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Relating Stories

• When will Yar'Adua take off?
• The megalomaniac pandemonium in Imo
• A solution to kidnapping in Niger Delta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When will Yar'Adua take off?

By KELECHI DECA

“EARLY in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change”, so says Frank Lloyd Wright. I was not in any way moved by the razzmatazz that accompanied President Yar'Adua's official visit to the United Kingdom last week. Nor did any of the issues he pretended to address make sense to me. His uninspiring first outing at the G-8 meeting betrays a lack of understanding of the dynamics of 21st century leadership.

President Yar'Adua is yet to come to terms with the enormity of responsibility that comes with the office he is occupying. By now the singsong about Yar'Adua's style of leadership is wearing thin and Nigerians are beginning to see through the façade for what it is, an absence of agenda. Our President is yet to come up with policies that inspire the confidence of Nigerians in his leadership. He has what it takes; a sound educational background, upbringing from a family that has been relevant in the politics of this country since independence, and above all, the goodwill of Nigerians who though disagreed with the election that brought him to office, were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

In the words of Edwin H. Friedman, “leadership can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future”. Since this administration took over more than a year ago, it has used close to 400 days to reverse all that the previous administration did instead of building on and expanding it a la Fashola in Lagos State. This policy of reversal I now believe is only a cover up for the absence of a clear-cut development framework. Many have argued that the President is slow, but I beg to be of a different persuasion. Mr. President is not slow; to say that someone is slow means that person has already taken off from one point to another, following a recognizable path. But the president is yet to take off, because there is no concrete policy framework apart from the recycling in the name reversals aimed at playing to the gallery.

When he came in, he said he will not interfere with the rule of law, which in Nigerian parlance, ridiculously means that he will not upturn or influence court judgments. Today, Nigerians know better, when the tribunals were working at frenzy, upturning several elections, I know it was for a purpose. The entire thing was planned in such a way that people will say that truly this president is different. Little did they know that the entire orchestration was to soften the grounds for interference in the big cases . Nigerians now know better.

Nigerians are fast beginning to think differently about their president. Put side by side with some governors who took office same day as he did, nothing has come out of Abuja but statis. This president was “selected” while singing the tune of declaring an emergency in the power sector, 400 days later; he is still fine tuning his strategy, while Nigeria is sinking deeper and deeper. In the words of James Kouzes and Bany Posner, “there is nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can't clearly articulate why we're doing what we are doing.”

I was almost moved to tears last week watching His Excellency address a cross section of investors and the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom at the Chantam House. I am not talking about the disgraceful cap-in-hand, open solicitation of military aid in order to defeat a band of militants in the Niger Delta. To think that this is the same Nigeria that went to Liberia and flushed out one of the most rebellious rebel soldiers this continent has ever known , that this is the same Nigeria whose infantry soldiers went into Sierra Leone and fought the first globally successful urban guerrilla warfare in Freetown which ironically Britain has taken credit for . And now our President is crying out for an external military assistance to fight a war in its own territory. What then will Yar'Adua do if Nigeria is being invaded by another country? As Rosalynn Carter
puts it “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be”. From the look of things President Yar Adua is yet to show any inclination that he knows either where we want to go or where we ought to be.

What really boiled over my anger is the President's mention of Shagamu-Ore road. That stretch of national disgrace that the biggest political party in Africa could not do anything about in the last nine years. What this means is that the purported tears shed at Ore precisely a year ago by the Minister of Transport, Diezani Madueke is crocodile in content and intent. It points to the fact that all the promises made by the Minister at that unholy spot are cosmetic. If in the last one year, this administration is yet working out plans for a long term concession agreement for that road, then something is definitely wrong. Those who argue that we should be patient and give this administration time be reminded of that famous line from Jesse Jackson that “Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.” President Yar'Adua should stop arming the views that he was never interested in the presidency thus the seemingly lack of enthusiasm from him about the office. It may not be his desire to be in Aso Rock initially after leaving Katsina, after-all in all his eight years as the Governor of Katsina, he visited Abuja less than 10 times. That said, he is there now, he should wake up to the responsibility of that office. He should be reminded of Adlai Stevenson's admonition that, “it is hard to lead a Calvary charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” I do not believe this president is unpresidential, but I will appreciate if he takes charge of things and get this country going. It is bad to be compared with past administrations worse still with Obasanjo's but from the way things are, that temptation is ever present. Yar'Adua may gain more from Herbert B. Swope who said, “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: which is: Try to please everybody.

•Deca wrote in from Lagos