The Interest or Pressure Groups Nigeria never thought she had
By Chris Odetunde Ph.D
Advocacy group, lobbying group or special interest group, loosely or tightly organized, is a group doing advocacy on behalf of citizens to encourage positive or prevent negative changes in public policy without necessarily engaged in trying to be elected. It is taking awhile for Nigeria to grow from her immature politics to maturity.
In the past, political opposition was formed by the other political parties that did not win majority in an election. That was then and this is now. Many opposition political parties have been weakened by compromises and by the power of Ghana-must-Go bags. Our new administration headed by president Yar ‘Adua came up with Government of National Unity supposedly to right the wrong and force his government to be accepted as legitimate in the comity of nations without accepting to admitting any wrong doing. Such GNU became the opposition party’s way of acquiring representation they never could get through (s)election.
In seeking legitimacy, the present government has been compromised by forcing some known fraudulent Nigerians on the nation as ambassadors to other nations. These are Nigerians who are incapable of heading even their local governments. One wonders who some of these ambassadors will be representing, Nigerians or are rewarded for thwarting the will of patriotic citizens through contraption called election. Ministerial and ambassadorial positions seem to be distributed in Nigeria just like distributing “Kose or Akara.” When bad Senators and Legislators are internally forced on fellow citizens, why duplicate bad act by forcing questionable characters as ambassadors to showcase Nigeria externally? If President Yar ‘Adua falls in the way of those before him, my belief in the ability of Nigeria to govern herself will forever be shaken. I hope my belief will be made more solid this time around.
Politicians have always formed very powerful lobbying groups but citizen have failed to replicate this by refusing to form a counter lobbying group. Up until Chief Obasanjo’s attempt at getting an illegal Third Term or life presidency, the nation never thought it could form the most formidable powerful lobbying group to counter paid political errand and press “boys.” The result of such lobby group showed how powerful ordinary Nigerian groups can be effective advocates for ordinary citizens. Mr. Third Term, ex-President found that people’s power cannot be thwarted if predicated on “we the people.” Remember that our constitution started with “we the people” not I Gowon, OBJ, Buhari, IBB, Abacha, Abdulsalami, or Yar ‘Adua, etc.
I am one of those that believe that if OBJ had not micromanaged the election of 2007, Musa Yar ‘Adua would have won the election. My statement is born from the fact that many Nigerians were tired of uneducated Nigerians and their children rotating the power among themselves and seeing Nigeria and her resources as personal properties. OBJ had a good reason for wanting to be seeing as a kingmaker especially in the sight of his adopted benefactor. He wanted his benefactor to know, to feel, to fear, and to constantly remember that without him, he (benefactor) would not be president. Unfortunately, the legs of the dead that OBJ buried are showing up in the grave site. OBJ disappointed many Nigerians because he was given so many chances to make corrections and bring Nigeria to the 21st century. Instead, power of intimidation was more important to him than making himself a beloved national hero and the father of the nation. He failed to note that “babas come and babas go,” but a good leader’s legacy will always stand test of time. OBJ’s legacy or lack there of is crumbling even his long touted war on corruption.
It was unfortunate that many political lobbyists never acted with more force than those of PDP. The mention of the name PDP as a party brings chills and tears to citizen’s eyes yet, no group of citizens thought they could overcome. I have no doubt that there are many good people in PDP but because it is the only game in town, many unsavory characters found themselves in the party. PDP, the way it is presently constituted, needs to be dismantled by those who rode on its back to power. An unusual problem sometimes demands unusual solution.
The case of the former Speaker of the House, Mrs. Patricial Olubunmi Etteh and her deputy also shows that when due process and rules of law are followed without the lynch mob mentality that seemed to be in vogue at the initial stage, lasting resolution could be found. In the just concluded impeachment exercise, we found that rules cannot substitute for character. Nigerians of all works of life made their intentions clear that although Etteh must go, due process must be followed to its logical conclusion and her character must be put on trial. Her situation was unfortunate for our women who are struggling to break the glass ceiling and for Nigeria who is trying to come out from under the corruption burden that the world press has placed on her and her citizens. Politics in Nigeria has now been proved to be an equal opportunity employer but who will bell the cat and change this norm.
