“No one expected a transformation of the country in a few weeks after years of rot. But no one can see the baby steps that would indicate that change is in the offing. Even the promised public declaration of assets, which was supposed to signal a new style of leadership, has not happened” – Edaetan Ojo, June 17, 2015.
There is hardly a better way to demystify a vociferous opposition than to give it power. An opposition party enjoys the luxury of imagined possibilities, an alluring innocence, and a vista of counterfactual beckoning of how much different things would have been if it had been at the driving seat. Once it takes office however, its toga of assumed superiority, and its halo of knowing it all, quickly wears thin; it will now be judged not by the ability to rhapsodise about the coming utopia but by the capacity to solve problems, and allay distress. A pastor friend updated this insight to me recently in the domestic setting by revealing that he finally curbed his wife’s frequent criticisms of his sermons by arranging for her to preach. Revealed he: “After she preached a somewhat rambling indifferent sermon, she became less critical of my sermons.”
To bring the point home, the All Progressives Congress was magnificent as an opposition party. Its upbraiding of the Peoples Democratic Party was spot-on and had devastating impact. Having been elected however and notwithstanding the fact that it is less than a month in power, opinion is collating as the opening quote by Edaetan Ojo, the Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, reveals, that it has not exactly hit the ground running. To be fair, it is premature to expect wonders in the economic circumstances under which the APC took office. The fundamental point nonetheless is: It aroused great expectations for change as opposition, not the least by running a robust election campaign in which it promised a new social contract.
The party’s rhetoric has come back to haunt it as Nigerians are wondering whether its current leisurely pace is such that will deliver the change it has promised. The matter received a fresh twist a few days ago with the publication of President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent statement as reported in The PUNCH, June 17, 2015, that old age will limit his performance. Since the publication of that remark, a volley of comments have been made in the social media especially as to what the implications of that statement will be for governance. Before dealing with that, I crave the reader’s indulgence to enter a short take. One of the distressing consequences of the backlog of salary arrears owed workers by state governments across the country is the plight of our colleagues in state-owned universities. A time there was when some state-owned universities excelled in certain disciplines nationally and retained outstanding academics in their workforce. Today, that cheerful trend has been totally reversed as more than a fair number of these institutions are run on a hand to mouth basis, not shielded in any way from the economic misfortune, part of it perhaps self-inflicted, of their proprietors.
The academic and other staff are being owed salaries stretching into several months while some teaching hospitals have shut down because of extended defaults in salaries. Considering that universities are established by state governments as prestige projects with some of them boasting two or three, it would have been logical to expect that they will then be insulated from the vagaries and torpedoes that have afflicted these states. In other words, why create them at all if institutions that are normally expected to be part of a global academic culture are so badly reduced to desolation? The consequence of this default syndrome on quality education is better imagined than computed given the fact that academics in private universities, with a few honourable exceptions are also traumatised by lengthening non-payment of salaries. Remedially, there should be a moratorium on the multiplication of distressed universities by state governments. This apart, the plight of lecturers in these universities compels the search for collective escape routes such as possible bailouts by the Federal Government and where applicable, the international community.
There is no reason too, why the internal revenue generating capacity of these institutions should not be strengthened in order to alleviate the current emergency. Going back to the main comment, it is possible that President Buhari had taken the opportunity of a less frenzied atmosphere than the campaign season to alert Nigerians about the handicap of his age. During the campaigns, it was impossible, amidst the shrill noises of partisan hawks to get anyone to listen to reasoned debate.
Of course, the situation was made even messier by what appears to be the general rejection of the then ruling PDP and the notion that almost any alternative to President Goodluck Jonathan and his party would be welcome. As Prof. Niyi Akinnaso argued on Tuesday in his The PUNCHcolumn, the result of the presidential election was less an endorsement of the APC than a rejection of the PDP, admonishing the APC thereby to translate a tacit approval into an affirmation. Buhari had remarked that “I wish I became head of state when I was a governor just a few years as a young man, now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do.”
To be sure, ours is not the only country in which the gravity and vulnerability of age have become political factors. In the run-up to the presidential election of 2016 in the United States, several voices are being heard about the age of Hillary Clinton, the most prominent Democratic Party contender who will be 69 on Election Day, making her if she wins, the second oldest American president. Some will recall in this connection the acerbic comment of a New York Post essayist who referred to Clinton“as an aging hoofer undertaking a sweaty effort to appear fresh.” Some of this is in the nature of politics but like it or not, Buhari’s age is likely to be seen when taken along with criticisms of his current laid back posture as an additional inhibiting factor. All is not lost however. In that much quoted speech, Buhari affirmed that the APC government will continue to address itself to the entrenched problems of corruption, insecurity, and the general rot in our national life.
Fair enough, he now needs however, and in spite of the cracks in his party revealed by the recent National Assembly leadership elections to act with greater speed than he has hitherto done. For example, at the time this write-up was being turned in, the ministerial list had not yet been made public and Buhari by his own published admission is not in a hurry to do so. That kind of attitude can only delay the take-off of the expected change that Nigerians had been waiting for. Indeed, given his complaints about his age factor, it would have made more sense to inspire the nation by a team of credible ministers containing several high-flyers in order to accelerate the change momentum. Finally, making his declaration of assets public will be one sure way to mark up the reformist ante.
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