OPTIONS, CHOICES and QUESTIONS: NEW POLITICAL STRUCTURE, NO SNC? OLD STRUCTURE, INTENSIFY CALL FOR SNC OR NC?

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Most dictionaries define virtue as moral excellence, goodness, the right action, right thinking and goodness of character that cannot be built up by surrogates with sinister objectives. One cannot be too surprised when such qualities as prudence, courage, self-discipline, fairness, compassion, perseverance, honesty, humility, and loyalty are made part and parcel of this definition. Lexicographer Marvin Vincent says that, the original classical sense of the creek word, virtue denotes excellence of any kind. One can also take virtue as conformity to a standard of RIGHTS accepted by humans and ordained by the almighty. One does not have to be a Christian, a Moslem, Shango worshiper, a Hindu or what have you to be virtuous. The skepticism engendered in human enlightenment has further reduced all ideas of right and wrong to matters of personal taste, emotional preference or cultural choice. It cannot be surprising to anyone that God in His infinite mercy gave us in-built capacity, call it inner spirit, to know what is wrong from that which is right. Along this clear definition of virtue, Nigeria must embark on a redesigning of her cracked political foundation to achieve a new political structural adjustment that will meet collective need of all her citizens, not just for privilege few.

Is it not uncommon for a president, a custodian of a "mandate" to shout himself silly without anyone making sense of what he says? Is it also not possible that Nigerians of great virtues have unequivocally expressed their intentions on what type of Nigeria they want without any reciprocal response from the leaders? Is mere taste or preference a satisfactory way of determining right from wrong in a country which leaves bad taste of collective experience in the mouth? Could there be genuine miscommunication between the leaders and the citizens, if so, can there be a medium from whence the misunderstanding can be mediated, call it SNC or NC? Can visionary leaders ever result from visionless political system that looks for zonal leadership rather than qualified leadership? Can a leader be visionless because that is just what he/she thinks the current political system expects of him? Can the sunny disposition and accommodative natures of Nigerians be mistaking for stupidity at every stage of a yawn for better nation? These are few of the questions that Nigerians need to ponder over and find solutions to before the next democratic political dispensation or, is it installation comes around.

For far too long, Nigerians have embarked on ways to make easy money while their conscience is thrown to the winds. Nigerians are now finding out that it is easy to buy a bed but difficult to buy sleep. Nigerians accepted a Constitution ridden with shortcomings, and one brought about by people of twisted minds. Fortunately for Nigeria, a constitution is always work in progress as no constitution is ever perfect. Nigeria’s constitution is a constitution in which criminality is written into. All former military and civilian leaders negotiated their immunity into the constitution. Is a dead man capable of incorporating forgiveness into his eulogy since its offense is against God and only God can forgive? Likewise, the past leaders cannot write their forgiveness and immunity into the nation’s constitution since only the offended citizens (mothers, fathers, children born and unborn, hardworking citizens, the hopeless, the citizens maimed by arm robbers of unemployed citizens due to economic policies of the same leaders) have the capacity to forgive any committed offense whether planned or inadvertently in nature. It is not too much for Nigerians to ask to be given the opportunity to forgive those that committed offenses against them. If those past leaders accept that have sinned, they must first atone for their sins, repent, give back their instruments of sin (loots) to the people, then and only then can the citizens allow such a constitution to exist in part.

Why are military generals look upon as if they possess special gifts beyond that given to ordinary mortals. One must confess that a lot of smart Nigerians went into the military in the 60s and 70s and a lot more are still going for the professional calling. Going into to the military is akin to going to the university to become a lawyer, an engineer, a Doctor, an artist, et cetera. Attaining the level of a general is equivalent to becoming a professor in any of the above professions. There are political professors and there are extremely worthy professors just as there are political generals as well as there are extremely competent generals. In reviewing the political strategies of Nigeria, never have I heard a call to make a retired professor a head of state and as such, a retired general deserve no less. There are incredibly competent serving and retired generals who are marginally rich as there are marginally rich folks from other professions. Since there are many capable citizens just like capable retired professional soldiers, Nigeria’s political system must be over hauled to allow equal participation based on character, integrity, past performance, and past evidence of following the rule of law. Except Nigerians can convince themselves that only the retired generals who, by their own Saturday night confession at the justice Oputa commission, are capable of leading, they must look only for qualified Nigerians irrespective of their professional calling and/or state of origin to lead to her national calling. This is why Nigerians (Northern, Western, or Eastern) should completely disagree with the thinking that retired generals are the saviors of the system that they single handedly destroyed or agree to the zoning mentality. In a political strategy of deal making that does not feature the citizens in the deal; a political strategy that simply transfers power between warlords; a political strategy that shares money between and among friends, sycophants, and "boy-boys," while making no discernable positive difference in the lives of citizens, a strategy that portends to solve Nigeria’s political problems by zoning is a defective democracy.

