2015: Nda-Isaiah’s Big Ideas Any Nigerian honest with himself would admit that our country is in a mess. Deep mess. This land is in dire straits, in the throes of transition to the great beyond. Can she be saved? That is the big question, and that is why there is jostle for leadership as we approach general elections in 2015. Our incumbent leader, President Goodluck Jonathan, says he did not create the mess, he only wants to pack it. And since it takes more than one term to clean an Augean stable, he needs four more years to do a good job. Fine. Former military head of state, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (a man a lot of people can follow into battle blindfolded) has also signified intention to run for the highest office in the land. It’s his fourth outing, and if God endorses, he has all it takes to move Nigeria from the path of perdition, and set her on the straight and narrow course. He was about doing it 30 years ago as a military ruler, before forces of reaction overthrew him. Nigeria is still paying the heavy price. Who are the others that have thrown their hats into the 2015 ring? Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a man with perhaps the most formidable political machine in the country. Also, there is former Minister of Defence and incumbent governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. He has done great things in Kano, and wants to replicate the same on a national scale. The body language of Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, indicates that he would love to run for president also. But since he has not officially collected the nomination form, we keep watching his footsteps. Equally yesterday, the buzz went out that Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Speaker of the House of Representatives, may have entered the race to pick the presidential ticket of the APC. He is also a very viable candidate, though he had earlier been linked with the Sokoto State gubernatorial race. And last week, one man came with big ideas from the fireman’s bag of tricks. He is pharmacist, fiery columnist, entrepreneur, and newspaper publisher, Sam Nda-Isaiah. He declared in Minna, Niger State, seeking to be president on platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Rather creatively, he calls his plan for Nigeria ‘Big Ideas.’ Yes, a country in big trouble would need big ideas to rescue it. Of all those we have mentioned as seeking the country’s presidency next year, it is only Nda-Isaiah that has never held any public office before. So, in essence, you can say he wants to climb the ladder from the topmost rung. He has no experience. But he disagrees with that assertion, drawing national and international examples to support his position: “Talking about experience, you cannot have more experience than President Jonathan. He has been a Deputy Governor, a Governor, a Vice President, an Acting President, before becoming President, and see what this huge experience has done to our dear country. So much for experience! “Most of the greatest leaders the world has had, had no government experience before assuming power. South Africa’s presidency was Nelson Mandela’s first job in government. The Prime Minister’s job was Lee Kuan Yew’s first job in government. And by the time Tony Blair became Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1997, he had never worked in government. Ditto for David Cameron.” Very well argued, if you ask me. This man sure has big ideas. Hear Nda-Isaiah chronicle the country’s woes, and you wonder how we got into this woebegone situation. How did we enter this cul-de-sac, this abyss, and bottomless pit? Insecurity. Corruption. Mass unemployment. Collapsed public education. Sick healthcare. Epileptic electricity. And many others! He then submits: “President Jonathan has been totally unable to perform the most basic responsibility of any leader, which is provision of security to the people of this country… Nigerians from everywhere yearn for change. They cry for a new direction because the country cannot continue on this path. That is why I want to be President…” And what are the big ideas Nda-Isaiah has, that will make us vote for him, if he gets his party’s ticket? “The first thing our government will do is to unite the whole of Nigeria as quickly as possible. As I have said in several fora, Nigeria is currently too divided to be called a nation. No country ever makes progress with this kind of divisions we see in our country today.” Bull’s eye! Haven’t I always said it in this column? It is anomalous to call Nigeria a nation. We are not. Nations don’t have the kind of fissures, deep-seated animosities, malice and resentment that Nigerians carry in their chests. Right is the man who wrote that resentment “is a poor prop for anyone to lean on.” And like Nelson Mandela said: “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” But in Nigeria, resentment is staple food. We eat it daily. We are a conglomeration of ethnic nationalities that suspect one another, in fact we seem to instinctively hate anyone not from our ethnic stock. And never before have the things that divide us been more emphasized than now. Language, place of origin, religion, clan, and other such things are in bold relief now. And our leaders and politicians are exploiting them for political gains. Oh, cry