PMB – an endangered memory for the nation’s future or defining moment for relevance for the present planless mess -By Jimi Bickersteth

Driving through the woods in the twenty years old, now ‘smoking ’01 Big daddy’ accompanied by my pretty little granddaughter through the ever lonely and solitary country road of Gashua en route Nguru this beautiful morning, to get the covid-19 injection, the second jab. The weather, this morning, well, not sunny, like other days.
The beauty of the rising sun, not yet at its eternal intensity was sufficient motivation for me to undertake the arduous task of having to take the innoculation against the covid-19 pandemic. I had had a sleepless night, and kept the entire household in the vigils that routinely preceded my visits to the hospital for treatment (or courtesies).

There was another thing that was seminal for this early morning tour. Well! I must confess, the tour was principally to confirm the authenticity or otherwise of the rumours making the rounds that the covid-19 injection was carrying some electromagnetic radiation that makes metal sticks to the body. I must in passing acknowledge the amazing quickness and swiftness with which the world had reacted to the killer pandemic and the R&D of the prophylactic vaccine.

The weather this morning contrasts the last night’s weather-lady forecasts of “…There will be rain over all parts of the country… bla bla bla”. The entire fields, woods and the dreary village became one with the weather. It was like the whole country was on holiday and it was like time stood still, but looking at the LED clock on the dashboard, it was nearly eight o’clock in the morning.

Jimi Bickersteth

A bee flew in through the car’s window with its buzzing humming sound. The little girl who was allergic to, was it, its noisome buzz or the fly’s stings, was terrified. I in a flash deployed my sharp reflexes as I quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it into my hand and then released it. The girl grew frantic as it buzzed by her. Again I reached out my hand, but this time pointed out to my palm. There stuck in my flesh was the stinger of the bee.

She looked into my eyes, yet, couldn’t comprehend the sequence of events. Just as I and many of our compatriots were unable to comprehend the sequence and pace of events on the national plains. I’ll recount one instance here, and from there go on to other associated events.

Driving on this morning a gory and bloodcurdling scene confronted us. Just ahead of the car on the roadside were deposited five bodies heaped upon one another. I stopped to make discreet inquiries. I gathered that the assailants made a whistle stop and took to their heels the moment they were done with the assaults.

Four of the five victims were already lifeless, and with no help anywhere in sight, the motley crowd of onlookers looked on hopelessly lost and helpless at the last one languishing in pain. Some of the onlookers were screaming and sighing “WO yo Allah!” Meanwhile, a number of cows were straying nearby in the distance, chewing cud and oblivious of what was happening or had happened.

The Red Cross in me sprang to life, as I proceeded to offered a helping hand, one elderly man in the crowd looked at me with a sneer of disdain, seeing that I could not decide his look, he asked me, what I thought I was doing, and “who you be”?in his guttural voice and kolanut chewed bits in his saliva all over my face.

apc nigeria

I do not have to be told more in any other ‘language’ before I spoke to my legs. As I was moving away from the bloody spot toward my parked car, my whole body began to shiver, tears streaked through its ducts in my body system, and flowed effortlessly, cascading down my cheeks at the gory sight. The last time I had such an experience was at my father’s interment sometime in 1983.

The tears flowed unabated at this unnecessary waste of life, for two reasons; that, for whatever it was worth and for whatever the justification(s): a) two wrongs don’t make a right; and, b) sad with a government that appeared stooped to such infamy, by its ineffectiveness in dealing with the nation’s newfound passion and love for killings, kidnappings and general insecurity. This was happening in the far north, not anywhere in the south.

Looking through the windshield as I settled my body weight in the car, the young man on the ground pushed himself to avoid stretching the torment of his excruciating pain, as cramps sweep through his muscles, as they were bound to, knotting them in deep, blue, relentless throbbing pain. With these cramps and searing pain would come the inability to breathe. Minutes of the limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps. Then another agony began: a deep, crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly filled with serum and began to compressed the heart.

It is now almost over: as the loss of tissue fluids reached a critical level; the compressed heart was struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues that was no longer useful for the heart to pump through the body; the tortured lungs made frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. He couldn’t feel the chill of death crept through his tissues – became lame and lifeless. It was all over in a moment.