Why are Nigerians shouting themselves hoarse for either Sovereign National Conference, SNC or National conference (NC)? If the past utterances and activities of the leaders and their cohorts are to go by, Nigerians are justified to unanimously call for SNC or NC. The answers are easy to discern. In actuality, reasonable and sane citizens of any country cannot and should not call for SNC or NC if enabling institutions are strong enough to enforce the laws and all necessary systems, which are in place for checks and balances, are allowed to function. But Nigeria is not that country and Nigerians are not the kind of citizens. Politics in Nigeria is more of prostitution than governing. It takes two to tangle we are told. Nigeria’s politics replicates a sinusoidal motion in which citizens beg for what belongs to them in the first place and politicians appease and dance to the tune of some segments in the country while deluding themselves that they are governing the whole country. Nigerians have been raped and will continue to be raped if the current political structure is not revamped. One would think that the call for SNC or NC is a statement that the citizens have been rape enough and they will no longer take such abuse from anyone. The call by Nigeria is a cry for citizens to find an equitable, just, fair, virtuous, and trusting society and leaders that the citizens have opportunity to choose and dispense of in case they do not perform according to the standards set forth by the constitution ratified by majority of citizens not one micro managed by the military.

While the president was releasing his venom and over flogging the issue of Sovereignty, able Nigerians from far and near were making sense of what he said and what he meant. Our dear president and others before him always fail to understand what the electorates are telling them. In any civilized democracy, the electorates are the kingmakers but for the fractured political system setup by the military, only moneybags are kingmakers. What one could have expected from the president is a genuine analysis of why he does not subscribe to SNC or NC. Rather than do just that, he decided to tell citizens that he was given a mandate and he is in the custody of citizens’ sovereignty. Mr. President, the same citizens that you claimed to have given you the mandate are the ones calling for SNC or NC. If you do not want the call for SNC or NC to drown out your successes in governance, then you must make sure that all supporting institutions are allowed to do their work and only qualified Nigerians are allowed to represent Nigeria. The time for deal making in order to shove leaders down the throats of citizens is past. Nigerians are now saying very clearly that they are ready to fight with their last blood to see that the same bull crap of political gimmickry is not visited on the next generation of citizens. What plan has the president made to change the tide of failure in governance? Has he communicated his experience, shown the citizens where the stumbling blocks are, who is laying the ambush, and ask citizens to call all their senators and demand that they do the right thing? The voice of man is the voice of God so let it be with Nigerians.

Without over hauling the current political structure, your children and mine have no hope of partaking in the political system which is their right as citizens. Without demystifying money especially in Nigerian politics, only retired generals and other retired military officers will continue to have a hold on government and you know why. In an animated society like Nigeria’s, a need to be recognized for none performance out weighs the need to serve the nation. This is why incompetent governors, inconsequential ministers, Senators and house representatives with lackadaisical attitude toward governance have stream of cars in a convoy in order to announce their presence and continue to disturb citizens with the blasting sirens, only in Nigeria. As we now know, award of inflated contracts, corruption, manipulation, stream of car convoy are aphrodisiac that define our current leaders.

In the present political structure, the problem is systemic. Even as hard as president Obasanjo may be trying to right the wrongs of the past, he will never see the light of the day because the system is designed not to see the good visited on citizens but each constituent part of the nation are programmed to see the worse in any leader in order to prepare for a hostile take over. President Obasanjo cannot be too surprised because he was part of the system, he benefited in the dysfunctional system which he is now governing with. If the president is not virtuous enough to make appropriate changes in cooperation with the lawmakers, he will be preparing a nice grave for future Nigerians. When one is climbing up the ladder of success, one is often reminded to know whom one is passing bye because when one is tumbling down the same ladder on is likely to meet the same people. It is only to remind the president that the very prison that he engineered or re-engineered was the one that housed a very august visitor. If he does not have the courage of a lion to correct the ills of the society, the second chance that the good Lord gave him would have been wasted to his own detriment and the president would have no other person to blame but himself. The president has a chance to become the greatest president the country has ever seen if only he can summon courage to initiate the redesign and reconstruct Nigeria’s political fractured foundation. Failing to get Nigeria going after a second chance may be the Opprobrium for which the president would be remembered, God forbid. If the president fails as a leader, it will be Olusegun Obasanjo as a person not his tribe. May be and just may be Nigeria needs a maverick novice, one without the baggage's that the past politicians carry in order to set Nigeria aright.