thy beloved country! So, if Nda-Isaiah says “I will need to unite the whole of Nigeria behind me as quickly as possible,” then it is a big idea. I subscribe to it. Another big one: “Under my presidency, all crimes will be punished, no matter how long it will take to apprehend the criminals. We shall send a clear message to criminals that whoever commits a crime will be apprehended and brought to justice according to the law – whoever they are, no matter where they come from.” Don’t you like this? I sure do. Big criminals are not punished in our country anymore. Here, stealing is now different from corruption. If you filch money in tens or hundreds of millions, it is just stealing, not corruption. It is only when you hit the billion mark that it becomes corruption. And that is why we are the way we are. All roads have collapsed. Hospitals are abattoirs. Public schools are rickety shanties. I heard Gov Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State say on Wednesday, at the 6th anniversary of his government, that when he came into office, students didn’t need to enter classrooms through the doors, because all the windows were not there. They simply hopped in from any direction. What a sorry spectacle! And it is the product of stealing (which we’re now told is different from corruption). Are the anti-graft agencies still working? Somebody, please wake them up. They’re snoring so loud as to wake up the dead. Yet another big idea: “Concurrently with the business of uniting the nation, we shall also quickly secure Nigeria and Nigerians. Security is the most elementary duty of any leader.” True. But is there any form of security in Nigeria today? Not with bombs going off like firecrackers in different parts of the country. Not with many towns overrun, annexed and renamed by Boko Haram insurgents. Not with schoolchildren saying goodbye to their parents, and they are brought back home in body bags the next hour. Not with our girls in the clutches of insurgents for more than six months. Bring back our girls! Bring back our country! Unemployment is a tinderbox, and Nigeria is sitting pretty on it. Won’t it explode one day? Nda-Isaiah says it will: “Nigeria’s unemployment level is a bomb waiting to explode. By conservative estimates, there are 48 million unemployed Nigerians and a troubling 54% of Nigerian youths are unemployed. Even though the economy has grown, poverty rates have increased… we cannot be Africa’s biggest economy and the continent’s most populated nation (178 million people) and still be struggling with 4,000MW of electric power supply after squandering $25 billion in the past 15 years. The world’s largest power station in a single location is the Three Gorges Dam in China, which has an installed capacity of 22,500MW. It was constructed with $26 billion.” Did you read that properly? Please read it again. The world’s largest power station in a single location was constructed at a cost of $26 billion. Holy Moses! How much have we wasted on power in Nigeria, only to generate pitch darkness? Billions upon billions of dollars, with most of it now in private pockets! And you expect me not to listen to a man coming with big ideas? I’ll listen, and listen well. Our country needs rescue, and you never know from which direction it would come. And still another big idea: “We cannot be Africa’s largest oil producer and still be importing fuel. That will stop under our government… the country will invest heavily in non-oil sectors to diversify our economy. We shall do this as a matter of survival.” Oil has become a curse to Nigeria. We are one of the continent’s largest producers, yet we import petroleum, and consider it an achievement when there’s no fuel scarcity. What a country! We have become so used to under-performance that we hail every façade of progress, when it is really something to weep about. Give me big ideas. Bring the ideas to fruition. And we’ll get our country back. There are still many other big ideas in the Sam Nda-Isaiah declaration speech. I’ll recommend that everybody reads it. But then, not a few people would say: Sam Nda-who? Where will he get the money to run for president? Who knows him beyond media circles? Why doesn’t he first aspire for the House of Assembly in his native Niger State, from there to House of Representatives, then to the Senate, before he talks of the presidency? Tell the dreamer to wake up! Well, dreams are made of such stuff. It is those who dare to dream that achieve. There are dark horses who win the Derby. Is Sam Nda-Isaiah that dark horse? The APC presidential primaries will prove next month. For years, the aspirant has been a great loyalist of Gen Muhammadu Buhari. In fact, he called him “my role model and political boss” in the declaration speech. But now, the godson is running against the godfather. It is permissible in democracy. It only makes the race more interesting and pulsating. Let the best emerge. On Monday, more than 50 schoolchildren were bombed to death in Potiskum, in Yobe State. Such heinous acts had earlier occurred at schools in Buni Yadi, Gujba, Mamudo, Kano, and Damaturu. Again, it happened in Kotangora, Niger State on Wednesday. Shey na like this we go de dey? We surely need big ideas to get us out of this hellhole. FEMI ADESINA
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 18:26:24 +0000