Generational Debts And Self-redemption Of The Nigerian Activist Through Urgent Calls For Obi’s Presidency -By Ozuomba Egwuonwu

“ We have increased our exports from 23 billion to 153 billion.

We have moved from 111th position to 16th position among world economic powers. We have settled all our debts.

We have just built one of the biggest and busiest airports in the world that will cater for 100m passengers per annum 

We have planted 2 billion, 770 million trees.

We have manufactured the first military tank, first plane, first military satellite. 

We are planning to have 300,000 full-time research scientists…”

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In a morning  phone-in programme on one of the FM radio stations recently, the day’s talk had shifted  to the  Maman Daura’s opinion on competence over Zoning. A participant  took the discussion further by submitting that we have come to a point where we have to move even beyond the Nigerian system and Zones  in looking  for credible politicians to navigate the Nigerian Ship out of the murky debt waters brought about by political incompetence .  He proposed developing machineries and means of transplanting politicians that are Nigerians through parental descent only, born, bred and operating in foreign political systems, into the Nigerian political leadership as a necessary attempt at meeting the political needs of Nigeria.

The Diaspora Politician proposal is really not new in the quest for sovereign political leadership.  For instance,history of European sovereigns is replete with invitations to non-natives to step in and fill political voids of foreign  sovereign nations.

In Great Britain for instance, non- natives who could not even speak English fluently  had been invited to reign as sovereign monarchs and fill political leadership voids as aspired for by the English people of the particular era.

If we as a country can succinctly identify the voids to be filled in our aspiration as a people, there is nothing wrong in seeking non residents or even non natives who can effectively fill the void.

Such a class of  Nigeria related politicians (one can input to them based relatively on their operating environment) currently abound in developed Democracies with advanced political leadership dividends.

I  am certain, for instance that in the political history profiles of the  likes of Kaycee Mmadu-Canadian minister of justice, Chuka Umunna (Member of Parliament for Streatham, UK),  the likes of Rasheed Dawodu, April Ademiluy, Charles Ejike Onyejiaka who were/ are active grassroots participants in  US politics, one would never encounter entries on public domain as one consistently finds, not only as archived, but routinely recurring in our peculiar political domain involving practically all the political players  at all levels,  as given for instance, from retrievable below archives and timeline:

The Guardian, September 28, 2006,. P.24

Then EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu appeared before the Senate on a report the agency had just released then. He clearly mentioned five Governors amongst several officials and cases under investigation by the Commission including

1. Orji Uzor Kalu:The Governor was number one not because Abia is number one alphabetically, but because he had one of the biggest established cases of stealing, money laundering and diversion of funds.

2. Ahmed Bola Tinubu: According to the report, the then Governor of Lagos State stealing had an international dimension to it. Tinubu was roundly berated for being a big thief. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was then his  Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General. EFCC or Ribadu was never even threatened to be sued for those exposures.

3. Ahmed Sani Yerima: The Governor’s stealing was summarized as a tragedy.

4. George Akume: the Governor  was not just a thief but a heartless one who even physically beat up the commission’s operatives in the office of the state Commissioner of Police while he tried to recover some incriminating files against him from the operatives.

5. Abdullahi Adamu: The Governor had personalized both the state treasury and the accounts of Local Governments. The accusations against the Governor were massive.

This Day (Lagos) 1 July 2007

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua while lamenting the sorry state of many states’ finances, expressed regrets that some states will have to spend the next four years managing debts, “This must be the last time we will experience this empty treasury phenomenon,” he had warned…

Unfortunately as typical in most Nigerian political rhetorics, two elections and eight years later the situation just got worse: 

www.nairaland.com / 02 june/2015  

May 29th handover has come and gone but its impacts reverberates across the states. Some incoming governors are crying because of the wickedness of their predecessors.

Below are some of the states, where the predecessors left empty treasury for new administration:

Rivers

The former governor of Rivers State (Governor Rotimi Amaechi) did not only empty the state treasury, he went further to vandalize all the Furniture, Vehicles and other things in government … His successor even accused him of hiding the state government accounts.

