Nigeria Content Online

The season of the
soapbox is here again. Part comedy and part Greek tragedy, the game of
politics appears to attract all sorts: saints and sinners; madmen and
specialists; villains, demagogues, charlatans and knaves. The love of
power is capable of driving men into anything. A Kenyan friend once
remarked that you should never go into politics unless you are prepared
to kill anyone who stands between you and the prize.

In our own country,
things seem to be getting murkier by the day. We had the alarming
allegation of a conspiracy by some high-powered political operatives to
poison Goodluck Jonathan. The sudden apparition of animals on the
runway of Bauchi Airport last week, when the plane conveying Nuhu
Ribadu’s running mate Fola Adeola was about to land, was unsettling.
Someone somewhere might have had a mind to make a sacrificial lamb of
the winsome Adeola and his entourage. Then we had the Suleja massacres.
In Benue South, the attempted assassination of Lawrence Onoja, a
senatorial aspirant, in the hometown of Senate President David Mark,
was most unfortunate. However you look at it, these episodes put our
democracy in very dim light indeed.

We seem to be
forgetful of the things that really matter for most Nigerians: food,
health, housing and a future for their children. Sadly, our current
discourse is bereft of all reference to economic policy; on such issues
as power and infrastructure, education, unemployment and poverty.

During his
re-election campaign for the White House, Bill Clinton had a banner
that declared: “It’s the economy, stupid”. With no insult intended to
our political classes, I lament the benumbing inanities that reign in
high places.

It takes no genius
to know that the great challenge of our era is how to reposition the
Nigerian economy. Poverty imposes a harrowing burden on our people that
must trouble all men and women of conscience. An estimated 70 per cent
of Nigerians live in absolute poverty.

When a young woman
has to sell her body to fund her university studies, that is poverty;
when an expectant mother dies at childbirth because she could not have
access to maternal healthcare, that is poverty; when an old man goes
blind with cataracts that could have been removed through minor
surgery, that is poverty; when the old and infirm have to beg on the
streets, that is poverty; poverty reigns where babies die of
malnutrition and disease borne of bad drinking water. These are the
fundamental determinants of life-chances for millions of our
long-suffering people. We have created a monstrous system that offers
our youth no hope and no sense of the future.

There is simply no
magic wand that can make poverty disappear overnight. It requires hard
work, vision and committed leadership. The journey of a thousand miles,
say the Chinese, must begin with a single step. We can learn from the
example of Brazil that, in less than a decade, has lifted more than 20
million people out of absolute poverty. They were able to achieve this
miracle through sensible economic policies and such socially
progressive initiatives as the bolsa familias.

The abiding
challenge for democracies everywhere is how to promote the greatest
good for the greatest number while preserving the constitutional spirit
of liberty. There is a whole body of literature on the relationship
between economic growth and democracy. Indeed, political economy fully
acknowledges the role of a prosperous middle class as one of the
ramparts of a free and stable republic.

Having disappeared
for decades, the Nigerian middle class is reappearing at last. But we
are not experiencing growth and expanding opportunities in the right
mix of magnitude and velocity that would establish a flourishing middle
rung that serves as a bulwark against mass revolt while safeguarding
harmony and stability.

These challenges
raise profound questions for the statesman: what kind of Nigeria do we
want? Do we want a society based on law, justice and compassion or do
we prefer the lawless cesspool of backwardness that has made us the
laughing stock of the world?

An equally important question is how to curb the cost of government
and make our federalism work with greater efficiency than the ghastly
Leviathan that currently saps our energies and resources at federal,
state and local government levels. I was privileged to listen to a talk
by Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, a few days whilst on a
state visit to Brussels. He spoke passionately about the need to run
government as a business concern, paying careful attention to costs and
accountability for results. The leadership of this small war-torn,
desperately poor country appears to have more focus than the leaders of
the so-called ‘Giant of Africa’. We certainly could do better than that.