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Mr President, We Who Are About To Die, Salute You! by ceecee0703(m): 9:36am On Nov 09, 2015 |
Since the return of democracy in
1999, Nigeria has not had a prepared
president. That is a president who was
willing and yearning to become
president before being made or
elected president; a president who
has spent a lot of time thinking long
and hard about what he wants to do
for this country, how he wants to do it
and with whom he wants to do it
before being saddled with the
responsibilities of a president.
Obasanjo was really not thinking of
being the president before he was
released from prison and asked to go
to Aso Rock. Yaradua never told
anyone he wanted to be president but
the powers that be wanted him to be
president and lo he became our
president. Goodluck Jonathan in my
estimation was the most unprepared
of all. Infact he became everything he
never said he wanted to be, from
Governor to Vice President and all the
way to being President.
I’m not saying they didn’t have their
personal dreams and wishes for this
country before they became
presidents; we all have wishes and
dreams for this country. But
becoming a president demands a
deliberate planning and a long term
yearning that should allow for a well-
documented articulation of such a
wish and dream.
So when Buhari presented himself for
the elections in 2015 for a record 4
times, I thought finally we have got a
prepared man for the office of the
president. I thought no man will run
for the president 4 times without
having a well-oiled machinery, a well-
articulated vision and a well prepared
team to execute the duties of the
president speedily, efficiently and
effectively. This supposed
preparedness was Buhari’s main
selling point for me.
So I was not impressed when it took
months after winning the elections for
the President to send the list of his
ministers to the Senate. For a man
who first contested for the president
in 2003, such display of
unpreparedness was inexcusable on
any ground. I consider all those talk of
the president being slow, steady and
tactful as glorification of tardiness.
In the movie ‘The Meeting”, Rita
Dominic said “Weekend is a long time
in government.” And truly 5 months is
a very long time in government. I’m
still even trying to wrap my head
around how a president who has 4
years to deliver his campaign
promises will spend 5 months to
assemble his ministers.
43-year old Justin Trudeau was
elected the Prime Minister of Canada
on 19 October 2015 and when he was
sworn in on 4 of November 2015, less
than 3 weeks after, he announced his
cabinet of 15 men and 15 women. But
after waiting for months what did our
slow, steady and tactful president gave
us? A bunch of old faces, no youth
and a sprinkle of women.
I’m concerned with how tardiness has
become the hall mark of governance
in Nigeria and the President is taking
this red tape and ‘slowness’ to new
heights. Everywhere you turn you will
see government officials walking
around doing nothing and feeling
important.
Recently, when I came back from
Gabon for The New York Forum Africa
I contacted a young aide to the
Governor of Cross River State to tell
him about an educational invention
that will revolutionize the teaching
and learning of Mathematics for
secondary school students and how
the government can acquire this for
students of the state. I asked him
whether I should submit a proposal
for his perusal and he said he will look
into it. I was dumbstruck. What is he
going to look into? I have not even
submitted a proposal yet.
This is over 2 months now and he has
not gotten back to me with any sort of
feedback. I guess he is still looking
into a proposal I have not submitted.
This is a young man who is barely 30
but he has already imbibed the bad
habit of being slow and doing nothing
to look important. And when you
point this out, they will say you don’t
understand how government works.
But the truth is that a man who
knows what he should do, what he is
doing, how he should do it and with
whom he should do it will certainly do
it speedily.
Being slow, is very often, a symptom
of internal confusion. Sadly it is only in
politics that people will have the
liberty of wasting time without result.
No Bank Manager will spend 5
months to choose his team members.
He will be fired immediately.
Politicians and their praise singers are
‘forcing’ us to equate slowness with
wisdom. Don’t be fooled. Let’s resist
this institutionalization of attitudinal
fallacy.
And this is supposed to be PDP’s fault.
That’s what we keep hearing from the
President and his men. The PDP
destroyed the country so fast, so the
President has to be slow to fix a
destruction that happened so fast.
PDP might be responsible for the
mess in the country but certainly they
are not responsible for the
governance of the country today.
This is not even news. We know PDP
wasted our resources, we know PDP
messed our economy, we know that,
we know this. That’s why we elected
you to fix it. If the PDP government
was good, APC wouldn’t have been
elected into governance. The APC
should stop telling us what we already
know, fix it.
