THE PRESIDENT-ELECT AND MATTERS ARISING
Joshua J. Omojuwa urges the President-elect to pursue an agenda of national reconciliation
Once upon a time when a Nigerian president-elect got the people’s mandate, they went to sleep. That looked like a much-needed rest period until their siesta carried over several months into their administration. They then expended almost every goodwill they accrued from the campaign and eventual triumph at the polls. This former president-elect had a lot of goodwill they could afford to waste, whilst APC’s Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged president-elect on the back of a tougher race that had no goodwill left for the eventual winner, especially thanks to INEC’s inefficiency. The electoral commission will bear the burdens of its own shortcomings during the polls, but the president-elect that emerged from that process will bear some of that weight. A lot in fact, because he is the one that would be centered in the media long after INEC fades into the rearview of the people’s perception.
The President-elect has started. He is working on what is within his control and saying the right things; advancing the need to come together for the common Nigerian cause, calling supporters of his opponents to join in the work ahead, committing to youth and women inclusion in government and even advancing for the prospects of a future female president. As words go, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu said all the right things. As actions go, he now must put those words into action.
Like he has been known to do as a politician, beyond the public calls, he must reach out to his opponents. The essence would not be to ask them to jettison their legal right to challenge the result, but to ensure they aren’t advancing calls and actions that would upset the fragile state of Nigeria’s national security. Unlike virtually every election since 1999, this election produced three heavyweight leaders – on the back end of a poor result – who having amassed over one million votes, are in a good position to call their supporters to mount protests. The president-elect has been more restrained in victory than when he won his party’s ticket, on that front, he cannot afford to fall out of line.
As a private citizen, I sent text messages to three presidential candidates when the direction of the result became apparent. I was acting in my personal capacity as a citizen to help ensure that amid everything, the security and safety of Nigerians remained priority. It is my belief that this is the path responsible citizens should take. Whatever actions we take as individual citizens though, the onus lies on the president-elect to lead the efforts to ensure peace, without prejudice to anyone’s pursuit of what they believe justice ought to be.
There is a Yoruba saying that goes, ‘omo wa se o r’ise,’ which means that the one who went in search of work has found it. In essence, having aspired to the presidency and now gotten the mandate, the president-elect has now earned himself days of unrest than he has ever had. Nigeria is desperate for leadership. The near-rainbow colours of the electoral map shows that whilst the APC have won the election, most voters – about 63 percent – preferred not to vote them. This does not invalidate the fact that more than that number preferred not to vote their opponents too. The point is, whilst the majority as expected won the election, the majority was the minority of total voters. Whilst this cannot invalidate the mandate, it puts the popularity of the winner in context. Therefore, the president-elect should look to pursue an agenda of national reconciliation.
On the back of that agenda, the president-elect should now get on with other essential tasks at hand. The change management process that failed to materialize in 2015 should be dusted up, tweaked and plugged to activate reforms that’d create telling impact in the critical sectors of the Nigerian economy. This is especially important because his government will be confronted by the fuel subsidy controversy set to be delivered by the current government considering the current budget indicates the subsidy would be off just days after the inauguration. That leaves his government with the prospects of facing prospects and strikes from its first week.
This is not an impossible situation. There are no impossible situations, only tough choices to be made. One of those tough choices is the need to concede some of the privileges of office. This is not a piece about what the president-elect should look to have in his inaugural speech but if that piece for one reason or the other does not see the light of day from my end, I should quickly state here, the president-elect should let Nigerians know the sacrifices and privileges he will be giving away when he moves into Aso Rock as President.
Now that you have clinched the presidency Mr. President-Elect, the ‘On your mandate’ song has now served its purpose. Aso Rock – and power generally – is designed to blind whoever holds it. Without designing a system that helps to filter sycophancy whilst delivering hard truths as hard as they are, one would immediately get sucked into the delusions of power. That is the norm. Moving into the Villa with your horde of supporters chanting, ‘on your mandate’ at every turn has zilch utility and would come at great costs.
In a system where saying it as it is comes at a huge cost, what needs to be said needs to be said. You have the mandate now. Those who have been standing for the mandate for the better part of the last two decades have done a great job. They must now rest it for their private meetings at best, never to be heard at your public meetings when you become president. We do not want to make what often looks like a clown show by default – Aso Rock and its historic characters – become a clown show with a soundtrack. Your mandate has become the Nigerian mandate. It is time to focus on the work at hand, there is a lot to get done. The time to start was yesterday.
Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach and author, Digital Wealth Book
