“I think it that it's very important for African leaderships to take responsibility and be held accountable. I think the people of Africa understand that” -Barack Obama
It is no more news that Nigerians are disillusioned and disappointed with President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's 30 months administration. The thought of articulating critical reasons in order to suggest resignation to the President has been on my mind since this administration marked its two (2) years anniversary on 29th May 2009.Those two years were devoid of any achievements except unfulfilled promises riddled with a sick,rudderless and confused leadership. The TELL magazine September edition cover story “Is Nigeria a failed State?”,reminded me once again of the need to call on Mr. President to resign given the decrepit state of the nation which is still on the decline. However,the timing was wrong as that period was the peak of the unconditional amnesty offered to the Niger Delta Militants by the President.
I deemed it fit to give the President an opportunity to redeem himself and present his government as a genuine leadership with altruistic agenda. A leadership that will look backward at the past so that it will not make the same mistakes,looking sideways at alternatives so you know your options, and use that vision to move the nation forward. Leadership is a quality Umaru Musa Yar'adua has failed to show in his 30 months in power. Meanwhile as the year was drawing to an end Nigeria's performance in global indices bench making politcal,economic,business and human capital climate was at its lowest since the advent of democracy in 1999, as the nation's ranking emerged from many organisations and groups. Nigeria's dismal performance was elicited by a decline in all the major indexes of 2009 in comparison to 2008 dashing all hopes of an improvement. A quick view of the various rankings can be found here.
Furthermore,I am more compelled more than ever to make this clarion call to our President because of many issues which include but not limited to the following;the House of Representatives have declared the Implementation of the 2009 budget a failure;renewed threats by Henry Okah Leader of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has shown that the unilateral handling of the post amnesty period which many like myself have always warned against portends real danger for the nation(see my warning here);clampdown on the media,deregulation and Mr President's health status.
Before now many Nigerians have called on the President to resign but the Presidency had dismissed them as politically motivated. In other not be misconstrued as political but to be seen as a genuine call from a concerned citizen, I have taken my time to chronicle my “critical reasons” in about 30 pages which I expect the President or his assistants to go through and respond to if they do not represent realities on ground. On the ground that they are true I would want President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua GCFR to consider two options. Firstly,he should resign in the interest of over 140 million citizens of this country or secondly, serve out his four (4) year tenure and willingly quit the 2011 elections. Let us put tribal sentiments aside and critically examine the points marshalled out herein which are easily verifiable and are made more glaring by realities on ground. In our polity, tribal sentiments takes precedence over national interest,therefore it may be difficult for the President to give way to unbiased,sound and correct reasoning. Resignation may be viewed by a section of the country as a betrayal of trust or a sell out. If Mr. President considers resignation as a sign of weakness,then the second option which is willingly withdrawing from the 2011 election becomes expedient.
Just as morality and Christianity plays a major role in United States (US) politics,I am not ignorant of the fact that the North needs to retain power till 2015 because we cannot run away from the fact that the principle of rotational presidency is critical to the continued unity of the nation unless we want to replicate Yugoslavia in Africa. I will deal with the issue of how the North can still retain the presidency in the absence of Yar'Adua in my conclusion of this clarion call but right now let me go straight to the in medias res- “The 10 Critical Reasons”.
NB: Check the Side Panel for November Archive to Read each of the Critical Reasons below
- Sick President,sick nation
- Antidemocratic Impulses
- Level of Development
- Post-Amnesty
- The Evil Wind of Deregulation
- Justice Uwais Report and Electoral Reforms
- PDP and Internal Democracy
- Vision 20:2020 Our “Pipe dream”?
- Support of Impunity
- Ostracising the International Community
Conclusion
Genuine leadership means setting the agenda. It means looking backward at the past so that you don't make the same mistakes,looking sideways at alternatives so the you know your options, and using that vision to move the nation forward. Leadership is a quality Umaru Musa Yar'adua has failed to show this in his 30 months in power. No part of our national life has improved since he came to power instead there is a decline. The nation has become as sick as him. We are in a limbo.
