Forgotten Dairies
Let’s bury the ghost of Aburi -By Festus Adedayo
Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe achieved immortality, not on account of the convoy of cars that blew siren before them, nor even the number of roads they constructed.
When I saw elders of Southern Nigeria at table recently agitatedly discussing the current insecurity crisis in the country, with each of the parties proffering ways out of the bind, what struck me was the image of the Aburi Accord of 1967. If you add this to the various calls for each ethnic group to vacate the other’s space that is currently trending, those who were old enough during the Nigerian civil war which ultimately cost Nigeria a conservatively estimated one million lives and today’s trillions of Naira in reconstruction, with life-long scars of war on our faces, would tell you that there is an ample resemblance of the 1967 Nigeria. It was the last effort made by leaders of Nigeria to stop the apparently sliding situation of affairs.
Like the downpour which no one can predict who it will soak, even the most bestial of men cannot wish for a war. This is why we should implore President Muhammadu Buhari to stop this atmospherics of war. He only is equipped to do this. This can be done by government promoting narratives of peace and reconciliation among the various ethnic groups in the country. Till today, in spite of his obvious peaceful inclinations and pursuit, the names of Yakubu Gowon who sat at the cusp of the field of blood in the civil war, as well as Odumegwu Ojukwu, who prosecuted the war, rightly or wrongly, would forever star in this opera of blood. Buhari can avoid this. He should, for the sake of millions of Nigerians yet unborn.
Kudos to el-Rufai
As I had never done in very long while, I am having cause to raise my thumb up to the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai. A Tweeter user, Muhd El-Bonga Ibraheem, with handle @el_bonga, had tweeted on a 13-year old Almajiri boy from Maiduguri who, “because he doesn’t like to beg, he learnt how to shine and repair shoes from his brother where he earns an average of N500 a day.” According to Ibraheem, when he asked the Almajiri about schooling, the boy had retorted, “even if I want to school, no one will sponsor me.” Apparently struck by the industry of the Almajiri boy, el-Rufai, via his twitter handle, had replied, “Where is this industrious boy? How old is he? Kindly bring him to me in Kaduna. I will sponsor him to attend a boarding primary school and upon (sic) completion until he graduates from university by the Grace of God.”
I think el-Rufai deserves commendation for the milk of human kindness that flowed out of him in the course of tweeting the above. However, as governor, he has a greater responsibility than this. Apparently passionate about the education of his people, el-Rufai should do much more than this miniature-statured, one-off leadership intervention. Many Nigerian leaders too are being pursued by this el-Rufai spirit, as they single for payment the health bills of one or two ailing persons and suborning TV cameras to cover this ‘philanthropy.’
The truth is, investments in health, education and the like can actually bail us out of the various maladies of existence we currently find ourselves. El-Rufai should freeze all other mundane businesses of government to focus on the education of children under his watch. It is one governmental venture that endures and which can give the head of government immortality. Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe achieved immortality, not on account of the convoy of cars that blew siren before them, nor even the number of roads they constructed.
There are a thousand and one Almajiri boys and girls walking the streets of Kaduna who don’t have access to persons who can put them on Twitter like this 13-year old so that they too can harvest the governor’s openly advertised favour. Unless our leaders acquire a heart of empathy and thirst for immortality, we will continue to merry-go-round on the spot as a country.
Still on an open society
In my piece of last week entitled Makinde and enemies of an open society, I stated that Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State was the first civilian governor to openly declare his assets. I have since been told that President Umaru Yar’Adua, as governor of Katsina State, pioneered this noble move, followed by Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti. My apologies.
