Two international callers, one from the United states of America
and the second from the United Kingdom, who have had sufficient patience to
follow through the advocacy activities of the human rights platform that I
currently works for-HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA]
successfully put several calls across to me not long ago to express their
divergent opinions regarding the state of the Nigerian Nation.
These callers, one an American Caucasian citizen and the second, a
Nigerian- born but British naturalized scholar expressed consternation that
Nigeria is speedily sliding towards the precipice of anarchy and doom because
of what they analyzed as the overwhelming dominance of the political public
space by characters they considered as social misfits and persons with
dubious credentials who are only in public life for what they can maximize and
steal for themselves from the public treasury.
I tried all I could to convince them that their observations
may not be the accurate representations of the reality on ground in
Nigeria and I used examples of some good Nigerians that are today holding
public offices in Nigeria not necessarily for self -enrichment but more
particularly for the positive impacts their contributions to the enthronement
of democracy and respect for the rule of law could go in transforming Nigeria's
bad international public image.
I even went as far as listing out some names of great minds that
are today engaged in one public function/office or the other just as I reminded
my callers that these statesmen and great iconic women figures are not in the
category of the never-do-wells that they had earlier said dominate the public
political space in Nigeria. But these persons stuck to their guns and in effect
stated that it may take a revolution to change the nation of Nigeria for the
better.
My American caller, a lady in her mid thirties appeared more
informed about the political development in most parts of the country than most
of us who live in Nigeria. She has been a frequent visitor to Nigeria.
She took me on a guided oral but powerful tour of the
political scenarios in the South Eastern states in the last four years and
particularly narrated the bad development in much of these South Eastern States
whereby according to her assessment, democracy has not actually improved the
living condition of the majority of the citizenry just as she concluded
that the collapse of respect for the rule of law and constitutionalism coupled
with a weak civil society have collectively contributed to the unprecedented
corruption in these South Eastern States. She singled out the state of Abia as
a case study where the current administration has elevated bad governance and
deception to an art.
She was of the considered opinion that the current governor of
Abia state- Mr. Theodore Orji has spent more time in the United States of
America than he has done in Umuahia, the grossly underdeveloped rural capital
of Abia state. Each foreign trip he embarked upon is marked with fun and
staged fun-fare on take off point and on his return.
Speaking about the agricultural and industrial potentials of Abia
state which she said were yet to be galvanized, my American caller said Aba
stands in a unique position to become the Japan of modern day Nigeria if the
enabling environment is created and the functional social infrastructure of
roads, electricity, good security and other essential services are provided by
the political administration and that institutions such as the Small
and Medium Scale Enterprises Agency [SMEDAN], the Nigeria Industrial Bank
[Bank of Industry] and other commercial banks are compelled institutionally by
the Federal Government to provide their services and credit facilities on
liberal but protective terms to the thousands of talented shoe makers in Aba,
Abia state. Recently, the garrulous Central Bank of Nigeria's governor Mr.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was the guest of the Abia state governor who organized a
public lecture on youth empowerment but sadly because of the suffocating state
of affairs in that state, the ordinary traders in Aba and Umuahia were not
allowed to ask probing questions to the nation's top banker to respond on why
he hasn't done anything positive to make commercial banks to offer genuine
services to thousands of local talented investors in Abia state.
Gladys Fitzgerald [names unreal], my American caller also told me
in clear terms that the practice in most South East states as in other states
of the Nigerian federation whereby state governors single handedly appoint
their foot soldiers and post them to man the respective local council areas as
sole administrators is a breach of section 7 of the constitution of Nigeria
which clearly stated that the system of government at the local council stage
must be democratic. She used Anambra state as a case study whereby the state
governor, Mr. Peter Obi failed to conduct or supervise the free and fair
conduct of local council elections in the last seven and half years that he has
ruled as the state governor in spite of the fact that he relied on the
courts of competent jurisdiction to reclaim his mandate which was stolen by the
Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] controlled in Anambra state by pockets of
illiterate and dubious rich political god fathers who were milking the state
dry out of the Federally shared allocations due to the state monthly.
The caller from the United Kingdom who ironically is a woman also
spoke about the bad shape of politics in the Northern states of Nigeria and
blamed the political elites for failing to implement programs rich in contents
that ought to halve the high rate of poverty in those states. Using Jigawa state
as an example, she reminded me that recently the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission [EFCC] arrested the first son of the state governor for alleged
money laundry and that the father defended his son for having in his
possession over $50,000 USD and claimed that his son was on his way to Egypt to
convey his two year old daughter to a Cairo-based hospital for treatment for
sundry illness. My British caller who incidentally was born in Kaduna
state of Nigerian Parents but later naturalized as a British Citizen,
then questioned the rationale of the justification by the Jigawa state governor
of his Son for seeking foreign medical attention for his daughter even when the
state governor of Jigawa state failed to erect a standard and well equipped
hospital facility in that state since he came to power in 2007. What an iron?
My conclusion to both of these foreign based callers is that
Nigeria is unfortunately witnessing what I may call growing 'toiletization' of
Politics and that indeed it will take the collective action of all lovers of
Nigeria to stage series of organized but peaceful civil unrests and/or
revolution similar to the middle East or North African revolution to chase away
these social misfits that have captured political power in Nigeria through the
corruption of the electoral system and manipulations of the electoral body that
conducts elections- the Nigerian Electoral Commission [INEC].