Recently the president said he will
never stop talking about how PDP
ruined this nation. Really? Is this
another way of admitting he cannot
fix it? Or maybe it is to keep this as an
excuse of his inability to fix it
perpetually fresh in our minds.
Now we hear that some of the
ministers designate will not have
portfolios. I wonder what will qualify
one minister to have a portfolio and
another not to. This is an issue for
another piece.
In ancient Rome, gladiators, who are
usually slaves, stand upon the sand of
large amphitheater to fight themselves
to death while the crowd cheer.
Before they commence their bloody
fight, they will lift up their heads and
address their Lords and Masters in the
following words: “We who are about
to die, salute you!” I don’t know why
they did this. Maybe it is to show
respect and gratitude to the Lords and
Masters who will even consider it
worthwhile to watch them kill
themselves in the sand.
The fate of the gladiators might not be
very different from the fate of millions
of Nigerians. We stand in the sand
with sweat on our brows, tilling the
arid ground and drinking the aroma
of unending struggles. With war from
the North East and the sound of
trouble from a frustrated people in
the South East. It is the survival of the
fittest.
As we fight for survival, we lift up our
eyes to the hills where our Lords and
Masters dwell and we see them
playing ayo with our lives. Lawyers are
walking out on judges, the legislature
is breaking campaign promises
through legislative fiat and the
president is telling us how broke we
are.
Mr President, we who are about to
die. salute you!
For decades unemployed Nigerian
youths have lived without any sort of
stipend from the government, they
were not really complaining. But APC
told them during the electioneering
campaign that they will be paid N5000
monthly and 5 months into the tenure
of the APC led government, they
instructed their senators to break this
campaign promise on the floor of the
senate.
Don’t bother telling me why they have
to do that, the President has already
told us: the country is broke. But the
country is buoyant enough to pay the
same legislators even wardrobe
allowance. The country is buoyant
enough to pay most of them who are
ex Governors stupendous amount of
pension.
Mr President, we who are about to
die, salute you!
APC and the President Media handlers
have the proclivity of being ridiculous
most times. How else can one
describe the story they tried selling us
about the President administering the
country with his body language? A lot
of “miracles” were ascribed to this
amusing body language. Please I
don’t want to talk about how
shameful this line of yarning was,
make we just leave am abeg.
I must commend the flurry of anti-
corruption activities going on, though
we hear more about it than we see it.
We are still waiting for significant
conviction of these much touted
looters and the recovery of their loot.
But it is pertinent to point out that
governance is not just about probe
and dramatic litigations. Our economy
cannot be fixed with recovered loot
alone.
We trusted the APC with the task of
fixing this country, let them do it fast.
Show us the way and we will follow.
Give us a blueprint to work it. Don’t
just point us to the broken walls, give
us some tools and lead us to build the
broken walls. Free us from being
gladiators and killing each other in the
sand while you watch. Take our salute
but free us from the prophecy of
death.
We, who are about to die, salute you!
First Baba Isa (FBI) writes from Abuja
07037162029
meandisa@gmail.com
52F84BE5
@firstbabaisa |
Re: Mr President, We Who Are About To Die, Salute You! by Kelklein(m): 9:51am On Nov 09, 2015 |
insightful.. beautiful piece |
Re: Mr President, We Who Are About To Die, Salute You! by Nobody: 10:03am On Nov 09, 2015 |
I agree with most of what you wrote, but I know also that its easier to destroy than to build. I won't presume to judge this administration now, I will do so at the end of four years when they come courting my vote again. I will use my PVC to determine whether they passed or failed. but until then, I will like other good citizen support their efforts to lift the country up. |
Re: Mr President, We Who Are About To Die, Salute You! by magicminister: 10:07am On Nov 09, 2015 |
Apc na scam 2 Likes |
Re: Mr President, We Who Are About To Die, Salute You! by speedyGonzales: 10:11am On Nov 09, 2015 |
You are right we have not had a well, prepared president... But based on this thought, I feel Jonathan was well prepared for the second term from his experience in the first term! I think! |
Re: Mr President, We Who Are About To Die, Salute You! by dazdilijae(m): 7:32am On Nov 10, 2015 |
Well written piece, kudos |
Re: Mr President, We Who Are About To Die, Salute You! by ceecee0703(m): 8:13am On Nov 10, 2015 |
dazdilijae:Thank you |
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