I sighed noisily and instinctively mollycoddled the little girl whose blonde hair cascaded down her back, as she also took one last look at the scene and fell into hysterics. She was now thrice terrified in one morning. That was the kind of hysterics that the nation and its leaders have subjected its citizenry.

The mountains of the northeast was, as if in a mirage, looking sharply defined against the eastern sky as the sun began to set. What a beautiful and fascinating country! One that was attracting riches and misery. Looking more like a virtual recluse and a damning exposé of backwardness and planless mess; daily painting the picture of a nation in need of an education in pragmatic, civilised and modern values and philosophy.

PDP

The nation had in recent times been presenting the character of life itself in this land of seemingly unending reach, riches and circumstances where natural conditions promoted tough individualism, and a people that had became used to making their own decisions and had drew far away from the government, a factor that had allowed conditions of anarchy to often prevailed.

On our return journey and still with the memories of the incident of the morning very fresh on my mind, how to put it on paper became arduous a task, because I still felt disoriented and lonely. At this point, I was struck with the sudden realization that the writing business, is, almost by definition, a lonely profession.

Yet, the picture of the dying man stuck with me and kept preying on my consciousness. I became, bent on putting the scene on paper added to this, the ones I received on my watsapp and Facebook pages as depicting the Igangan, Shasha and Owerri episodes as semiotics.

Indeed, and in fact, the many episodes of killings and slaying in the land and executive recklessness has become like a serious real-life national serial soaps, licences and blows, that had had all of our compatriots conscripted into the script(s) of the unfortunate situations; situations whose dénouement appeared lacking in any poetic justice, and, life is becoming threatening and dangerous, not only here in Gashua and Yobe, but, all over the federation, with the deep basic insecurity all around becoming a reality.

The nation’s current political and social predicament have kept all rationalising on which instance or scenes of the immense murders, killings and slayings that captured our fancies and primordial patriots instincts and particularly, where one stands on its swinging pendulums, and whether one had sympathy for the PDP or APC.

At this point, and, contemplating on the plot of the national script, and on whether the killings going on, were a ‘slaying’ or a ‘killing’, I remembered one of my grammar professor’s lesson, at the university, that, ‘Slay’ is synonymous with ‘kill’ though it is more forceful and rather dated. I winced!

The killings in and around the country were indeed quite outdated and abominable. This horrendously sad and ugly experiences have risen to such heights, that no one could comprehend the sequence of events in the ‘soaps drama’ any longer.

The flip side of all of these episodes and experiences North and South of the Niger was that the people were increasingly realising that their basic problems were not merely economic, but also political and a farfetched leadership absence.

It is a reality in the Nigerian scenario, that economic difficulty and political dissatisfaction are inextricable, and if not expertly and shrewdly handled by altruistic and honest leadership, it could lead to security concerns and threats to life and property. And by the day, it’s looking more like there’s absolutely nothing that anyone could do about it.

The issue of trust came up here. When the people do not trust its government they have the ability to restrict the government to conduct the affairs of state. When the government was not respected and trusted they typically form pressure group(s) such as ESN, MASSOB, MEND, IPOB, and the nameless one by an Igboho, an overreaching comedian, aka ‘mó gbọ́n tán, mo mọ̀ tán, ara ẹ̀ lo tàn jẹ. Proscribed or not all of this mini groupings, and relatively, bottom-up agitations, were avenues through which the people can effectively restrain the freedom and flexibility of government using ethnic profiling and marginalisation as templates.

Of course, a government so restrained cannot operate in a manner that is fully efficient. The government and the people constrain one another’s freedom, and productivity will decline as a result. One assumption necessary for this point of view is that no one will trust a government whose motives are not understood. The southern governors have convened a meeting to convey that much impression.

If you are ignorant of my motives, you will mistrust me because it is possible that my goals may be reached only by keeping you from reaching your goals. Without an understanding of motives, there cannot be trust. Here, one is of the view therefore, that, if the character of life in the nation was that of the people having drawn away from Abuja, then, obviously, there was the need for power devolution from the centre to the circumference. It would not mean that the nation cannot be together.

