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Saturday 30 July 2011

Putting the Cart before the Horse


What started as a rumour has finally become reality with the news that President Jonathan has sent a bill to the National for a single tenure of six years for the President and Governors. I was not shocked by the news but certainly surprised especially when we are only two months into a 4-year mandate. A mandate that promised so much but now in danger of losing focus on the issues that really matter.

Tenure elongation is a phenomenon that has sadly become synonymous with African leaders and Nigerian leaders, past and present are major culprits. This has led me to ask what goes on in the mind of the black man, especially African leaders? Do they recognise they occupy a position that could transform lives rather than worry about the small matter of tenure? Do they really understand that the greatness of a leader is about how well and not how long they stay in office? Do they read history books, especially the legacy left by our very own Nelson Mandela? You would have imagined lessons would have been learnt judging by the fact it was not long ago former President Obasanjo failed in his attempt to get himself an illegal third term. But no, despite the fact there is a mountain of developmental issues to deal with, what seems to be more important is how long should politicians stay in office. However, we are now down this path once again, putting the cart before the horse. We have been told by the Presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, that if successful, this will take effect from 2015 and would not in any way benefit the president. Well if it won't benefit the president then surely it should not be a priority for us when there are more pressing issues to deal with, not least the current insecurity situation made worse by the Boko Haram crisis. The worry is that this will run and run for the life of this administration and rather than focus on developmental issues we will once again be bugged down discussing tenure elongation.

image source: http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/cart-before-horse.html

I am not a lawyer but I know that the tenure of the president and governors is a constitutional provision which can only be changed by amending the constitution. So why send a bill to the National Assembly instead of request for a constitutional amendment? Or am I missing something here? Anyway, focus will now turn to the National Assembly and this will be the first real test for an assembly with two-thirds of whose members are new. I hope they do not waste too much time debating an issue which in my view serves only as an unwelcome distraction at a time when they should be carrying out their oversight functions of bringing sustainable development to a country that has stagnated for too long.

What this goes to show is that once again we have failed to learn from history and you wonder how we can make progress when we keep failing to look back to our past to inform our future. Nigerians are yet to know the policy thrust of the current government. Where do their immediate priorities lie? Is it in Education? Health? Public infrastructure, a combination of two or more? Nigerians have waited for too long for basic human needs and we need our leaders to get on with the difficult tasks ahead but a distraction like tenure elongation certainly won't help.

Image source: http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/cart-before-horse.html

3 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, Nigerian government is one distraction after another:

    EFCC cases; Religious riots; Foreign visits; Sex scandals; Tribal differences; Islamic banking; legislators fighting; Political godfathers squabbling etc etc

    Nigerian leaders are so busy picking the fluff out of their navels, they have missed the progress boat. Oh well!

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  2. Recently i've been seeing myself almost taking a siddon look approach which I feel bad about sometimes. It can be quite frustrating hearing about things like this. I don't know what GEJ has up his sleeves but it better be good. I recently liked him on facebook just to see and get a feel of what he's doing but i won't say i'm quite impressed with it. His recent focus is building universities. No problem with that. I think everyone needs to be educated as education is good. But then what about the institutions on ground already? How about revamping them and equipping them? What about the dead industries? How about reviving them for more jobs and hence an overall improved economy? He says building more universities will help the young people as they will be able to fish for themselves and create jobs...But in the meantime what happens to the ones on ground which bring out half baked graduates with an over saturated market? Good intentions, maybe. But priorities, i'm not sure he has them right except someone makes me see reason. I just don't buy his logic. At least not now

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  3. "His recent focus is building universities. No problem with that. I think everyone needs to be educated as education is good. But then what about the institutions on ground already? How about revamping them and equipping them? What about the dead industries? How about reviving them for more jobs and hence an overall improved economy? He says building more universities will help the young people as they will be able to fish for themselves and create jobs...But in the meantime what happens to the ones on ground which bring out half baked graduates with an over saturated market? Good intentions, maybe. But priorities, i'm not sure he has them right except someone makes me see reason. I just don't buy his logic. At least not now"

    You are dead right; we always seem to shoot ourselves in the foot time and time again with misplaced priorities. Nigeria has got to develop, we really don't have a choice. If we fail to do so then we will end up with more armies of young people that are disillusioned, unemployed and with a brain that only thinks of violence and who to kill

    ReplyDelete

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