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Last Updated: Jun 5, 2007 - 1:40:05 PM |
Umaru Yar`Adua may be an honest decent man and deserving of
a chance to rule a country that didn't actually elect him. However, the
problems with Nigeria are not just the problems of finding a decent, honest
president. The Nigerian Senate and Assembly (with a few exceptions) are packed
to the rafters with thieves, bandits and chancers. Most of the governors were
equally illegitimate and are up to their ears in corruption. That is no change
from the previous Presidential regimes.
However, the government leadership, or lack of it, is not the fundamental
problem. The civil service is contaminated at every level. Perm Secs and
commissioners taint every tender. No service, however small, is delivered
without some form of inducement or threat of punishment. There is no
institution or authority which people can trust. Behind every civil servant is
a clan of businessmen attached like leeches, sucking the blood of every
contract awarded so that the project is drained of momentum and cash. The
banking system, now expanded to world-class status, still depends on deposits
from the NNPC cash flows for their liquidity and capitalisation. The image of
wealth is a pack of cards. Nigeria used to be rich in agriculture; but this has
died. It has died without power and water. There are vast reserves of minerals
which stay in the ground because of lack of investment and the knowledge that
commissions are greater on imported commodities than those produced in Nigeria.
The government's partnership with the people is to provide education, transport
systems, power, communication, health and clean water. The government has
failed; and this failure is not theirs alone; it is the failure of the civil
service, the parasitical businessmen who take 30%-40% mobilisation money up
front and never complete the projects; the failure of the police and security
forces to penalise criminal behaviour; the failure of institutions like EFCC to
rise above petty political thuggery in support of a party agenda; and the
failure of the judiciary in allowing unconstitutional practices and banditry to
pass unpunished.
There are many people who complain about the failure of leadership of Nigeria's
President and the corrupt governors. There are few voices raised against the
civil servants and the businessmen who make all this possible. Nigeria,
unfortunately, like many other countries, gets the government it deserves.
Yar'Adua may be a saint, the Annointed One, but unless the other problems are
dealt with, his sainthood won't be sufficient to help one poor Nigerian
suffering the lack of services. This is why the question of legitimacy is so
important. If he came to office as a result of Iwu's jiggery-pokery then none
of the underlying problems can be dealt with from a position of strength. If he
had to compromise with the worst elements of Nigerian society to get into
office then his hands are tied in dealing with this element.
Yar'Adua is decent, hard-working man who would have won if he had campaigned
legitimately. This victory of his has made it virtually impossible to deal with
Nigeria's deep-seated problems. That is the tragedy of the last election and
the curse of Nigerian politics.
Source:Ocnus.net 2007
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