That in my opinion, was the essence of the nation’s southern governors resolutions, or so it seemed to suggest. So therefore, to avoid the recurrences of the states of anarchy, arsons, killings and kidnappings, there is the need and necessity for a constitutional amendment in that line of reasoning.

It is trite in view of the situations all over the federation for the PMB government to try and declare a state of emergency on the nation’s security and economic sectors. Which means that the residual powers vested in Abuja, as it were, is set to go, so as to save the federation from further collapse leading to its disintegration through this ever recurring silent ‘wars’ of attrition. Having said that, it must be seen to be done that conscious security power is vested in the state governors and state local police and defence forces.

Wither Nigeria! A nation where beleaguered parents whose manners belied a deep feeling of sadness and who have bats in the belfry, were butchered in the presence of their children and kinsmen; where children had their heads chopped off in the presence of their parents or stolen in schools. What types of endangered memories for the future!

The headaches and rottenness which these situations were, are situated in the nation’s neck region, and so, when the head’s rotten the whole body feels it. Time, therefore, it is, for a check-up neck up for the nation’s defining moments and as it were, an endangered future and or memories by using the stars. It was said that when men first learned to navigate the seas by using the stars, a whole new world opened up to them, and they enjoyed the freedom of the open seas, and today, that was what the nation desire, and with that, the peace, prosperity and tranquility that comes with it, and which its people, North or South, deserves in equal measure and proportion.

Today, the Lodestars we have to navigate is PMB, his political Party, his men and policies, and not the calls for outright dismemberment of the nation as some ethnic chauvinist were violently canvasing out of their frustrations and helplessness at what planless mess Nigeria had became.

PMB, is the one placed at the helm through the ‘mandate’ of the ‘people’ to deal effectively and efficiently with the nation’s planless mess, malaise and diagnosis. Granted that some of the malaise predates his regime, nonetheless, he was expected to mend and or dress the torn map not with a sellotape, but with a people oriented policies fit and proper for a multiethnic, multinational and multilateral milieu.

What he was expected to mend and or dress in the 21st century Nigeria was not merely grazing route for his ‘peoples’ cattles and cows, but serious matter of state policies that had turned out to be infections that had grown gangrene and rotten on the nation’s body politic today. Some of which were: a) PMB’s mismanaging, mistiming or misunderstanding the rhythm of the absolute and such soft powers his office guaranteed him, b) the continuous absolute and almost sacred and scary silence about the maddening, mindless killings, and slaying in the land, c) the corresponding leadership absence, and, d) elected officials of state and their corterie of advisers living in opulence and a rarefied political atmosphere, having no connection with the lives of the ordinary people that delivered the mandates to them on a platter of gold.

It’s probably a matter of fact, that some of the orgy of demonstrations and ugly reactions nationwide, were in the main, of discontent and or malcontents with government’s action or inaction, dereliction and or outright negligence coupled with the massive economic decline, debilitating state of infrastructure, poor road network. The galloping inflationary trends in the land were also symptomatic of economic decline and leadership failure and or absence. However, whatever is the truth, but, with things remaining the way they are, the long time prognosis for the nation’s future under PMB’s watch were not encouraging.

Why?.

i. The debt burden and dilemma of delegation: one acknowledged the pace of delivery and perhaps the ‘altruistic motives’ on the loans that have been used to open the countryside through roads constructions and modernisation of the rail lines, bogeys and its components. But, with the benefits of hindsight, it’s a burden that the nation will carry into its future prospects. That aside, the present global economic meltdown and the nation’s exclusive and excessive loans have placed its capital development on hold, as it will have to keep servicing the loans on many fronts, some with moratorium some are not.

ii. Yours sincerely also foresee a problem the government probably had not or probably foresaw but chosed to glossed over. That, the nation currently experiencing capital flight with its ailing circumstances and internal crisis, and, a total decline in foreign direct investment, its industries were relocating to other countries.

