…By Doyin Alaba..
Once the noise generated by the inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan’s committee that would set the Agenda for the National Dialogue subsides, we’d be back to 2015 power play. The political lords of this realm have decided to get on the tracks in a race that is still 20 months away. At the moment, how the ruling party hopes to regain its lost steam, arising from the long drawn, internal squabbles that have weakened its once formidable structure, is the next major step after contending with the major issue of convention where the PDP flag bearer will be chosen.
Like it or not, the 2015 election politics is very much in the air. For the elected politicians, governance is now on holiday until, hopefully, May 29, 2015 when new executives will be sworn in. In effect, going by the nonstop electioneering since 2011, the entire four-year term under President Goodluck Jonathan may be a wasted mandate. Inter-party and intra-party squabbles hamper executive service delivery across state houses. Perennial litigations against alleged election rigging by victorious Governors and other elected offices caused much trepidation, and serious distractions.
That is perhaps why Rev. Chris Okotie, the FRESH party chairman is saying, “If politicians are to run strictly on their record, only a handful of the current office holders deserve a chance to renew their mandate because majority of those in power have underperformed”. Some of the Governors spend more time hobnobbing with President Jonathan in the Villa.
The President himself, the most travelled in our record of itinerant Heads of State, usually goes on such trips with a large entourage, including Governors, ministers, personal aides, and, of course, his wife, Dame Patience, perhaps the only necessary companion on presidential trips, if we are to follow internationally accepted norms. This colossal waste of public funds is to accommodate party interests, not the immediate and urgent problems of the masses.
Not even President Barrack Obama of the United States or any western leader travels with large delegations as Jonathan does. Our Presidents’ fleet of presidential jets, 29 at the last count and the largest in the world, is enough to start a presidential fleet charter airline. Malawis President Joyce Banda, recently sold off her country’s presidential jet to fund poverty – related projects; which is why each time she comes here, our generous president readily gives her a lift to and fro.
In view of our bottom league status in all of the global development indicators, there is no question about it; we must change the governance paradigm and elect individuals who can move this country forward in 2015, otherwise, we’d end up as usual with nothing more than cosmetic changes, a case of old wine in a new bottle. This time, Nigerian voters have no excuse. They have seen party politics in its full colours of corruption, incompetence, and an apparent lack of capacity to move the country forward. It is time to focus on the quality of candidates put forward by parties for elective positions, rather than vote mainly for parties which have no ideological relevance.
As for the opposition APC, if all the party is saying is that it simply wants to kick out the PDP from the Aso Rock without presenting a realistic manifesto, then APC is not the elixir we need in 2015. We must look another way. There’s no other way to look, than for people who have something special to offer, not politicians of the old order, just because their members are in power at different levels of governance; or are aligned with some “powerful” political parties: The old politicians have been part of an excess luggage. As we can see around the world today, just one man in power can make a difference.
Mahatma Ghandi’s pacifist protests liberated India from the British colonial rule. Nelson Mandela, not his party, changed South Africa, Lee Kwuam Yew is the father of modern Singapore; Kemal Attartak is the father of modern Turkey, Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr., not only won racial equality for blacks in racist America, his campaign paved the way for Barrack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States of America.
Rev. Okotie has often said that “to engender any change, one man is all you need to give the template”. While it is an undeniable fact that there is strength in numbers, a crowd needs a motivational and inspirational leader to make any impact. That is why small nations like France and Britain wield enormous clout in the global arena more than Nigeria, the most populated black nation. The difference is the path they followed. 2015 is another opportunity for the voters to make their choice. Our destiny is in our hands.
What one is saying here is that our emphasis on parties, rather than leaders, should change. It is leaders that actually provide the vision that drives political movements. In 2015, Nigerians should look beyond big party politics and look for quality leadership. That is the new paradigm that can bring the elusive change we all desire.
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Alaba wrote from Osun.