Nigeria has a been a crossroads wherein we are seeing the decisions that people will take if no one was watching. The season that we are passing through as a nation is so hot and protracted that everyone is forced to bare their minds and remove the ‘psychological’ ‘make-up’ with which they have been deceiving everyone else before. This is the season that lies expire and people show their true colours. Those clamouring for the supremacy of the constitution fulfil this sad picture because they unknowingly underline how debased, and shorn of trust and honour the Nigerian society has become.
The instrument of the Constitution is like a big brother figure – something we can invoke when things go wrong, but the true test of humanity, of integrity, of sanity even, is how one keeps ‘gentlemen’s agreements’.
If one employs a fresh graduate from the streets, it is a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ that is signed with such a graduate – that he should not steal company funds, reveal company secrets to competitors, or jeopardise the company’s interest in any manner. If such an agreement is breached, the company can only prosecute under civil law, in redressing its right that was breached by the employee. The company and the employee do not have to be legal luminaries, versed in the Nigerian constitution and common law and jurisprudence, before they can enter into the ‘contract’. Nowadays, there is so much copious reference to the constitution that one would think that between parents and their children, there is need to rely on that document. Gentlemen’s agreements are the platform on which a sane society is built, not necessarily the constitution. Say, how many of our daily relationships are built on the Nigerian constitution? But this ‘zoning’ argument is also essentially a PDP palaver.
Yes, one is concerned about what happens in PDP, where unfortunately there are but few ‘gentlemen’, if any. One is not surprised that majority of PDP ‘strongmen’ were pushing towards an abrogation of the ‘gentleman’s agreement’, because the PDP is a natural magnet for men who drift towards where the money is. Initially PDP was a ‘consensus’ party, then it became a party where every opportunist must belong. And later it transformed into what it is today – a party of ‘necessity’, the only one in Nigeria with a national reach, and of course with a lot of money behind it. We should not be concerned about what happens in PDP really. But then again PDP was built on the money, sweat, tears, blood, agony of every Nigerian. What is going on is akin to a moral gridlock, a social paradox, a dilemma.
PDP, as conceived and ‘transformed’ by the great Obj, is supposed to be the ‘only’ party in Nigeria. We should not forget so soon, that Obj believed in a one-party state. And so it was, that every businessman who loved his business, and his life, had to donate massively to the PDP for it to achieve its current status. Many of such businessmen, in those days went ahead to recoup their ‘donations’ a thousand folds, from import duty waivers, which meant that funds meant to accrue to all Nigerians were effectively ‘privatised’, first by PDP and its big wigs, and later by these super-rich businessmen. So we should all be concerned about what happens in PDP. For nothing unites men, especially Nigerian men, more than the opportunity to share state funds. And PDP presents the best of such opportunity in Nigeria today, for a few politicians to unite against the common good of poor Nigerians.
Public service has become the only sure way of obtaining untold, unverifiable, unjustifiable and unmerited wealth. Any other avenue is considered too cumbersome and tasking. Therefore today, the most desperate and criminal amongst us, who cannot be bothered about going through the narrow and tortuous path of getting by with hard work, have become politicians. PDP politicians. The few who started out by subscribing to any hue of ideology (whether as leftists or liberals), have since ditched their ideology for the ‘largest party in Africa’. For what is ideology when it cannot win you positions. That is the state of affairs today, and why we should bother about what goes on in PDP, or whether they keep to gentlemen’s agreements.
A lot has happened in the last few weeks that showed that the country is in a sort of gridlock. A dilemma. And we are at best trying to throw money at the problem, especially by hoping that by spending heavily on the upcoming elections, somehow, our money will buy credibility and reasonability. We forget that money cannot buy trust and mutual respect, which is what we need the most right now. And somehow I feel that a very bad situation will be further exacerbated by the blind approach that we are taking towards resolution. The nation is in a gridlock. Too many big fishes are on the horizon, dead serious about their ambition, ready to protect their votes with their blood and that of other people, and quite a handful of them ready to do everything to rig their ways into governance at every level.
President Goodluck enjoys the power of incumbency as we speak. A rash of organisations have sprung up supporting him, and anyone who dares to advocate that Goodluck slows down, is harangued by the crowd of conformists, most of whom are AGIP (any government in power) specialists. But those of us who would rather Goodluck steps down his rumoured ambition should also know that it is not easy for the man. What would he tell his ‘people’ when he goes back home. For the same people mouthing ‘no zoning’, ‘let the best man do it’, in the same breath, spring up the silly argument that the ‘north’ just does not want a south-south indigene to be president. The arguments are confusing.
And someone like me, who has marshalled his points in terms of the long term view behind the wisdom of ‘zoning’, and the need to respect gentleman’s agreements, am actually working unwittingly in favour of some politicians who merely want to use the zoning issue to clear the way for their vaunting ambition. Still I support that Goodluck should step down his ambitions, for reasons which I will continue to articulate next week. No thanks to President Gridlock, sorry Goodluck Jonathan, the nation is in one hell of a confused, despondent state. God help Nigeria.