We are glad that Mrs. Etteh stood to fight for her right in the Nigerian sense while due process was followed to arrive at the conclusion. We implore the people not to stop due process that saw Etteh forced out of office. The process should continue in order to get rid of other politicians and leaders that were forced on the nation. This is when political maturity would have taken solid rooted in Nigeria and those rednecks would no longer tell black people they are inferior.
By following due process, legally enforceable precedence was set for future and arrogant politicians to understand that Nigeria is no longer in business as usual and will no longer tolerate power drunk politicians. Our eyes are upon the next Speaker and his deputy. There will never be a case where the next speaker, Senate president will appropriate large sums of money to renovate people’s house without taking permission through the representatives of the people and without asking what their constituents would think? The new power acquired by Nigerians through pressure group is an overlaid pressure upon those of the compromised representatives and prostitute press. The Internet pressure groups were fantastic in their advocacy for the voiceless Nigerians.
Nigeria needs to form more advocacy groups to represent the illiterates among us who are unable to read and understand the constitution, those the police easily run roughshod on in order to extract bribe for crimes and infraction never committed, and whose votes made inconsequential in the last election.
Another issue that permeates our political horizon is that of taking loans from the international community. Recently, some Nigerians including Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala were making a case for taking loans. The pressure group should regroup to ask specifically what the loan would do for the nation. Is Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s promotion to VP contingent upon delivering Nigeria once again to IMF or Paris Club? What percentage of the loan will find itself to Nigeria and what percent will just be a loan on the books but which Nigeria has to pay back? Have we been under borrowing or over borrowing? Do we really need to borrow at all with the current $90.00/Barrel crude oil? What determines under- or over- borrowing? Are we again reaching a critical mass of borrowing spree? If we take a lone, how will such loan benefit an average Nigerian? What percentage of the loan would be given as commissions to those that broker the loan? This same argument that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is bringing forward has once been propounded by Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, the finance minister under IBB. We know what such loan did to Nigeria and where the fund ended up. It did not end up in Nigeria but in individual accounts and more in the pockets of those that gave the loan.
We know what happened when Nigeria went on borrowing spree during IBB’s administration – Nigeria became a debtor nation until OBJ came to the rescue. It was Dr. Okonjo-Iweala that orchestrated the debt forgiveness. Why reverse the course of history by requesting that Nigeria borrow again? Is the borrowed money meant to positively uplift our comatose healthcare system, create a new national carrier – aviation, repair our infrastructure, improve education, energy sector, mend our moral outlook on life, improve our service to the nation or is it for looting? These are questions that Nigerians and Nigerian pressure groups should be asking themselves. We should not enslave the next generation with an unnecessary loan ever again. OBJ said he paid off our debt, why are we going out and putting more debt burden on the next generation? All we need is prudent management, less looting, and patriotic service.
Nigeria has inadvertently setup powerful advocacy in the newly found pressure groups. Why don’t we continue to fight the politicians through these genuine and unpaid pressure groups? This is how we can all be relevant in our body polity. When we put our efforts and heads together, we stopped OBJ’s third Term Agenda and didn’t we succeed? When we stood up against the Speaker of the House and his deputy, we won the game in spite of the formidable forces that were mounted against us, didn’t we? Pressure group in education, health, electricity – energy, business formation can move Nigeria beyond just mere survival to development and the success will serve notice to those external and internal enemies of Nigeria that we know our rights.
Let the President and his Ministers join us in making Nigeria better by recognizing the power of the lobbying, afterall, the president knows this power to the extent that he engaged some foreigners to lobby for him in order to make the world accept him as legitimate and he spent our money doing so. Let patriotic Nigerians change the way businesses are done by removing the yoke that unpatriotic citizens placed on all of us. We, the patriots, must do no less.
Chris Odetunde Ph.D wrote from Houston, Texas, USA.
