“I never worry about action, but only about inaction” -
Winston Churchill
In The Beginning
When in 2006, at the peak of campaigning for the 2007 election, the dangerously
intelligent cabal of Obasanjo and his dragons that surrounded him convinced and
drafted a man – Yar’Adua - who was just content with managing the people and
government of Katsina to run for president, I knew we were about to witness
another era of unwilling presidency.
It was Leonardo da Vinci that said, “I have been impressed with the urgency of
doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we
must do.” But Mr. President was never willing, he never had a vision for
Nigeria, he never knew the level and gravity of enormous tasks that waits the
Nigerian President, so, how could he feel the urgency? How can he apply? How can
he do?
I think the biggest question to all Nigerians at this critical stage in nation
building should be; “Is being indifferent part of being dangerously intelligent
that we take the easiest way out or worse still join the dragons in the dance of
shame?” Our greatest enemies are indifference, inaction, indecision and
incompetence.
Inactivity And Deprivation
Just recently, Mr. President said that $10bn had been invested in the sector
between 2000 and 2007 with nothing to show for it and that is why he is not
prepared to inject money in the power sector “without a stable project
management arrangement”. So he deliberately left out power project in the 2008
Appropriation Bill. I hope I didn’t get that right. What this means is that we
have to buckle up for a year of darkness and inactivity at improving the power
supply in the country. The national electricity supply is down to 2,000MW. The
required nation-wide supply is about 30,000MW, and nothing is being planned till
2009? Beautiful nonsense!
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Security and Minting Plc spends N414m yearly to generate
power for its two offices in Abuja and Lagos, N228m is spent on rented
generators while the Power Holding Company of Nigeria collects the balance of
N186m as electricity bills. In Lagos, the company spends N11m monthly on
generators while the PHCN receives N9m. Now, imagine what NNPC, Government
Houses, ministries and other government agencies are spending on power on
monthly basis, not to talk of private firms.
Why has Mr. President not deemed it necessary to probe into what happened to the
$10 Billion? Who are the contractors supplying and maintaining these generating
sets? Knowing Nigerian government agencies for what they are, the question is;
who is benefiting from this epileptic state of power generation and distribution
in Nigeria? Is Mr. President too scared to clean up Nigeria?
Just because he is riding on stolen mandate is not enough reason for Nigerians
to continue in the present state of inertia with a crop of politicians that are
visionless, yet dangerously intelligent. If the hands of Mr. President are tied
behind his back that he is confused and only goes to the office to listen to the
untouchable sycophants that manipulate him, he should resign and tell Nigerians
that he never really won the election.
The Minister of National Planning, Senator Sanusi Daggash, has just revealed
that fuel subsidy has risen to as high as N450 billion. He added that, “That is
a huge amount. I am sure that there are a lot of things we can do with N450
billion. The question of subsidy can only be addressed by getting the internal
pricing right”.
Getting the internal pricing right? What happened to our refineries? What
happened to the privatization? What happened to the Billions of Dollars meant
for the Turn Around Maintenance? What has happened and is happening to the money
from excess crude sales? Is nobody in this administration thinking right? Has
things gotten this bad that everybody seems to have given up?
The Dangers
Quoting Robertson Davies, “Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus
is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb”. Is this present state of
inactivity in all sectors of our national life a preparation for the tomb?
The only way a woman can ever reform her husband is by boring him so completely
that he loses all possible interest in life and then dies. We have lost interest
in what is happening to our educational sector, lost interest and confidence
in privatization, we have lost interest in family values and traditions; we have
lost interest in excellence, integrity and merits. We are currently losing
interest and confidence in our electoral system (if not lost); we are losing
interest in the fight against corruption, the reform of the Nigerian Police
Force, the …
Someone should tell Mr. President that a man who marries a woman to educate her
fall victim to the same fallacy as the woman who marries a man to reform him. By
reluctantly accepting to be president of Nigeria and riding under the worst
electoral fraud in our history, was Mr. President thinking he will easily
shake-off the cabals that brought him to office – those crude but dangerously
intelligent gangs- without being chained?
We have to remind him that the grasshopper that runs into the mist of fowls ends
up in the land of spirits. So, the rest of the country continues to suffer in
the hands of few? The greatest dangers of all these is that we may end up just
wasting the next three and half years, consolidating on the evils of
institutional corruption, incompetence, nepotism and bad governance.
The Way Forward
Paraphrasing Mother Theresa; when you look at the inner workings of electrical
things, you see wires. Until the current passes through them, there will be no
light. That wire is Mr. President, you and I. The current is vision, willingness
to take action and strong determination to say no when confronted with acts that
are not in the overall interest of the nation. We have the power to let the
current pass through us, use us, to produce the light and the way forward for
all Nigerians. Or we can refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread.
The way forward is that we have to allow the current to pass through us. How?
First, Mr. President being sincere to himself and to the nation admitting the
obvious; that his hands are tied by the same elements that presided over the
running of this country in the last twenty years and that nothing will “work” in
this country until he is unchained (which we know is not going to happen) or
until the Presidential Electoral commission declares the process that brought
him to power, null and void and calls for fresh election. Failure to do this
will be a confirmation of our not only having an unwilling president but an
incompetent one.
Secondly, we all have to come to the rescue of the nation by doing away with the
present show of interference and attitude of “if you can’t beat them, join
them” which in itself is being dangerously intelligent.
My elders use to say that, "No matter how many spirits plot a man's death, it
comes to nothing unless his Chi (personal god), has a hand in the deliberation."
Our personal gods has never had a hand in the plot to perpetually keep this
nation in darkness, that is why we still have hope and are making contributions
and suggestions on the way forward; that is why despite a few of us at home and abroad creating a bad impression that everything out of Nigeria is bad, we
still find our voices and stand tall individually in our respective endeavors
even if we are not proud of our motherland.
Being indifferent or unwilling will definitely not make the electrons to flow,
action- positive actions are the only way of proving to the world and to
ourselves that truly, we are not dangerously intelligent.
Churchill Okonkwo
http://churchillokonkwo.blog.com/