Other states include;  Niger Plateau Bauchi  Jigawa Benue….

www.vanguardngr.com  10 /2015/

On the allegation that he left behind an empty treasury for his successor :  “Most of the constituent parts of this country depend on one source of revenue, the federation account. Money is shared from that account every month …. There is no state that depends on the federation account that the former governor will boast of leaving money behind..”  – Gabriel Suswam, former governor, plateau state.

Of course, as can be deduced from our current reality, such archives  are inexhaustible in the Nigerian political landscape.

Given the above in our political public domain  and our current fiscal reality , anyone, even if arriving in the country today,  would certainly reasonably conclude that the upbeat  quote at the beginning of this write up, that had its second entry as “settling all our debts”, can never be attributable to a Nigerian political leader. (the quote is attributed to President Tayyip Recep Erdogan of Turkey).

For one thing all the political media is replete with government officials ( Rotimi Amaechi) going about trying to explain not only Nigerian government debts owed, but also Nigerian government debts intended,  with responsibility plans that will burden not only the present government but also future  generations of governments to come.

The National Assembly is preoccupied with not only its own “waste” ( borrowing money to buy foreign Jeeps you really can’t afford is not classified as corruption in Nigeria) on the one hand but that of  government parastatals (Ok, NDDC) with Nigerian defined corruption  on the other hand. Then throw in their very moving  cerebral and philosophical debates on the thin line between  respect and   Sovereignty ceding clauses .

Now , in light of the various interpretation and misinterpretation of the sovereignty ceding clauses in the debts to be inherited by mostly next succeeding government, the present government and its officials are saddled with a huge  moral burden in helping to  ensure that the succeeding government that would take over from them would be one that is least likely to default, yes, a government most likely to give a “valedictory speech” in the colour of that attributed to president Erdogan of Turkey above. And this burden is so urgent and serious that it can’t afford to be courted based on propaganda, sentiment and superstitions but on empirical facts and documented track records.

The redeeming grace for this government and its officials may be that such records exist at all, though unlike the multiplicity of the previously resurrected archives from 2006 to 2015 above, this particular archive seems a singular occurrence which,taking cognizance of the seriousness of the sovereignty ceding clauses, can stand in all ramifications pari passu with the speech attributed to  President Erdogan of  Turkey above:

Anambra State Handover Report 2014

You see, there are approximately 198 million Nigerians. Nigeria owes China 3 Trillion. Nigeria previously borrowed $3.1billion from China. Nigeria under Buhari borrowed $6billion from China under infrastructural development. That does not include the $322million Nigeria borrowed from China 2018. Buhari & Rotimi Amaechi want to borrow more $500million for the railway nobody is talking about.

If you divide the amount with our population, every Nigerian, including you, owes China N15,000. So it is a given fact that when next you see a Chinese, you should respect him or her seeing as you owe them. What nobody is sure of yet is whether  generations to come is to throw in “our” (current politicians thought process suggest “their” ) Sovereignty with the deserved respect.

Given the singularity of the seriousness of threatening and mounting National debt not only to our contemporary survival,but also, to the sovereign survival of generations unborn, the Nigerian situation is really as defined and definite  as the phenomena and events that rallied majority of Americans including those in traditional Republican states and conservatives, to the never before envisaged and historical Obama presidency in November 2008 . It is now history that Americans rose up to the requirements of that historical moment,   irrespective of deep seated sentiments and prejudices.

Perhaps, as often the situation in events leading up to  an anti-climax resolution of no direct hostile confrontation between the principals prior to change in such political leadership, knowingly or unknowingly, (as seen for instance between King  Saul to King David  in the Old testament, and nearer home, Jonathan to Buhari in 2015), non hostile  transitional ethos and feelers may have albeit  unknowingly began to be communicated  between the applicable principals in non obvious  but Nigeria significant ways- open and rare acknowledgement of truth and indisputable facts that unwittingly promotes the succeeding party:

Recently the presidency confirmed  that former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi’s offense (and eventual triumph) in his (Obi’s)  impeachment saga was his refusal to inflate the budget of the state.

