The New Year just sneaked on us like a thief in the night. It was only yesterday that we prepared so hard for the February 2015 elections, only to be dealt a severe blow by the almighty NSA. He needed all security agencies to focus on the militants and none can be spared for the conduct of “bloody civilian” elections. Therefore the elections had to be postponed.
Now we know that the NSA only needed more time to fashion out an equitable distribution formula for sharing among PDP chieftains the funds meant to procure weapons for the war against insurgents. It was all meant buy victory for the party at the polls. With no viable options, INEC succumbed. We would have no idea but for the determination of PMB to restart his war against corruption from where he was stopped midstream in 1985.
2015 was a year of drama on the political front. It was a year that democracy was stressed and stretched thin but it survived. It was the year that the electorate found their voice and got their mojo. Having been subjected to political intrigues for a long time, and having been treated like doormat in political mansions, the electorate had their sweet revenge in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Fifteen. Never again will any politician take them for granted.
Politicians now know that they have to perform just because voters now know that they have the constitutional right to hire and fire. The landmark elections of 2015 pointed us in the direction of a new reality, which any politician misunderstands only at his or her political peril.
In 2015, the power of strategic thinking on the part of progressives paid off in electoral victory at the centre. There have been progressives across the country since the beginning of the republic. And given the various progressive ideas championed across the states, it has always been clear that they are in the majority. They have just not been able to harness their collective power to gain entry to the centre of national politics. Now that has changed, thanks to the political wizardry of a few who downplayed and sacrificed their personal ambitions.
However, it was also in 2015 that the doctrine of party supremacy, once defended vigorously and passionately by the acknowledged premier political sage of the last century slumped and succumbed to internal intrigue.It was all about 2019, we were told as if there can be a 2019 victory for the ruling party if it cannot discipline its folks in 2015. Pray, how do you get to 2019 successfully without a robust unity of purpose from 2015?
One of the enduring features of the last presidential election was the enthusiasm and the rallying cry for change on the part of the youth and old alike. The message was unmistakable. They wanted change, not just of personnel but more importantly of direction. It was clear to them that the party that had been in power for 16 years had lost steam and direction and cannot be counted upon to redeem the country from the abyss into which it was heading.
The youth in particular embraced the message of change in the political structure of the country. They were sympathetic to the promise of true federalism as proclaimed by the APC. Now that they used their votes to hire the party that they felt could do the job, the onus is on the party to deliver on its promise.
It is not going to be easy especially with the first signs of chaos that marked the NASS elections. However, it will be the undoing of the party if it fails to put its house in order or neglects to work effectively for the restructuring of the country along the lines of true federalism.
It is very clear that our people can no longer be taken for granted. They have seen the political light and they are not unaware of the power of their votes. If any ruling party dares them, they will patiently wait for their chance to retaliate. The “common sense” in common sense revolution is the wisdom to do the right thing and that is to restructure the country now.
2016 comes with its challenges, the most serious of which is the economic. Ours has been a mono economy since the 1970s when we got carried away by the wealth from the black gold. Even when we had the opportunity to diversity, we did not seize it and now we are on the verge of an economic meltdown. Our budget benchmark for our most important export earner was $38 per barrel. But the most recent forecast points to the possibility of a $30 or even $20 demand price.
We are in a state of desperation, as states are unable to pay their workers’ salaries. Most of them are unable to generate any significant amount of internal revenue, and have had to depend on subventions from the Federal Government. That we need to embark on a rigorous and thoughtful diversification of the economy now is a foregone conclusion. The President saw it clearly as stated in his inaugural address and at every opportunity he had since then, including his recent budget address.
One area that has always been our strength and for which we do not have many competitors is agriculture. The President is wise to have identified it and mining as priority areas for government and private investment. We cannot overstate the need for this new policy direction. With dwindling foreign exchange, we cannot afford to remain as net importers of food when we have agricultural land in every part of the federation. It is hoped that he will lead the effort to pursue this policy initiative and the investment it requires to succeed.
One such investment clearly is the development of infrastructure that is indispensable to a successful agricultural revolution. For both commercial and subsistence farmers across the country, there is the foremost challenge of evacuating their produce from the farm to the consumers. This means that road development must be a priority.
Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State used to be the food basket of the Southwest until oil wealth took centre stage in governmental thought and action. Roads developed since 1962 literally disappeared. Okeho-Iseyin road is a federal road that has suffered this fate. It has been contracted out for repair multiple times by the previous administrations. Each time, the ruling party gave the contract to its hirelings with nothing to show. Meanwhile, farmers suffer losses because they are not able to move their produce to the market in timely fashion.
Water irrigation has been another important variable in viable agricultural revolution. In the Second Republic, one of the initiatives in this direction was the Ikerre Gorge Dam in Iseyin. It was almost completed, but the Federal Government abandoned it. We were told that the dam was capable of supplying potable water as well as irrigation water for the whole of Oke-Ogun. However, it remains only a dream, as reptiles inhabit the Ikerre Gorge Dam now. What kind of government invests in laudable projects such as this only to abandon it?
Finally, there is the challenge of politics. The battle cry for the resuscitation of the dream for a new Biafra is loud and clear. We must not think that the youth with clenched fist and raised voices are mad. There are two levels of reality that motivate their action and we must attend to both.
First, if you believe that ethnicity and cultural nationalism are at best fictitious representations and at worst opium of the people, you may characterise what is going on as the consequence of unemployment and the hopelessness it engenders. If so, it is still necessary to treat that disease.
Second, however, if you believe that there is something real about people wanting cultural democracy and recognition, it may well be that the Biafra agitation is a call for true federal democracy. We should attend to it before other “Biafras” join in.
Happy New Year!
