of the day, Nigerians do not really care who is in charge as long as he or she can deliver the goods. If we enjoy 24-hour electricity, who cares if the Minister of Power is an Idoma? If all our roads are in good condition, who is going to ask if it is a Kaje woman or an Ora man that is the Minister of Works? If Nigeria beats Kenya 1-0, who cares if the goal was scored by an Ikwerre midfielder? I pick my mobile phone and make a call and it goes through smoothly. Do I care if the MD of the mobile company is from Iwo? It's mainly because Nigeria is not working that we pay so much attention to these details.
Yet, every part of Nigeria has a blame for our underdevelopment. We hardly put our best foot forward. We always allow selfish considerations to determine who we appoint or vote into public office. That is part of our problem. In the application of the Federal Character principle, we must never forget the place of merit. Nominate the best. The principle behind Federal Character is good - it is applied in one form or the other even in advanced countries such as US ("affirmative action") and UK ("ethnic equality"). Yar'Adua must strive to maintain Nigeria's delicate balance without being seen to be favouring one part above the other, and we must also insist on merit.
Of course, one day, we would come to realise that it is best to judge people by, to quote Martin Luther King Jnr, the "content of their character" - and not the design of tribal marks on their faces or the rhythm of their accents.
A Scholar and a Gentleman:
Waziri Adio. That's his name. I call him "Wazy". When he told me last year he was going for a Master's degree in Public Administration at the revered Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, United States, I asked him: why not a PhD? He joked: "You know I'm an old man now!" Wazy, who also holds a Master's in Journalism from the prestigious University of Columbia, US (1999), proudly graduated from Harvard last Thursday with two certificates - one an MPA and the other for his Edward S. Mason fellowship in Public Policy and Management. He often shared his lecture notes with me. They were awesome. In a sense, I also took classes with him! And just you know, he was in the same class with Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. But, no, Wazy did not write his term paper on President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
Wazy, who was my classmate at the University of Lagos, has always distinguished himself as an intellectual. He was by far the best student in our undergraduate class, missing First Class by a horrendous 0.05 point! When the Senate refused to upgrade him, he calmly told me: "That's okay. All my life, I would have had to live with the burden of having to prove I hold a First Class." But, really, who does not know he's a first-class brain? I'm very proud to be associated with Wazy, who has clearly had the biggest impact on my intellectual development in the last 20 years. Congrats, boy!
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