NIGERIA’S PRESIDENTIAL CHARGE

Victor C. Ariole contends that the directive will make little or no impact

Living, naturally, is never easy…for both predators and preys…and confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it. Is an attempt to killing yourself (Albert Camus in James Wood, 2000)

‘L’Etat c’est moi’ is an expression from Louis XIV, the sun king; that is, I am the State. As a King he needed not to live naturally to sustain that kind of lifestyle in which he sees himself as the sun that shines or dims on any of his subjects or the space he rules or intends to occupy and rule. Nigeria was like that with successive military rules from chaotic General Aguiyi-Ironsi through milder General Yakubu Gowon to harsher Generals – Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida – and the harshest of all General Sanni Abacha, and his interim General Abdusalami Abubakar. However in civil dispensation, democratic rule, Nigerians still chose both OBJ and PMB to rule them again and it is as if the rule of L’Etat c’est moi is excusable and the Presidential Charge of PMB that wants Nigeria to be among the leading countries come 2100 is a vision in mockery from someone who had expressed that the task is telling on his health and that he wants to quickly end it and retire far away from Aso Rock. Still, according to him, ‘2023 would, indeed, be a time when we would work to solidify on delivering key strategic priorities’.  One had wondered why someone who had ruled Nigeria in both military and civilian dispensations would see his moment of evaluation of his (military and civilian) tenures’ end as a moment to propose a vision for Nigeria when the SEA – Security, Economic and Anti-Corruption – strategy that informed his supposed civilian rule in 2015 shows that he did not really apply himself to salvaging Nigeria; unless he intends to tell Nigerians that life is too much for him and that he apologises for ever creating the impression that he understands their problem.

It is a lesson to be learnt by any incoming president as 2023 elections set in. Nigeria is a country among the 195 countries of United Nations if Taiwan and Western Sahara craving for admission are to be added. Only five of these countries could assert firmly as leaders of the world and they occupy permanent seats in the UN Security Council. They are USA, Russia, China, France and Great Britain aka UK. To really aim at being one of them, Nigeria cannot afford electing leaders who do not connect effectively in their brain process; that is leaders whose neuronal disposition is questionable. Check out the leaders who have led these five countries and know that strength of character and willingness to die for those countries and never expressing despondency in the face of challenges. They all have scripts relevant to the expectations of their people and they acted to realise the scripts, and it was not a natural way they intended to live hence they acknowledged the hardship that goes with leadership as against the assumption of L’Etat c,est moi.

They all stated their visions from the beginning and not at the end. For example, Great Britain had had a Margaret Thatcher in sustainability of what Conservative Party stands for and she posited a hypothetical vision as thus: ‘there is no such thing as a society. There are individual men and women and their families and no government can do anything except through them and they must first empower themselves before thinking of a larger society’. It could be right or wrong to approach governance that way in other places but it has worked well for Great Britain that leads in a United Kingdom of four countries and extended hold on associated countries like Australia, Canada and some dependent countries in the Pacific and Caribbean.  The same goes for USA where both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party – GOP – Grand Old Party – had been in the saddle.  Quite clearly two parties that make sure right leaders are screened to lead rightly. Even China and Russia that thrive on One-Party system had made great personalities the focus of their governance. France has been the only country among them with great tolerance for multiple ideologies though ever haunted by the great personality of General Charles de Gaulle whose style of governance remain greatly cherished and becomes the determinant for choosing whoever leads. Indeed vision that is endearing to the people remains what it takes to make a people stand taller among other peoples of this world and to reach a state where a country could be seen as part of the leadership of the world.

PMB should tell Nigerians what his SEA means and how it could be sustained devoid of nepotism and cronyism. He has ruled as a King Louis with fears and sectionalism making both the legislator and judiciary uneventful. The Presidential Charge of 2023 could have been achievable if level playing ground was in place for Nigerians to exert their patriotic zeal in pouring out their work habits seen everywhere in the world as per diaspora remittance as they work so hard to remit to Nigeria what the total budget so far presented by PMB government never got nearer to; and what is worse, a government that never sees any reason to respect fiscal law or even rule of law. The legislature must sit and ratify an ‘overdraft’ of over N2 trillion never tabled in the beginning for its consideration like tabling 2100 vision at the end of tenure. That is what I call marabout economy; the leader wakes up and listen to paid marabouts and whatever they advise becomes the norm. l’Etat c’est moi.

 Ariole is a Professor of French and Francophone Studies,

University of Lagos.