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Reacting to questions however, Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum was reported to have said: “We are not trying to establish a committee that will rival the National Assembly; we are just there to promote our common interest.“

Well, they promoted their common interests in a wave of Sharia declarations and did not only compromise but fell narrowly short of sacrificing the unity of Nigeria. The folks are up in arms in the Niger Delta. They do not disguise their motives. Our northern brothers are however quarterbacking on their armchairs and steering Nigeria recklessly and selfishly on the road to perdition.

The failures of our leaders past...
by Frisky Larr

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Each time I hear the passage in our national anthem: “The labor of our heroes past shall never be in vain…”, I always wish the author of that poem-turn-song had a clue what was to become of Nigerian leaders, roughly two to three decades after the poem was selected to be our national anthem. I wish he had written “The failures of our leaders past…” Before elaborating on this though, let me make haste to correct one notion that didn’t seem to have gone down well with readers in my last essay “Our nation is doomed…”. Reactions from well-wishing and antagonistic readers alike revealed a misconception of my humorous and satirical mimicry of vowing never to write, say or smell anything in the semblance of Nigeria’s Public Enemy number one. While admirers implored me to rescind my vow and unravel the spell, antagonists were disappointed that I couldn’t keep to my vow out of their perceived obsession. Whichever way it goes though, I have no intention whatsoever, to betray my beliefs and steadily cultivated steadfastness. It only requires the perceptive mind of a skilled literary consumer of lettered products to see through the mocking shield that shrouded the vowing words that I echoed in the said essay. Having said that let me also hasten to declare that it may bestow on writers and sages the gift of eternity to see through the veil of time in making projections for future generations, of better times to come. No doubt, it is advisable to uphold the labor of Kwame Nkrumah and Kenneth Kaunda – heroes of our discerning past – from the oblivion of vanity. Their labor shall be passed on from generation to generation. Pan-Africanism was Kwame Nkrumah’s vision! “Zambia shall be free” was Kenneth Kaunda’s credo, with which he resisted the neo-imperialistic and impoverishing monetary policies of the IMF and the World Bank with the consequence of willful conspiracy-driven sabotage that finally pauperized his country. In the same vein though, younger generations owe a duty to the world, to learn from the failures of our leaders past, who may not necessarily be heroes for their evils and failures but incidental and circumstantial sages in the growth and nurturing of the path of success that successors should tow. The failures of our leaders past will never be in vain if present leaders are willing to learn from what they see. If any tradition has been consolidated in Nigeria till date, it is one of history incessantly repeating itself with cosmetic changes on the façade to signal a change of occupants. In a recent public outcry, one Sam Aluko came up with the most scientific and intelligent appraisal so far ever undertaken by a Nigerian critic of the immediate past administration. Underscoring one major point of failure attributable to the immediate past government of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, he spelt out in clear terms that the previous administration engaged in a fully ill-advised policy of privatization without the relevant infrastructures in place. In elucidating this pathetic fait accompli, the Professor and technocrat elevated himself clearly above a swarm of rampaging lynch mob throwing wild allegations from all corners with no substantiation of sort and raised the debate to another level of mental sanity. For the first time ever, I was able to lay my hands on one argument that I could logically comprehend and seriously identify with in a volatile mob-state of winner-takes-it-all. Indeed I have witnessed all occurrences in Nigeria like every other on-looker. It never did occur to me at any time, that the failure of the past administration truly has a name. Forget all that talk of “monumental corruption”, “worst leader in the history of the nation” and all that mob jazz. The achievements of the past administration in eight years past, clearly bear hallmarks of uniqueness. Debt-relief, and all the banking reforms (to mention just a few) have never before, been achieved in the history of Nigeria. Forgetting all this stuff, Professor Aluko identified a spot and placed a tag on the failure of the past regime namely “Privatization”! But true to it, where on earth did the past administration dream up the concept of privatization as the ultimate saving grace for Nigeria? The three basic and crucial lifelines to the survival of any nation are no doubt, power, water supply and transportation. There is hardly any serious and committed nation on earth that does not oversee and take strict control of basic sectors like power, water and transport at least in the dire state of developmental infancy. A country like the Federal Republic of Germany came up with the idea of privatizing its energy sector only less than five years ago amid a background of sound developmental and financial quarterbacking in the community of nations. In the transport sector, the German cabinet has only a few weeks ago, debated a policy of selling off a part of the Railway system to private investors after several decades of public management in interest consolidation. In other words, while economically sound countries protect basic sectors in the interest of public welfare until a more conducive level is reached for private intervention, a poor country like Nigeria simply chose to build castles in the air disregarding the need for a solid foundation and was thus running hay-wild in a very wrong direction. As Prof. Aluko put it very sensibly, hard work