That thing called political zoning in Nigeria was necessary because Nigerians believe, justifiably so, that only certain part of the country was ruling and that nothing was trickling down to the other parts. My beef with zoning is that it amplifies marginalization and our differences. Now a Yoruba man is in the helm of affairs and other tribes are shouting marginalization. What is the guarantee that those crying marginalization will visit marginalization on those they perceive to have marginalized them when they too have an opportunity to lead the country? Zoning of political office is suicidal. It lacks imagination, and creates a vicious cycle of marginalization. What I mean is this, why should a leader, one that we are suppose to respect and adore be chosen because he/she happens to come from certain zone rather than because he/she can perform the job require to make Nigeria a strong nation or he is one that sees Nigeria as his/her constituent. A leader that is comfortable in improving infrastructure in the North, in the South as well as in the East because he is happy to see his/her country develop. Right now, a product of zoning leadership cannot be better than the system that creates him and he does not have allegiance to the nation, would not see Nigeria as his/her constituents, and would only cater for the needs of those few that installing him. Let us be proud to challenge a defective system because not doing that will lead to suffering from our inaction.

When one thinks of the Nigerian civil service, one thinks of a favorite quotation "I can only serve on person today. Today is not your day and tomorrow doesn’t look good either." Over fifteen years ago, a friend whose new and lovely bride just arrived in to the US died of carbon monoxide poison in a University housing. The student had just received a Federal government scholarship award for a Ph.D. but had not signed the letter of award. By collective effort, the Nigerian students at the institution called the Nigerian embassy in New York to report that one of her citizens had died. The first question from the official at the embassy was "Is he a Federal government scholar?" The answer to such question was that the dead Nigerian had just been awarded a scholarship. The official continued to ask if the student signed the scholarship award for which the answer was negative. The official explained that there was nothing the embassy could do for the student body since the dead Nigerian had not signed the scholarship acceptance form. The long and short of this morbid story is to show the callousness of some corrupt, and often-vicious civil servants and these are Nigerians paid with tax payers’ money. Again, this is not to say that all civil servants are like this but one of these happenings is one too many to accept. If one calls for redesigning of the very foundation of Nigeria’s political system, a new system that looks for compassionate, competent and human citizens to be at the helm of affairs of the nation, one would not be asking too much. Would Nigerians at that time have cared about the tribe of the official at the embassy? Tribalism and religious bigotry tend to retard the unity of our beloved nation.

It is well to conclude on the note that although many would say that President Bush was installed, the steps he has taking so far is welcoming. He can be seeing as making genuine efforts to fulfill several of his campaign promises and slowly and methodically he is nibbling at finding solutions to his nations problems. He cannot afford not to because the political structure is in place and the electorates are there to measure his performance against a set standard with which they will use to determine if he is worthy of their votes next time around. One can be rest assured that the opposition party would be in disarray because, the better Bush performs, the more problem it becomes for it taking over government. In this case, performance is the key issue to remaining in office not zoning. This is what a political system should be and not a deal making for one general to take over from the other. In one of my earlier articles I predicted that we would see a sergeant rule over a general if the call for the revamping of the current Nigeria’s political structure is not attended to as a matter of urgency, the prediction will, in all likelihood, come true. Let us develop the will to change our fractured political foundation and go forth to celebrate our diversity in order to begin to enjoy the generations of our strength, pride, and diversity as a united nation full of vigor, imagination and a will to survive the treacherous world we find ourselves in. It is time for politicians and the electorates to work together in tandem in other allow Nigeria to reap her blessings. Let us at the end of our days, in the space call Nigeria, be able to say, "we came, we saw and we conquered."

I still believe in the country call Nigeria, do you?