Daily Independent (Lagos)
Ayo Badmus
9 July 2009
opinion
It ought to be a day of sober reflection for the Nigerian political class today, with United States President Barack Obama arriving in Accra for his first touchdown on African soil after becoming the first African-American to be elected U.S. president. Unfortunately, sobriety is not a strong suit of Nigeria's political elite.
The downward descent into failing statehood continues to gather momentum. Confirming a long litany of perennial under-achievements, the country was once again missing on the list of African countries the World Bank and the Brookings Institution adjudged the best in democratic practices. The institutions released joint analyses which showed African nations making great efforts and achieving improvements in how their people are governed. Once again yours truly the giant with feet of clay was conspicuously absent. The worldwide governance indicators project used the framework of defining governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority is exerted in a country. Botswana, Liberia, Ghana made the list. Indeed Botswana was rated on a par with many developing nations.
None of this matters to our vacuous political comptrollers. Nothing actually matters to them as long as unearned income from crude oil is being pumped out of the Niger Delta. The Obama people have not allowed the niceties of diplomatic gait to obscure the real reason why they chose Ghana as their first port of call in Africa. They are absolutely right to acknowledge and appreciate the fine democratic culture being woven around the national ethos in Ghana. For any man or woman of colour it is very uplifting that an African country can continuously hold elections without a shot being fired. Twice, sitting governments have graciously bowed out of power and accepted electoral verdicts. All of this has had one salutary effect. It has given the lie to the supremacist position that the African is genetically incapable of running his affairs. For any man or woman of African descent, there is a lot to thank Ghana for. That valiant country has made us all feel so proud to be Africans. Not for a proud people the mendacious chapter of 'No vacancy in ...'
With the way they are firmly establishing a democratic tradition of openness and orderly transition the mind boggles as to how the Ghanaians will utilize the bounty from oil. Any time soon they will join the league of oil-producing nations. With a sense of nationhood and a fair democratic tradition the odds are that they will not blow the opportunity. It will be strange if they did. For one, they have seen how the curse of oil has derailed their neighbour, of the feet of clay. After earning three times, inflation- and adjusted, what it took to prosecute the Marshall plan in post-Second World War Western Europe Nigeria is today reaping a grim harvest. The Ghanaians must be aware of these painful realities. However generous their spirit, it must still be numbing to observe the managerial ineptitude of the Nigerian 'state'. Over $400 billion dollars later, the leadership of the Nigerian state is frenetically after the holy grail of achieving the generation, transmission and distribution of 6,000 megawatts of electricity. It is quite an insight into the unadventurous limitations of the perennial under-achiever.
Within this context the columnist Pini Jason once aptly observed, "We have set the ceiling of our expectations so how in this country, that you have to crawl to get out of the room". We have been crawling before and ever since his observation, made well over a decade and more ago. One crucial difference between Nigeria and Ghana might be the use of the opportunity that arises when a country reaches a critical juncture. This juncture usually presents the opportunity for a national rebirth. Ghana of course has had its trials and tribulations by the bucketful. The tribulations consisted of all the usual suspects. In Ghana as elsewhere there was great disillusionment with the inability to live up to the expectations that came with independence.
And in Ghana the expectations were really high. The first black African country attained flag independence under an impetuously cerebral and charismatic leadership. Sadly, it turned out to be an illusion - a false dawn. Ghana, as can be testified to with Obama's visit today, has since moved on from the road of disillusionment. When the moment came, that critical juncture, it was seized with both arms. The Rawlings coup was such a critical moment. From that rupture came, over the course of time, a decisive and hopefully irreversible break with a dismal past. That particular rupture was the defining moment which they are reaping from. Nigeria has probably had more critical junctures than one might care to remember.
The pivotal election of June 12, 1993 ought to have provided such a rupture. The conditions were super: a nationwide across-ethnic-and-class-divide endorsement of a ticket, even though it did not enjoy the religious balance to be expected in a multi-religious state. In a fit of pique the cabal of military officers and their civilian foot soldiers adjudged the unfolding events as a threat to the 'world as we know it'. In their calculation just about anything inadvertently could snowball out of the new ball game. It had to be strangled at birth. That critical juncture, what should have been a decisive historical moment, was lost! The opportunity to rally the nation and midwife a new republic simply went down the drain. This is the surreal story of the Nigerian federation as it bludgeons on from crises to crises.
*Badmus wrote in from Lagos
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Judging from the views and opinions expressed by Nigerians, it seems like Obama's decisition to visit Ghana instead, came as a surprise. As an Ibo adage has it, one can tell the blind that there is no oil in a bowl of soup not that there is no salt. What this moment calls for is for a reflection on the future of the British administrative contriavance called Nigeria. A constitutional conference should be called in which the future of Nigeria should be discussed. Such a conference should make adiquate provisions for persons of Nigeria descent in diaspora to participate and the present administration should not make a mokery of such a conference by staging George Orwell's Animal Farm conference. The conference should be widely publicised and participation should be open to all and sundry.
Wao, can Yaradua and gov's see that is shame on Nigeria goverment that with all the brain and wealth that we have in Nigeria, we lost the position of the leader that God has given to us as the giant of Africa. What a shame. I hope this we teach all this stupid thief in Nigerian gov. a lesson that we need a big change in Nigeria. It is shame to you Yaradua and your gov.and the entire Nation for history lost to Ghana.
IsaacA