and carefully orchestrated policy implementation by the past administration ended up as if it had done absolutely nothing. Even though this statement is fundamentally flawed in the spirit of emotionalized and daylight hyperbolics given verifiable achievements, it has however, highlighted policy implementation as it should never be. Broadly known as a surrogate and proxy of the Americans since the defeat of Adolf Hitler and his third Reich, Germany has unlike the USA, always refused to pursue a purely market-driven policy of cold capitalism. It has always run a policy of “social market economy” underscoring the social aspect of public welfare. The result today is a far cry from the deplorable state of public welfare in the USA with millions of homeless people and citizens without guarantied healthcare. With no basic infrastructure in place, where was the reasoning behind running Nigeria on the path of pure and cold capitalism driven by the private sector? In Nigeria’s case, another crucial sector defining the single source of economic survival “oil” has also been brought under the hammer of privatization drives. In other words, Nigeria is not only failing in the power and water sector that are supposed to be indispensable essentials, it is also pushing its only lifeline into private hands. The transport system is almost completely in private hands. Most distressing however, is the reality that in the face of the absence of a viable homegrown technology, Nigeria is almost exclusively confined to external sources for access to technological know-how. While sectors are privatized, indigenous Nigerians buy shares with registered companies sometimes, in cloak and dagger operations, and transmit the semblance of domestic activities in safeguarding industrial sectors. The truth however, is that the power brokers that ultimately pull the strings in injecting science and technology into various projects are nothing but foreign interests. So, who was it that pushed the notion into General Obasanjo’s mind that privatization was the answer to our problems? I have no doubt that the past administration was well aware that no private investor would build hospitals if there is nothing in the project in terms of profit. No private investor will build power stations if there is no profit forthcoming. Moreso, why did the former President partake in owning part of the privatized entities against all words of wisdom from friends and foes alike? Much as this may be his right as a citizen of the nation, it sure smacks of a poor sense of judgment than “monumental corruption” as adversaries seek to capitalize upon. Did any foreign interest push Nigerian leaders too far at any time, to sell their own soul? Well, my regards to Kenneth Kaunda and Robert Mugabe! Today though, the Ex-president has provided a list of the following power stations that were commissioned during his tenure and on which no follow-up investment has been made: a) Okpai in Delta - 480MW by Agip, b) Afam II - 276MW, c) Omotosho - 330MW, d) Palalanto - 330MW, e) Geregu - 414MW, f) Ikot Abasi-Ibom Power - 145MW - to which Federal Government is a partner, g) Alaoji - 545MW. So far, these claims have not been refuted. In a recent public statement credited to President Yar’Adua in an interview granted to a foreign news organ, he was reported as saying he is in search of private investors to jump aboard the power sector, which he fears to tackle because it is too capital-intensive. Shock! I thought, I wasn’t hearing well. I came back to myself quickly enough to wish the failures of our leaders past should never be in vain! The entire nation is now held to ransom because the current President fears for cries of “thiefi-thiefi-Dankoriko” that will trail him after leaving office if eventually, he ends up having nothing to show for a capital-intensive venture? Did I get that right? Gosh! I know Obasanjo wouldn’t have given a damn for all he cares! Now the President is singing loud that he would quit office if the Supreme Court rules against the validity of his election as if he had any other choice anyway. It would have made sense if he had not retracted the same vow for the judgment of the lower court. The scenario would be gruesome though if Yar’Adua was to quit. While the nation is energetically consumed in the sensationalism of probes, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is quietly presiding over darkness in the country and comfortably watching rats dancing in gallantry in the public square and laying all the blames on his predecessor. The failures of our leaders past…! An eventual successor however, will also waste a lot of precious time dancing to the gallery for public legitimacy while follow-follow folks would innocently lose track of serious work relegated undone in their insatiable thirst for vendetta. But when will answers be provided to those power stations that are obviously wasting away? As if all these diversions were not enough, I hear that senators from the north of Nigeria have set up a parallel Constitution Review Committee made of 11 colleagues to submit a purely northern psyche on what the constitution should look like. They have also set up a Budget Review Committee to review the 2008 Appropriation Act. I hope they may soon declare a purely northern senate to run parallel to what Nigerians elected. Reacting to questions however, Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum was reported to have said: “We are not trying to establish a committee that will rival the National Assembly; we are just there to promote our common interest.“ Well, they promoted their common interests in a wave of Sharia declarations and did not only compromise but fell narrowly short of sacrificing the unity of Nigeria. The folks are up in arms in the Niger Delta. They do not disguise their motives. Our northern brothers are however quarterbacking on their armchairs and steering Nigeria recklessly and selfishly on the road to perdition. The failures of our leaders past…!   Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web www.nigeriannews.com Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

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