iii. No thanks to the state of anarchy, insurgencies and state of general insecurity, the nation has suddenly become solely a civil service and university nation, and widespread unemployment, thus, asking the people to pay between#2500 and ₦6000k and expecting patronage for a two-hour plus train ride to Ibadan, whose termini in Moniya, is way out of town, where a local mass transit or kórópe to Ibadan costs #2000.00k or less on weekdays and the journey can be completed in one hour plus and terminates in the middle of town with numerous shuttle and town service to anywhere under the earth is a given. The resultant effect is that, with the current crude oil glut and crude pricing in tatters, low revenue on and instability in the dollar/ Naira exchange rate, pressure will be placed on other revenue sources to be able to vacate ‘our Chinese’ loans, not a too good feasibility, I guessed.

iv. These days and through the media and its desire for absolutes in an uncertain world, the forces of darkness are seeking to capture the mind of everyone by dwelling so much on the wrong values, on ethnic profiling, on self-independence and killings in the land; and, a PMB’s (who appeared surrounded by his numerous progeny from yonder) inattentiveness, inexorable logic and challenges of managing a copiously bastardised economy.

v. The nation became a wobblly nation with a neocolonial military induced 1999 constitution that was skewed in favour of a part of the country, the extant presidential winner-takes-all which dictates how juicy and influential government appointments are dished out to coterie of advisers from one’s circle of friends.

vi. A ‘teleguided’ Revenue Mobilisation committee that was blind to its function, all of these i-vi have combined in different measures to give the nation a serious play with moments of comic bathos, and nepotism.

Today, the nation has suddenly found itself at war on all front – economic political, cultural and social. The picture of the present struggles which looked like a bottomless, defiant, not well coordinated bottom-up one, often losing direction, sense of purpose, youthful exuberance, facts, which had in a way, helped the government to manage some sense of stability at its counterpoise.

This elements that the Yorubas would deride as àí sí n’ílé ajá ló mú wọn f’àgúntàn ṣ’ọdẹ. The brave ones ran away and miscreants that do not know what the struggles entails were the leader, at those ọmọ́ t’ikú, ìyá ò gbọ́ n’ílé rallies. At those ‘protests’ all hell were often let loose (#ENDSARS and last Saturday’s intro of African magic and Voodoo). Thus, encumbered by internal organisational crisis, tactical and strategic planning and leadership failure, the organisers often, direct angst and tirades on ‘those eminent personalities and groups’ that do not believe in their balkanisation expedition of the polity and or the way the so-called struggles were being managed and conducted.

The songs and choruses of self-independence have now taken up the spirit of the fear of war, more of an undercurrent in the people’s minds than a part of their thinking. In any event, most of our compatriots have not been at war! If they have to fight for and with their children, now, they need to get their act together. The war would definitely have to start with the lie that convinced them that happiness, security, purpose and contentment ‘deep ended’ with government.

If you’re like me, often fear what’s behind the curtain of PMB’s mind, and frustratingly – he won’t let me peek; so I can’t see how his mind is working in the nation’s present circumstances. This being the case, the first thing to establish is the connection if any, between the president, his administration, the APC, his political Party of strange ‘progressive’ bedfellows, the people, their beautiful and colourful yearnings and what his government stood for.

While searching for an evidence of a connection, what one discovered was a dalliace in an alliance on one hand; and in the alliance their were dalliances with the people’s affections, which was quite fanciful but fragile, and in the present circumstances very fragile indeed. In all of these, the only thing PMB had going for him was his self-acclaimed sincerity. But, sincerity, the echoes that were reverberating across the length and breadth of the nation today was, was it enough!

Points must be abstracted from this conjecture. Essentially, I like PMB, both as a general when he adorned the army uniform, and in 2015 when he mounted saddle as the president, commander-in-chief, in a democratic setting, and, so far as it is possible to guess, as a person. I am however not a great fan of his style of politics, and, or administration skills, that was in itself in dire need for a checkup.

They were in dire need of a check up for so many reasons, chief of which was, his unequalled dithering, lukewarmness and lackadaisical handling of Party and state matters, in the name of giving his political party a wide berth; which wily nilly was the genesis of the intractable political problems in the polity. How on earth can you rationalised that the nation’s political problems came to a head with a duly elected NASS in situ. The 9th NASS – the most docile assemblage of the Third Republic.

