Political Issues
Public Service And Private Disservice -By Ike Willie-Nwobu
Nigerians had witnessed first-hand what a sick president could do to a country. Despite overwhelming belief in the personal goodness of Musa Yar’Adua, Nigerians remember how his sickness almost sank the country.
Precedents are at a premium in Nigeria. Giant footsteps are being obliterated and replaced.
President Tinubu’s recent ‘private,’ visit to France has become a very public affair.
Like London, like Paris. Like Buhari, like Tinubu.
Nigerians are used to foreign trips. They are used to their money being spent abroad. They are used to their money travelling abroad. The Abacha loot confirms this.
Deceived at home and demarketed abroad, Nigerians are learning wisdom the right way.
Extravagant foreign trips, shamelessly elaborate medical tourism and very little returns have drained the country.
Three visits in eight months. A president who is a private citizen before he is president.
The torturous final days of the Yar’Adua presidency made Nigerians weary. And wary of a certain kind of presidency. One run by a cartel, and marked by incessant foreign trips.
Ali Ndume’s alarm about’ Lagos boys’ may have failed to confirm the former. But Nigerians fear the latter. Very much.
Foreign trips punctuated former President Buhari’s time in office. Speculation that they were for medical reasons only heightened concerns that Nigeria had a sick president.
The question was whether a sick president could steer the ship of a sick country.
Nigerians had witnessed first-hand what a sick president could do to a country. Despite overwhelming belief in the personal goodness of Musa Yar’Adua, Nigerians remember how his sickness almost sank the country.
They fear a repeat. Beyond what incessant foreign trips mean for the pockets and psyche of the taxpayer, there is fear of degeneration. And the cost of secrecy.
The campaign trail ahead of the 2023 general elections featured multiple questions about the fitness of the candidates. Septuagenarians like Tinubu and Atiku were especially questioned.
Some questions never bothered to be charitable. If those who offered them were chided then, that may change now.
Nigeria can be very intense. The scrutiny can be scorching. But how much privacy should the president enjoy as a private citizen of the country?
Nigerians are right to suspect every foreign trip undertaken by their leaders.
Long before the Yar’Adua and Buhari days, there was Abacha. Nigerians have seen their commonwealth taken to other countries before.
Nigerians dread another absentee president. They dread the uncertainty the absence of a leader can create.
Ondo State recently provided a telling example of what an absentee leader can cause.
While the now deceased governor fought for his life in a German hospital, the state was plunged into chaos.
Nigerians should demand to know where their president visits and why. When they do, the information should be given them.
There can be no private trips to a foreign country by the president of Nigeria.
His office renders any such visits public. The taxpayer should be informed. They should know the itinerary of the man they pay to serve them.
Again, one man’s trip should not ground a country of 200 million people.
It may be oppressive to insist that there should be no privacy whatsoever for a public officer in Nigeria. The caveat, however, is that the perks of office make up for any privacy losses.
The imperatives of transparency and accountability trump privacy. Especially when it is about a foreign trip, presumably on the taxpayer’s credit.
Nigerians should not be forced to relive old traumas. It is too early in the day, and certainly not from an administration that promised ‘renewed hope.’
The size of travelling contingents accompanying the president and his vice have been presumably cut down to cut costs.
A government minister has lost her job due to allegations of corruptions. These goals were scored by transparency.
Transparency cannot score more goals if secrecy shrouds everything surrounding the president. And Nigeria will not be able to win.
Democracy transcends one person or trip. Democratic institutions are billed to survive anyone, no matter how important.
A key building bloc of democratic institutions is transparency. Participants in a democracy should be able to ask and answer questions. But they cannot do this if information is withheld from them.
They cannot properly participate in democracy when they do not know what is happening.
Democracy is about advantages. The transparency and openness democracy encourages confer advantages.
Citizens under a democracy are at a disadvantaged when they are kept in darkness.
President Tinubu is settling down in office nicely. He is defining his time in the office and setting parameters. He is gradually but firmly putting his foot down.
Nigerians have mixed feelings and memories already. He certainly would not want any confusion about his legacy when he leaves.
This he can avoid by refusing the path of his predecessors.
His immediate predecessor led Nigeria by the nose to some of the darkest places the country has ever known.
President Tinubu should be loath to be like his predecessor.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
