It
is official! Muhammadu Buhari is the President-elect of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. There was palpable anxiety in the air.
The
mood of the country was very tense. The streets of our major cities
were deserted. Shops were under lock and key. Many banks closed by
midday on Monday. Everyone became suspicious of one another. There were
uncertainty, fear and insecurity. Rumours were spreading as if there was
something sinister in the offing. The historic presidential election
had just been concluded. The results have started trickling in. In a few
hours from now, all would have been declared. Many Nigerians voted in
the majority of the states except a few and the trend of the victory is
already obvious. The eyes of citizens are glued to their television sets
and you can notice a pin drop silence as they await the final
declarations. I have heard that few results in some states were said to
be contentious and probably manipulated but I do not think that it will
mean much to the national outcome. However, I will leave that to
whatever remains of our courts.
There is
nothing too surprising about the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari. At
least, I was not surprised. The political permutations in Nigeria are
fairly simple to predict for those who are objective and vigilant. It
was clear to me more than two years ago that the swaggering of Nigeria’s
ruling party would not last long.
What was unsettling to me was
how the political class would respond to the imminent change and how
far they could display the spirit of equanimity. I just watched the
scandalous show of shame of a former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs,
Godsday Orubebe, at the venue of the announcement of results on Tuesday.
In the weeks and months before the elections, the country became so
divided along political, ethnic and religious lines.
Now that
election has been won and lost, one of the major issues will be how to
reconcile and heal Nigeria. That for me is the most important task
before the new President. Our politics has eroded our national cohesion
so much that it could easily be reflected from the results that have
been received so far. It is either you belong to the “Christian South”
or the “Muslim North”. The second urgent and related task before the new
President is to rebuild our institutions. In the course of our
do-or-die approach to politics, most of our institutions seem to have
been compromised. Our police are openly partisan and unprofessionally
loyal to the Federal Government and not the people. The anti-graft
agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission are
comatose. Our security agencies have become so corrupt and fragmented
that one will wonder whether they are loyal to their religion and ethnic
groups or the Nigerian state. This is the scary part.
Two
security agents will report the same event differently drawing on their
biases and ethnic affiliations. Hoodlums and charlatans have taken
central positions as if the system is now rewarding criminality.
Meritocracy has been abandoned and mediocrity and favouritism elevated
to a point of state policy. If a process does not favour you or your
kinsman, it means that such a process is flawed and should not stand.
The consequences of these avoidable courses of action are there for
anybody to see and one hopes that the enthronement of the new leaders
offers an opportunity to do things differently.
I do not envy
Buhari as the next President of Nigeria. He has so much work to do. He
will be inheriting a whole lot of rot that had been left behind. The
problems are both entrenched and multifaceted. He will inherit a
challenging economy and dwindling national revenue as a result of low
oil prices. He will have to gird his loins and quickly go to work. There
is an urgent need to construct an architecture of national cohesion and
healing. Citizens must be made to understand what it means to be a
Nigerian, not how to be Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw, Efik, Ibibio, or
Birom. We must now look beyond politics of ethnic brinkmanship and face
the gigantic task of nation-building. It is time to enthrone meritocracy
in our conduct of national affairs. Let the best qualified persons take
up the positions regardless of where they come from. Interferences and
abuse of our institutions for political ends must stop forthwith. The
President-elect must re-organise and re-professionalise our security
agencies. The days of a Nigerian Army that is the pride of the African
continent must be made to return.
He must begin to fight
corruption beyond rhetoric. For so long, corruption has robbed our
country resources that would have been invested in development. The
easiest way to do this is to first cause a comprehensive study of the
Nigerian corruption problem, evolve tailor-made reforms fit for our
context before leading a frontal attack against the scourge. Let those
who lost the election accept defeat with sportsmanship. It is time for
us to put politics behind us. The next coming weeks and months will be
very crucial. There is so much work to do.
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