PMB is the face of APC as a political party, the Party is PMB, and anything contrary to this notion would be mere academic and subjective. If Indeed an apparent and real homogeneity exists an intimacy of relationships that was supposed to produce close understanding would have been there. If opinion counts. One would have thought that from day one, he was expected to have exerted his influence on the party by using the soft political powers his office as the president of the FR conferred and guaranteed him. Not to have so done, was a first-class blunder and a sign of political inexperience and poor grasps of the necessities of a fledgling democracy in a multiethnic and multinational nation, and now the nation has come with its downside.

One is not complaining as yet, but if the president could not: i) get his own Party men in the legislature to line up behind him, ii) respect and conform to his opinions, will, whim, caprices et al, iii) could not sum up enough political will to halt the mindless, nonsense killings, iv) the poor and partisan grasp of the herders crises, that had began to show signs of a glaring crack in the foundation of the nation’s make-up, and, v) unable to kick-start a docile NASS and, vi) jumpstart a comatose economy in almost six years of assumption of office, then, something was patently, manifestly not right.

All a Mister president spoiling for a successful and brilliant tenure, needed to have done for instance, was to have been a little more aggressive, reach out and harness every elements in the party and the nation. He probably could have ignored the false dichotomy principles, that seemed to separate the president as a party man and as the nation’s numerous uno; and instead, patronise a belief infiltrated by newfangled ideas in the interface between his office and status vis-a-vis micromanaging the Party, by stamping his authority and influence as a party man, which he is first and foremost, and, as the party’s defacto chairman, because, of course, in practice, the relationship between the president, his person, his office, his Party and the people is integrated.

The integration brought with it, a degree of interrelatedness, a large dose of interdependence and to a large extent dependence; not one is independent of the other; not taking a good control of the Party as it were, was sheer political ineptitude and had proved suicidal to the nation’s body politick.

For PMB to have left the Party to its own antics and machinations, while he was on his own, exert the machievellian tactic of ‘keeping them asking for more’ on the NASS, and turn a blind eye to the silly killings and executive recklessness all over the place, while, thinking he could rule and reign was an over excitement and a traditional method which seemed incongruous in this modern technical age, and in the political sense was the height of naivety.

Why do you think, today, the Senate President, apparently, commands more political soldiers within the party and in the scheme of things? I won’t go further than that here, save to add that, as the President, PMB, do not have to be told in plain terms or in black and white, that it is an unwritten rule, that he’s the face and arrowhead of the Party and therefore, its nominal Head.

PMB had undoubtedly deserved some of the vilification that had been heaped upon him for his shortsighted oversights and other administrative lapses, and one did not feel that excuses should be made for some of his remarks, ineptitude, or much of his actions and or inactions. One equally did not feel that, the fact of his political experience or at best, inexperience had been overlooked when the deducing and judgements had been made, that he was unable to rein in the horse, but, he’s now trying to lock the stable door, apparently, when the horse had bolted.

It is an understatement that fingers had been wagged too much and explanations sought too seldom, in fact, the pressures that were imposed by the mixture of hostility and national demands would have tried the endurance of most people. It is possible that, sensing the dislike he had bred on the political ground, PMB’s composure – always taciturn, standoffish body language and rising to the occasion, translated as insensitivity, easily, ignited the people’s shortest of fuses. The ensuing results were:
a)disgust and outrage,
b)further tension and ‘injudicious’ rantings from the people, on:
i)the state of the nation’s economy,
ii)electricity, the exchange rate,
iii)the acts of unforgivable brazen savagery,
iv)the astronomical rise in cost of living,
v)the state of general insecurity.

As far as the APC was concerned, for most of the rantings, the blame was always on the last administration. The PMB administration ought to be reminded, that if it does not have the right answers at the right time, it would be judged by history as having patently connived at the serial systemic destruction of the nation. The way the APC arrowhead was going about, raving deliriously and subtly, haranguing everyone, and, its predecessors. Yes, granted things were bad and poorly done, a government inherits the assets and liabilities of its predecessors. Do what you could!