Here is my hypothesis- Nigeria is indeed experiencing the growing
phenomenon of toiletization of politics and by this I mean that the Nigeria's
public political space is dominated dangerously by characters whose shady and
shoddy criminal past were overlooked before they emerged on the political
scenes and as the old saying goes, it is too late to teach an old fox new
tricks. In the same vein it is too late in the day to expect that a
convicted fraudster or bankrupt elected into political offices
whereby the enforcement of anti-corruption laws are weak and compromised, to
become a clean and repentant person who would run or administer the resources
of the public kept in his/her custody with transparency and accountability.
Toiletization of Nigerian politics is derived from the fact that
in Nigerian politics of today, the good, the bad and the ugly are engaged in
fierce battle of their lives to control the organs of governance and in most
cases the ugliest and the very bad people emerge 'victorious' in a
political race that is heavily polluted by money and other corrupt practices.
To be more precise I got the concept of toiletization from the word toilet
which in the words of the Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, means a
sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement and
urine, often referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory.
One place whereby this toiletization of politics is noticeable is
in the election into the national and state assemblies. For instance, the
Bauchi state House of assembly recently suspended the lone female member of the
Bauchi state House of Assembly just for the so-called 'offence' of standing for
what is right and just by opposing the transfer of the local government
secretariat of Tafawa Balewa Local government area council from where it
has always been situated dominated by Christian minority Bauchi citizens to
another dominated by the Hausa/Fulani Moslems. She simply got chased out
literary for speaking out in a political assembly whereby the elected
legislators are expected to express their opinion without let or hindrance.
My readers may be wondering why I used Bauchi state House of
Assembly as a perfect example of where growing toiletization of politics has
become dominant, but they need not wonder or too long because I drew my
conclusion upon reading the recorded document and minutes of the plenary sessions
in which the only female member of the Bauchi state House of Assembly member
was recently suspended and the dozens of grammatical errors I noticed showed me
that we indeed have a long way to go to ensure that only square pegs are put in
square holes and to make sure that politics is dominated by some of the best
minds in the mold of philosopher kings as documented by ancient Philosophers
such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
Did I hear you say that I am spreading wrong stereotype of what
most people say about Northern political space dominated by half baked
graduates? You are dead wrong because I can tell you now without any fear of
contradiction that in my beloved Imo state, there was a time that a certain
governor of the Peoples Democratic Party was quoted to have regarded the
installation by a private telecom company of telecom mastheads as part of his
Imo state government 'democratic dividends' or achievements made by his
government with the several billions of fund that accrued to the state coffers
from the federation account and the internally generated revenue. In much of
the South East states such as Abia and Ebonyi states, the state government uses
fronts to place generous media commercials to congratulate the state governors
for drilling boreholes which cost less than five percent of the total cost of
those glamorous commercial advertisements sponsored dubiously with taxpayers'
money by the stooges of these never-do-wells who parade around as governors.
So just like in Northern Nigeria whereby state governors spend
huge sums of public fund junketing around the globe while their people wallow
and die out of poverty, the Southern Nigeria is replete with instances of
growing toiletization of public politics and sadly, the populace are too busy chasing
bread and butter and are not bothered to ask probing questions from their
elected politicians to give proper account on how the peoples money are used to
serve the people. In Lagos state for instance, there is even what may be called
growing toiletization of the civil society because only recently a study showed
that last year alone, the populace spent N1 billion naira to stage series of
social get-togethers or what is known in local parlance as 'OWAMBE' social
meetings.
In a drunken state of mind, how can the members of the civil
populace fully understand their roles as the real owners of the Nigerian
sovereignty who ought to watch the activities of politicians to ensure that the
nation is not ruined through corrupt practices? If majority of the people
living in Lagos state alone have developed this deadly gluttonous tendency
as to have spent a whooping N1 billion naira on social and highly unproductive
ventures, how then will the growing toiletization of Nigerian politics not
exacerbate? The other day, a yacht hotel belonging to the Lagos state
ministry of tourism purchased reportedly from the UK worth several billions,
disappeared into thin air and the people have not asked from the state
government the whereabouts of this priceless assets.
Sadly, what makes the toiletization of Nigerian politics much more
dangerous is the ignominious roles played by religious leaders who encourage
these corrupt politicians to go on stealing spree without checks and balances.
Recently, a certain pastor acquired a choice private jet even when about 70
percent of his members are impoverished and to make matters worst, the
President of Nigeria Dr. Good luck Jonathan was the Chief Guest of honor at the
unveiling ceremony of this exotic private jet. On the last count, over five
pastors own private jets in a nation whereby over 85 percent of the citizenry
are too poor that many die from malaria and typhoid.
In Niger state, the state governor was shown in some media
cruising in an exotic private jet celebrating his birthday not too long ago and
this state is one place whereby the state of infrastructure in the rural
primary schools have deteriorated to animalistic level so much so that pupils
receive lessons under trees or seat on the fallen debris of their derelict
school buildings from where lessons are dished out by their highly
impoverished teachers. Anambra state is warming up to hold another
governorship elections and the majority of those running for office are money
bags who can not account for the sources of their wealth including one of them
facing prosecution over alleged participation in the monumental heist of
petroleum subsidy running to nearly N1 trillion Naira. Nigerians; wake up and
stop this bad phenomenon of growing toiletization of Nigerian public politics.
It is now or never.
+Emmanuel Onwubiko is
head; Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria and blogs
@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
20/5/2013
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