As I type this piece on my laptop, it’s still Wednesday, May 27, 2015. By the time you get to read it, however, it will be Friday, May 29, 2015 when history is made and the aspiration for change becomes the reality of a new beginning.
You don’t have a tree in the garden without having a good knowledge of its fruit. I have a good knowledge of Opalaba, my good friend. I know what he is capable of doing and what to expect from him. With his awareness of my location an ocean away and therefore an unavoidable absence from all the festivities of this day, I expect Opalaba to arrogantly show off his closeness to the heart of the show and rub it in on my face. By 5am Eastern Time and 10 am Lagos time on May 29, I know that Opalaba will wake me up and taunt me about what I am missing. I am sure that I will be treated to his baritone rendition of the famed Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood theme song:
“It’s a beautiful day in Nigeria
A beautiful day for my nation
Would you join us?
Could you join me?”
“It’s democracy day in Nigeria
True democracy for my nation
Would you join us?
Could you join me?”
That is my friend, only being true to his sadistic pastime. And you better believe that my preempting him with this piece will not alter the course of events that has been predicted.
It’s surely a beautiful day in Nigeria. Its beauty is not in the cool breeze of the wind or the brightness of the sun. It is not in the gentle drizzle or the showers of blessing. This day is beautiful on account of what it represents. Even the humidity of the air cannot take away that beauty.
Like many patriotic Nigerians, Opalaba has looked to this day with great excitement. He has invested a great deal of hope and cannot be more ecstatic about the outcome. He welcomed the unambiguous mandate that citizens handed Buhari and Osinbajo. It was a mandate for change, the rallying cry of Nigerian electorates on March 28, 2015. But that mandate was not only for a change of actors. It was also for a change of outlook and direction. Therefore, for Nigerians to be satisfied that real change has truly occurred there must be change of outlook and direction.
The change of actors is the purview of the people themselves. By voting out the outgoing administration on grounds of incompetence, impunity, corruption and moral decay, the people have performed their own side of the contract. They must now hold the incoming administration responsible for fulfilling its own side of the bargain: provide strong and effective leadership for a change of outlook and direction. Our people respect strong leaders. They appreciate focused attention on the challenges facing the nation. But they are rightly contemptuous of leadership from behind.
With respect to a change of outlook, the Buhari/Osinbajo administration must proceed with the understanding that every citizen matters and deserves respect. They must know that the politicians’ sacrifice is no greater than citizens’ sacrifice. Therefore, there is no moral justification for jumbo compensation for political appointees and elected officials. And any legal impediment against corrective measures must be speedily removed so that morality is reconciled with legality.
This administration must pay serious attention to the needs of the smallest among us and invest in the development of human talents. The beginning of political wisdom in the matter of a change of outlook is the avoidance of all the terrible isms: egocentrism, ethnocentrism, sectarianism, and nepotism, in word and deed. For heaven’s sake, real change must occur in these areas that have badly tainted our politics in the most recent past.
There is always the political temptation to use and abuse the symbols of political power. It is not a coincidence that power is the battle cry of PDP and it abused it to the point that Nigerians became thoroughly disillusioned and demoralised. This administration must avoid such an outlook. It must make transparently conscious efforts towards the restoration of our people’s confidence in the police, DSS, and other security agencies.
It is imperative that the likes of Ekitigate be consigned to the dustbin of history. And it is certainly a positive development that the governors have redeemed their image away from the infamous “16 is greater than 19” election verdict. Now they must join hands with the new administration as moral forces in a nation that is thirsty for a commonsense moral revolution. Today, we must start a new tradition of morally sanctioned politics, a politics of virtue that abhors greed and self-centeredness. The administration must strengthen our democratic structures and allow the free flow of ideas in the political marketplace.
The country has headed in the wrong direction in the past 16 years. Education which ought to be given the utmost priority was sadly placed at the back burner of government’s attention as private institutions took precedence even in the attention of public officials saddled with the responsibility of advancing our public schools. The consequence is mass failure because teachers who secured employment on political grounds and party affiliation can hardly read or add. You cannot feed garbage in and expect a different output.
It is worse. Children and young adults have become apprentices in the workshop of the devil, and cultism is a national embarrassment. Politicians use the young ones during elections and dump them thereafter. But the used and dumped don’t evaporate into thin air. They are absorbed into the world of crime and into the enclaves of militants and terrorists. Do we care for the future of the youth and of the nation?
We need a change of direction in our approach to the education of the youth. We must offer them functional and quality education and prepare them for good life prospects. If we do, we will experience a great relief from the tragic dehumanisation and unfortunate loss of our youth population to drug addiction, cultism, and thuggery. And from the fruit of good education, our youths can start making useful contributions to the economy and inculcating the values of discipline and moral rectitude. I am sure that these ideas are consistent with the change agenda of the APC and the Buhari/Osinbajo manifesto.
Investing in human assets is a no-brainer. It has the potentials for a multiplier effect not only on the economy but also on those intangibles that make a society great and livable. The rot that pervades the Nigerian landscape is odious and revolting.
Someone told me that it is not possible to eradicate corruption because it has become so entrenched in the system and that the President must not waste his political capital on that impossible task. I disagree. If the APC government campaigned on its ability and will to fight corruption, it cannot afford to be discouraged or disenchanted. If it doesn’t look back, it can count on the support of ordinary Nigerians who see corruption as the major obstacle to their personal progress.
Corruption is fingered as the culprit in most if not in all the challenges facing the nation, whether it has to do with the collapse of the power sector, fuel subsidy scam, security challenges, electoral fraud, or waste in public service. It is time that we confronted the tumor before it consumes the nation.
As President Buhari takes over the mantle of leadership of this great nation today, he must lead by example and with the fear of Almighty God who has smiled on his fourth attempt. He must resolve to repay the kindness of God to him by putting the nation first in all that he does. It’s only by so doing that he can bring the much deserved change to a nation that is in desperate need of a new direction.
It’s a beautiful day in the land that pleases God to locate us all. Let us make the best of it.
Good morning!