By Reuben Abati
Men Without Ears is the title of a 1984 novel by Nigerian writer, Ifeoma Okoye. With due respect, President Umaru Yar'Adua is beginning to behave like a man without ears. Being without ears refers to a certain obduracy, a peculiar inability to appreciate the truth. I see the same problem in the Yar'Adua presidency, seven months down the line.
The President either needs the services of an ear doctor (I am sorry sir) or he needs to listen a bit more attentively. There are issues in this country which need to be addressed urgently, which the government is treating with kid gloves. I offer to draw the attention of the President, to a few of these without seeking to run the country for him. I confess that I know my place.
But if the President had been listening hard enough, he would have realized that there is a certain disquiet in this country today. The people are happy, very happy indeed, and they are willing to shout it from the rooftops if they are so allowed, that former President Obasanjo is already out of the way. That fellow made life so difficult for Nigerians in spite of the protestations of his promoters to the contrary. Yar'Adua's coming gave the ordinary Nigerian some hope. Our people thought that with a mild mannered man in power, the country would be able to make some progress.
Unfortunately, seven months after President Umar Adua took over government, there is some nostalgia in some places for the Obasanjo presidency. Obasanjo may have been a problematic President, brusque and rude, but he at least gave Nigerians some drama. He was a colourful man who had tasted power and who had a little idea about what to do with it. In comparison, President Yar'Adua is like a bucket of cold, iced water. Behind his back, he is known as President do-nothing. Baba Go slow. The emerging folklore is that he closes from work every day at 4 pm, and that on weekends, the Presidential Villa is ghost town because the President does not work on weekends. The difference between Obasanjo and Yar'Adua is like the difference between fire and water.
Nigeria is a 24-hour assignment all through the year. Nigerians want a President who can make things happen. They want a leader who knows what he is doing. For more than eight years, Nigerians have been looking for the so-called democracy dividends. They are nowhere nearer it today than they were eight years ago. Power supply is a major problem that needs to be solved without further ado. More than half of Nigerians live in houses that are perpetually in darkness. Even in the two cities: Lagos and Abuja, that have been declared liveable by international standards, life is "short, nasty and brutish."
The President of Nigeria cannot run a 9 am to 4 pm schedule like a civil servant waiting for a salary at the end of the month. It is bad that there are some Nigerians who are now saying that whatever may have been Obasanjo's shortcomings, he at least gave the impression of hardwork. This may be a Nigerian pattern: every new government always appears better than the preceding one, but in this case, the challenge is that of the need for the new government to begin to perform and to be seen to be making an effort to make a contribution. To be compared to the Obasanjo government and to be rated lower, this early, is a sign of misfortune.
I have mentioned power, but let us put the matter more directly. Nigeria suffers from a crisis of infrastructure. Nothing seems to be working here. The roads are bad. The country is full of unfinished projects. The hospitals are no longer mere consulting clinics as they were once described; they are no more than cemeteries. With a new President in office, Nigerians want to see a difference in their lives in these areas. Excuses have been given about why the Federal Government cannot tackle the problem of power supply, for example, but why do Nigerian leaders always give excuses? They have been put in office or they have smuggled themselves into power long enough for them to be able to govern the people and develop their lives. Excuses such as we have been having, lately, point not to a democratic instinct, but a failure of ability. When the Yar"adua government first came to power, there was some activity in the Ministry of Transportation with Diezani Madueke making some noise and shedding tears. I think Adenike Grange, the Minister of Health also made some useful statements. Then there was some activity in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministry, but at this moment all promises have died down.
The spot price of crude oil is now $100 per barrel. Ordinarily this should be cause for joy, but we cannot jubilate because Nigeria's fortune is dependent on oil and the associated forces of demand and supply. With the international price of oil now $100 per barrel, Nigeria as an oil producing company will make more money. But because it is dependent on refined product from Europe, due to the collapse of local refineries, the country will be at the mercy of importers of refined products, who will seek a premium on their investments. It is already being said that the pump price of petroleum products will be increased. This now looks like a question of time. But it will also be an invitation to chaos. How does President Yar'Adua hope to handle the challenge? If anything, Nigerians speaking through the Nigeria Labour Congress, do not want any further disruption to their lives.
President Yar'Adua runs one of the most colourless cabinets in recent Nigerian history. Give it to Obasanjo, whatever may have been his shortcomings, he had a Federal cabinet of names and personalities. Even during his first term. But President Yar'Adua is running a cabinet of sleep-walking giants. With the exception of about six of the Ministers, the rest are comfortably bearing the title without making any impact in the public arena. When is the President going to disband the present team and offer Nigerians a team of performers? He should do so now. He even behaves and sounds as if he does not know his own lieutenants. Few of them can speak confidently for government because they do not exactly know what their mandate is. They are in office because they have been put there by some of the powerful people who made Yar'Adua President.
Who are the President's handlers? He has been behaving as if he has no handlers. Every President needs to be managed. A country leader is as good as his managers. The job of the President's handlers is simple. They tell him what to do and what not to do. They are men of experience who have been in and out of the system and who have an idea of what it means to run a country. They bring the President into the mainstream of existing tradition while allowing him enough room to assert himself. This ensures creativity and continuity at the same time. But our new President has been behaving as a novice in the Presidency without any guides. The Presidency is too important an office to be handed over to learners. The effect is the kind of bungling and reversals that we have been witnessing. The impression we get at this end is that the President is being managed by the wrong set of people who are taking advantage of his seeming lack of experience and who seem to be pushing his Presidency in the wrong direction. Can President Yar'Adua please wake up? I think if anybody needs to go for a one year study leave at the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, it should be President Yar'Adua.
How bad the situation is can be measured in terms of the clumsiness of some of the recent events in the country. We have had a lot of motion being generated around what the previous administration did. But there is very little to hold on to coming from the present government. President Yar'Adua must begin to create his own history. His salary has just been increased. Good for him. But let him begin to earn that salary. If he does not know what to do at all, may be he should marry a new wife and have a loud wedding at Aso Villa. He has removed the EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu and we are all talking and writing, but after Ribadu, what next on the anti-corruption campaign?
Let him give Nigerians something meaningful to talk about while he is trying to figure out how to solve national problems. He promised a seven-point agenda. Where are we seven months later? Nigerians like him. No doubt about that. He comes across as a gentleman in comparison to the Owu man. But let him not make the Owu man look like a genius with his refusal to run a government that walks and talks like a government. And he must resist the temptation to turn the Presidency into an all-knowing temple and oracle.
If the President does not yet have a new year resolution, it should be this: this year. I shall run a government that functions, a government that is pro-active and not reactive, a government that can be judged by its results and not its complaints. The primary duty of a government is to ensure the welfare and happiness of a people.
Dr. Reuben Abati wrote this piece forThe Guardian Newspaper.
