Tunji Ajibade
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), held a meeting with Nigeria’s former leaders the other day. The house was fuller; none of the attendees was less than sixty-five years. So, the first thing that occurred to me was, May the earth never lack elders. It’s a common saying among the Yoruba. Why do I look at this last meeting from this perspective? It was because of what transpired before the meeting, and what I think the participants ought to discuss as well as the take-away from it that the President necessarily needed to have.
The meeting with these former leaders was necessary, as it ensured the President heard directly from them. Also, the meeting was right in view of the recent comments made by especially former President Olusegun Obasanjo against the backdrop of the street protests. Obasanjo’s comments have been criticised, especially his views about the current administration. The impression created was that Obasanjo was Buhari’s enemy, more so as he didn’t take part in some past meetings Buhari held with former leaders. The fact that all living past leaders were present this time showed maturity on everyone’s part.
We know enmity among leaders has its implications in a nation like ours with its many fault lines. So this meeting spoke loudly to the awareness on the part of these elders about the relevance of a common front for the purpose of resolving the challenges confronting the nation. The challenges are systemic and it’s what I think these leaders ought to be telling one another as well as remind the President of. If we don’t start to deal with issues at that point we’ve not started. And telling the current President this is fundamental to it. Why? Even they, when they were in office, didn’t have the privilege of being told such hard truths. Since the President provided a platform to listen to the truth, therefore, I imagine it was what those he hosted told him. But, did they?
What we know about the outcome of the meeting is what we expect the President’s men to say. And of course they said the former leaders commended the manner government handled issues that had to do with recent nationwide protests. Since we now know that it was commendation galore at the time the meeting with the President happened, it’s imperative to note here a few of the issues to which I would have wanted the current and former leaders to pay attention.
I suppose any observer of our system, as well as what happened on our streets lately, would have come to the conclusion that there’s a disconnect between the masses and the government. It didn’t start today, it began yesterday, and it’s getting wider. This can be seen in the length of time Nigerians have been expressing their concerns about the police, but nothing meaningful was done until the frustration expressed lately erupted in the manner it did. I find this phenomenon fascinating, I mean fascinating in the sense that people who wear the toga ‘government’ become this immune to the cries and pains expressed by Nigerians. How did we get this comfortable? As an institution called ‘government’, or the different institutions within government, the structure has become so tamed that no institution could take the steps needed to address complaints by Nigerians in a manner that could have prevented the street protests. It’s a phenomenon one finds at every level, and it’s the system that has been developed over the years. No one takes responsibility for fundamental changes where there’s a need for such. How SARS operated for so long in the manner it did in Nigeria’s south is an example. How did our nation slip into this stupour? Development is in phases, incremental. Addressing issues should be a case of dealing with them as soon as they come up, rather than allow them to fester to the point we saw in the street protests. Did the former leaders tell the current president this?
In our own context especially, failing to listen and do something when our people cry out is particularly dangerous. Why? One, the fault lines are many. Once governments don’t act promptly on issues that people complain about, it is given other interpretations, both real and imagined, and we know the consequences. This is one reason the system should be structured in such a way that when Nigerians bring forward legitimate complaints such as acts of illegality perpetrated by SARS, governments should listen, review process, and act. Like the police, the MDAs aren’t responsive to Nigerians. They have shut themselves into glasshouse, taking care of themselves only. They put out their contact details, but when Nigerians contact them, they ignore. In the last five months, I sent enquiries and complaints to the NUC, CPC, and CBN. These agencies neither acknowledged nor responded, just as the police authorities wouldn’t respond to Nigerians until they went to the streets. Yet, someone in these agencies collects salary to respond to Nigerians.
Two, we have a huge population of youth. That’s fuel, either for good or otherwise. This should mean we constantly pay attention to this active segment of the population. Recently, I got an idea of how people, either in or outside government, who haven’t experienced the SARS effect could see issues. A young man from Nigeria’s North asked me why the youth in the South protested against SARS. If the average Nigerian could ask that, one could imagine how immune those who travel in convoys and have police protection would see the protesters. That’s the size of what it means to not realise what Nigerians go through in the hands of security outfits, and the anger over which fuelled the latest peaceful protests before hoodlums stepped in. Meanwhile, the angry youth had been crying for long before they eventually took over the streets.
Added to this is the nation’s demography and how the MDAs ignore it in what they do. We have youth, some 60 per cent of the population according to some figures. But we don’t particularly realign our system, ministries, agencies, parastatals to pay them specific attention. In his latest speech, President Buhari mentioned the interventions his government had made to assist the youth. This he asked the protesters to take advantage of. It’s good there are interventions. The challenge though is how the interventions are implemented, as well as how long they last for. Intervention isn’t often structured into the system and in time, it fades out. As for the system proper, the MDAs continue to be what they are, unresponsive in their approach to the youth demography; it’s one reason interventions are instituted in the first place, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, one wonders about the impacts of interventions when one recalls that ICPC says some N2.6bn of the school feeding funds ended up in the private accounts of some government officials. During the street protests, vandals found huge COVID-19 intervention food items stacked in warehouses in Lagos State. The President had said jobs should be created and all LGAs in Nigeria would provide candidates. Not long ago, we heard that lawmakers had a percentage of candidates for the jobs promised. I thought the way to do it is for the MDAs to set criteria and transparently ensure that the best who meet the criteria in each LGA across Nigeria are recruited. We know what happens with regard to other recruitment processes too. Without an open process to bid fairly and transparently, many youth are locked out of even the intervention that the President says he has provided. What would naturally follow was the kind of frustration we saw on the streets which must have involved youths who had no access to government’s intervention programmes. Did the former leaders tell the President this?
On the whole, I think the President is fortunate, and I wish he makes the most of it. The kind of support he enjoys among Nigeria’s past leaders is rarely found in most nations. Also, most of our politicians defer to him as an elder. This is enormous goodwill he can tap into and use to turn a few fundamental things around under his watch. If he sanitises the police – from the recruitment process, adequate equipment, to accountability in the manner law enforcement agents treat Nigerians – he would have done his bit.