It is now imperative that the President should consider resignation in the best interest of the nation. If he chooses not to resign out of self pride,then he should start shopping for a capable PDP member to nominate for PDP in the 2011 elections. This is the best option as he is not in the best of health to be saddle with leadership of one of the most important countries in Africa. It has never occurred in the history of Nigeria. It is alien to African leaders. The irony of Africa is that African leaders prefer to die in power at the detriment of their citizens even when there are clear reasons why they should resign. Even if their stay in office is inimical to their nation's progress or at times portend danger such as war for their country,they continue to perpetuate themselves in office. This the bane of poverty,underdevelopment and backwardness on the African continent.
It is a decision of a life time and if the President places prominence on the success of the 'Nigerian Project' like the American Dream and yield to sound reasoning,he will emerge as Nigeria's first true leader in over 40 years. He will rescue Nigeria from the risk of becoming a failed state. So that the Vision 20:2020 will not be a vision to place Nigeria in the bottom 20 of the world in every sense. If he listens, many Nigerians will not fail to nominate him for the Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance but probably for good will towards Nigerians in the near future.
The President will attain a heroic status and he will join the class of rare men such as Madiba Nelson Mandela,George Washington and Jawaharlal who despite the pomp and privileges of power relinquished power in the the interest of their people. Nobody ever talks bad of General Abdulsalami Abubakar in the history of Nigerian leadership because he did the unprecedented by not allowing power to intoxicate him. Obasanjo would have been in the good books of Nigeria if not for the failed third term project that destroyed the little strides he achieved in eight (8) years. Against the backdrop that he failed,he now went ahead to impose a leader on Nigeria in other to protect himself after his tenure.
Yar'Adua decision will go beyond our borders. He will herald a new generation of African leaders whose commitment to lift their countries out of doldrums can only equal and possibly surpass the patriotic zeal of our 'volcanic nationalists' to borrow the words of the late sage Chief Awolowo of blessed memory, in their struggle against colonialism. Posterity and indeed the whole of Africa will be grateful to him for leading the way for other African leaders to follow. A dispensation where they place their country first before themselves. It will not only be applauded by West but it will send a strong signal to the rest of the world that Africa has finally woken up from its slumber to the realities of the 21st century.
However he will not be the first President to have ever resigned or willingly withdraw from a future election in modern history of world governments. Willingly withdrawing from elections is rampant while resignation is pretty difficult but there comes a times in the life of a nation when we have to face the hard truths and take the most difficult decisions. The United States whose democracy is a beauty to behold have had their Presidents resign. One of which is the resignation of President Nixon because of the Watergate Scandal. The decrepit state of our nation is more than a hundred Watergate scandals put together as life has become unbearable and the nation is sitting atop a keg of gunpowder.
As I said in the introduction that just as morality and Christianity plays a major role in United States (US) politics,I am not ignorant of the fact that the North needs to retain power till 2015 because we cannot run away from the fact that the principle of rotational presidency is critical to the continued existence of the nation as a united country unless we want to become the Yugoslavia of Africa. In order for the North to retain power till 2015,Yar'Adua can nominate his wife. Amongst other qualities,Her Excellency has shown signs of being a politician who can hold her ground given the fact she is even more active than her husband even as Late Chief Gani noted that she was interfering much in national issues owing to health status of the President. She is very healthy and can take charge without hindrance as a result of poor health. I advocate this so that another power monger will not emerge from the north after Yar'Adua resignation and seeks to perpetuate himself or herself in power. If the first lady is nominated for as Presidential candidate of the PDP,if she wins, she will not be the first woman president in Africa. However,being nominated by the PDP is not a guarantee that she will win. From all indication anyone running against Yar'Adua or any PDP Presidential candidate in 2011, whether it is Her Excellency,will be from the North.
It happened in Argentina,although the serving president did so well by expanding the country economy by 50 percent,he shunned second tenor and his wife won the election. I will deal explicitly with why Her Excellency will be the best choice for PDP in the absence of Yar'Adua come 2015 in my next publication '2015 and Nigeria Unity'. The summary of it is as a woman it will be easier to get her to relinquish power because in 2015 it inevitable that any deviation from power rotating to the east might fulfil the US prediction that Nigeria may disintegrate then and we will become the Yugoslavia of Africa.
It is on this note that I make this patriotic call to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to resign or better still announce to Nigeria that he will abstain from the 2011 elections and start shopping for a successor.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Nigeria must be Great.
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