It would be folly to oversimplify: PMB appeared to thrive on the goading and charged atmosphere. But if its folly to suggest that PMB is perfect, it is also folly to overlook that he’s a professional infantry man, a peremptory and impulsive politician not a diplomat. Over and above every criticism PMB and his administration received, is the fact that almost invariably, going especially by his speech at the last Arise TV interview session, he would give the nation a display of exemplary and magnificent leadership, not the type lacking in his political Party and the nation lately. But, as could be gathered in all he said, it appeared the excesses and the acts of omissions and commission of the last administration had became an albatross around PMB’s neck, and the loads of rot he inherited was apparently, holding him back.

In the meantime, the almost six years of the PMB’s government had lately given the impetus to the media on a platinum-edged, heaven-sent contrast in PMB and GEJ in the management of the nation’s affairs and the internal dynamics and politics of their Parties. One a steely and utterly composed – a stylist with an emotional range of an African violet, but presently, demystified. The other, equally, stunningly drab, volatile and everybody’s Mr Nice guy with the cosmetic personality, ‘education’ and names. Also demystified, Is there something in leadership in Africa that demystifies!

In any case, one would live the other for now, it’s in the past. For our man Friday, the incredible sulk would not be a sobriquet that should stick, for the demystified, taciturn-general, who had an abstract notion of wanting to change the nation, but the blueprints for the process and execution are situated and securely locked up in his heart. The people now have a notion that perhaps what APC had in mind for its change mantra was to change the then ruling Party.

PMB had more of the social ease and grace which is called charm but which is frequently a slick and well-rehearsed pose. A healthy compromise is however needed before the next round of election. Before discussing what healthy compromise is, let’s be clear about what it’s not. It’s not giving up what you believed in, or who you are, or accepting second best because you are failing, you’re obstinate, impatient or afraid of criticisms.

Healthy compromise is about learning to negotiate a win-win situation. The stronger we are in personality and views, the more we risk burdening with excuses as we appeared to be having, and this would ultimately, alienate the very people we need by being inflexible and unwilling to hear and heed their cries and sigh.

The complaints about the rut, rut and corruption inherited has become stale and toxic, particularly, when the chiefs dramatis personas of the allegedly corrupt administration were still walking around as free men and women, any further allegations without a corresponding punishment would contaminate both the chief complainant and everyone within earshot. It would appear as though positive change could come from negative words. It’s what we do to avoid facing dealing with and solving the problems. It’s what we do instead of contributing to constructive change, and it makes us part of the problem instead of the solution thereof.

Complaining and giving excuses hands your power over to the people and circumstances you complain about making you feel the victim. It diminishes your ability to think solutions; conditions your mind negatively and blunts your creativity. Positive outcomes don’t grow on negative soil! You can’t complain and create simultaneously. Fresh water and salt water do not flow from the same spring. Your complaints were possibly legitimate. Yes! Abuse of office, injustices, heists, including doing absolutely nothing about the insecurity in the land. But complaining about it is not doing something.

Before you do or say anything, do carry out an attitude check. Stop and ask yourself, “What’s my real agenda here?” Allusions to previous administration will set to humiliate it and explain away your own lack of understanding of the people’s expectations, and your own lack of results. The failings were what you are to correct. It helps make you feel right, justified and make you look good to explain your failings, inadequacies and weaknesses away.

It’s even therapeutic. Well-meaning political friends would encourage it, and even help you publicised it. Where courage, humility and wisdom are required to face the surmountable problems, it could contain conflicts, minimize embarrassment and increased the likelihood of resolutions and restoration which is the people real concern.

Politicians often forget to ask in the thick of their “busy-ness” the simple question, ‘Why are we here?’ ‘Can we look forward to anything more than simply living out a brief span of 4 or 8 years and then that’s the end of ‘our’ legacies?’ Perhaps at no other time do politicians raise such questions as intensely as when they sense how brief their stay in office really is. Would you not agree that increasing our speed on a trip is pointless if we are not heading in the right direction?

PMB and his team have ample opportunity to make this time in the nation’s life a defining moment. Such moment that would show us who we are as a people and a nation. Defining moments often come as a surprise and happen during a time of crisis such as we are. Crisis on the political, social and economic front; making a hard choice.