The  Senior Special Assistant to President Muhamadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in an article  released to commemorate the anniversary of the Buhari Presidency, listed Obi as one of those who suffered injustice while in office as Governor.

Obi’s offence, the Presidential aide wrote “was that he refused to inflate the state’s budget. The lawmakers had reportedly met with representatives of the President in Asaba, Delta State and then accompanied to Awka by heavy security provided by the police Mobile Unit.”

Corroborating the report, Chief Stephen Okeke, a community leader in Anambra State, reiterated that the statement was true.

Okeke went on to name other reasons for Obi’s impeachment saga: “It was not just the request to inflate the budget and accommodate their interests, they also gave as reason, the use of N43.2 million by Mr. Peter Obi to repair the burnt Governor’s House for which 298 million was already appropriated in the budget; the use of N81 million for the reconstruction of the burnt Governor’s Lodge for which N486 million was also appropriated. First, they were speaking in tongues on the need to follow the budget. When Obi pretended he did not have the gift of interpretation of tongues, they told him point blank that the appropriated money was for sensitive interests.”

Okeke said: “Some of the reasons sound incredible. Would you believe that the number three item on the notice of impeachment was that he was saving money for the state without approval for which he ended up saving over N75 billion before he handed over? They also accused him of degrading the office of the Governor for using Peugeot 406 as his official vehicle in his first tenure. They also said, for reasons difficult to fathom, that he was buying furniture locally.”

Obi’s  impeachment occurred  on November 2, 2006, he had pursued his case in court and won, successfully completing his first term as governor on February 9, 2010.

He thereafter won re-election for a second four-year tenure, which he also completed successfully.

The more one ponders the debts propelled  uncertain fate  of generations to come, not only with its fiscal implications, but especially with its unimaginable transcendental  toll on next  generation’s  psyche, given the role played by our supposedly best and brightest activists in its genesis (through, now relatively,  unwarranted mass hysteria, misdiagnosis  and subsequent endorsement of a “  repentant tyrant democrat messianic panacea”, whatever that means,  with no plausible substance, at best, based on sentiments,hypocrisy, and self delusion), the more one is desperate and grateful for a realistic and dependable route of redemption for our supposedly  brightest and patriotic activists.

This is of collective  importance because it presents a rare opportunity for genuinely redeeming whatever pretense at reason and  amenability to practical realism that is left in the profile and dignity of not just the Nigerian activists but the Nigerian and indeed the black man. (seeing as  the current yield of the Nigerian activist supports the  unspoken disparagement  of “advanced” others- that the black man is a primordial creature of  sentiments, superstition and irredeemable prejudices) .

The Soyinkas, the Obasanjos, the Atikus, the Danjumas, the Ezekwesilis, the Falanas, the Bakares, the Braithwaites, the Kutis, the Oputas, the Sanis, the Durotoyes, the Fawehimis, the Umars,

and all other activists and pseudo activists, who, directly or indirectly, by mounting public podiums, physically and figuratively, influenced or helped to influence the institution of our present fiscal predicament are to be in the forefront of the  usage of this  utilitarian opportunity  inherent in the vocal call for a presidency that would not be based (unlike in their last foray in national activism) on cheap, fictitious  propaganda, and self delusional sentiments, but that which would be based, for a true change, on substance and records as tangible and real as governor Obi’s handover letter above  at a time  counterparts genuinely opined   that “ … There is no state that depends on the federation account that the former governor will boast of leaving money behind..” 

Unlike the 2008 American Obama victory referred to above, here in  Nigeria, the immediate and useful victory  may not necessarily be the manifestation of  a Peter Obi’s presidency in 2023, that would be victory for generation next and  Danielic prince of Nigeria (and his favorites, whoever they be – like the rise of the persian empire must have been to the prince of Persia and the coming of  Alexander the great to prince of Grecia), the useful victory would be the utilization of the call for an Obi’s presidency for the redemption of the voice and standing of the Nigerian activists, because, as previously stated, this would also translate to the  redemption of  whatever pretense at reason and  amenability to practical realism that is left in the profile and dignity of the Nigerian and indeed the black man.