Sometimes, defining moments occur when we don’t see them for what they are. It’s only afterwards as we look back, that we understand their importance. Either way, they define who we are. They show other nations who we are.

Most day we could wear a makeup, but during defining moments we can’t. Our image means nothing neither does our resolve, connection, net worth, network nor ambitions. We’ve no time to put a spin on our actions. Whatever is truly inside us is revealed to everyone. As a leader, defining moments tell the nation who you really are, what you stand for, and why you are leading. Handled well, a defining moment could bond leaders and followers. Handled poorly it could end your ability to lead.

The nation would never be the same again after a defining moment. That’s because defining moments, are not normal; and what’s normal won’t work in these times – defining moments are like intersections in a nation’s life – they give us opportunity to turn, detour, change lanes and direction, and seek a new destination. Of course, the definitions should not be more difficult to understand than what they define. One hope PMB would be seen as the definitive Hamlet of our time.

There are three main reasons why people give up on governments. I don’t know if it’s late yet. First, untrustworthiness. Relationship with something they can’t trust is a miserable experience. You could lose the trust of millions if you act inconsistently in what you say or do. Trust is like a mirror-when it is shattered it could be pieced together again, but the cracks usually show. Ask PinDiPi.

Second, incompetence. The way to inspire confidence in people is not with charisma, but with competence. When a leader is incompetent, he takes the focus off the nation’s vision and values and place it on to his own behaviour and charm. Ask GEJ.

Third, insecurity. Good leaders do two things: they develop other leaders, and try to work themselves out of a job. Insecure leaders never do that. They don’t want to train and galvanized people to reach their potential and be more successful than they are. In fact people want to work for leaders who fire them up, not put out their fire. If they perceive that their leaders is more concerned with maintaining their authority and protecting their position, they’ll eventually quit and find someone else to work for.

Remember what sets great leaders apart – First, they are great facilitators. They realize that nobody will ever be what they ought to be until they are first doing what they ought to be doing, and the way to fulfill your calling is to help others especially in the nation’s northern axis discover and fulfill theirs. I saw the cut-off points into the higher institutions of learning.

Second, they’re courteous. They don’t have one set of manners for the important people and another for the less important.

Third, they are decisive. As a leader you’ll be remembered for two things: the problems you created and the ones you solved.
Be passionate, another word for passion is zeal. Without it, life and living could be pretty drab. Everything, is a ‘ have to’ and nothing is a ‘want to’ or a ‘must’. Zeal keeps you going. It pushes you through the tougher times.

In summary, PMB must see to it that: i) the nation’s rich economic potential is so exploited that the interests of Nigerians are adequately protected, catered and provided for. ii)collaboration with states for improved agricultural production, agro allied and other extension services. iii) create turnkey projects that would offer emloyment to the unemployed. iv) the awakening of moral imperatives on government to provide relief, succour and palliatives for the teeming mass of hurting Nigerians. v) seek to establish the enabling environment and mechanisms for promoting rapid technological development to accelerate overall socio-economic development, with the intention to make science, engineering and technology veritable instruments for improving locally produced goods and services. In this way, modernise the economy in a steady but sustainable manner. vi) address all injustices and be transparent with the people several millions of who don’t have a place to live, or food to eat and daily waking up to the most serious economic, social crisis of the last 25years and are beginning to see PMB as a fading matinee whose influence is waning.

The nation can’t afford to walk backwards into the future, a future that contains more happiness than any past Nigerians could remember. The past could either be an albatross around the nation’s neck, or the wind beneath its wings. Therefore, the government has to critically reviewed the prevailing situation and worked out measures to reverse the poor trend.

Last line:
Rehashing old hurts is like watching the same movie over and over, hoping for a different ending. It’s not going to happen!
The age of information has become the age of confusion: too much
know-how, and hardly any know-why. We need answers. # Jimi Bickersteth
Jimi Bickersteth is a blogger and writer.
He can be reached on Twitter
@bickerstethjimi
@alabaemanuel
@akannibickerstet
Email jimi.bickersteth@yahoo.co.uk
jimi.bickersteth@gmail.com