BY BEKS DAGOGO-JACK (GUEST COLUMNIST)
The enduring significance of the presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was resoundingly won by President Goodluck Jonathan, seems lost on a lot of Nigerians for different reasons.
However, a thorough and reasonably detached analysis of events leading to that result will waste no time in conveying the very clear and unambiguous statement that this landslide victory delivered by the political stakeholders of the ruling party across the length and breadth of the six geo-political zones of the country, stands tall as an irrefutable vote of confidence on the leadership of Jonathan and a specimen nation-wide endorsement of his candidacy as the presidential flag bearer of his party for the 2011 elections.
A further fair interpretation of that epochal result and the nation-wide approbation it evoked is the welcome reconfirmation of the fact that the relatively young roots of the Nigerian democratic process is surely gaining the depth and foundation necessary for building an enduring civil society, which is becoming capable of progressively improving itself by itself along internationally acceptable norms and processes.
From my own perspective, the most fundamental import of the now raging Goodluck phenomenon often jovially commented on in relation to the literal meaning of Mr. President's first name, is the fact that without any serious disruptions, upheavals or sustainable resistance from the status quo, Nigeria is about to witness a new national re-birth, emerging from years of failed efforts, and just like the proverbial adder, now about dropping of its old, weak, withered and weathered skin for a brand new identity and destiny.
To most discerning minds, a Jonathan victory at the April polls is far more probable than less, and this is not for any of the negative reasons often peddled by those who will be unhappy about it, but for the more concrete reasons that a nation whose citizens are thoroughly fed up and embarrassed with their dismal performances in all spheres of life, within the context of a country more blessed with resources than can be found anywhere in the African continent and beyond, now seem to have woken up from slumber and of history for itself.
In this sense, I see the grossly underpaid working class, the unemployed youths, the aged retirees with emasculated benefits, the young entrepreneurs with no access to credit or effective mentoring, and all owners of all the largely stranded manufacturing investments because of infrastructure gaps, as the real owners of this transformational struggle, and Mr. President, in effect, as the father and chief agent of this long over-due and now unstoppable new national rebirth.
It is now common knowledge that the failure of our past leaders, which has led to this parlous state, did not happen overnight, but through successive governments of largely mediocre quality.
The situation in our political culture, which currently produces our political cum national leadership at all levels, can be summarised as follows: Very low level of leadership preparation of persons seeking and getting into high public offices, all of which require certain critical skill sets and work ethic, which cannot be developed overnight.
Mainly as a result of the first, most political actors were highly insensitive, self-serving, exhibit unmerited arrogance and near total disconnect with their constitutional responsibilities.
This is also an entrenching culture of acute disposition to self-perpetuation in office at all costs, often with brazen disregard for accountability and transparency in the democratic processes that should normally guide their choice.
The most devastating effect of these is accelerating extinction of the forest of respected past national leaders from the different regions, who can quickly come together, easily unite and rise above sectional interests for the national good.
Whilst we continue to churn out several so-called honourable Nigerians daily with arrays of national honours, yet the number of people wiling to come together and unite as leading statesmen for the national interest continues to diminish whilst even previously perceived national leaders seem to be retracting and re-emerging in their ethnic and sub-national colours. The implication of this worsening leadership gaps for successful transformation from state to nation is quite worrisome.
In the race to hold political office, there is extremely poor level of debate on the issues that really matter and confront the ordinary people; there is also abundant evidence that would-be political actors strongly believe they can boldly ignore and disregard quality interaction with the electorate without any negative consequences and still get elected into the offices they seek.
Indeed, once elected in this manner, they mostly operate in open isolation and exclusion of their constituencies, and present themselves as lords with the power of life and death over the same people they swore to faithfully serve.
This sustained prolonged abuse and disenfranchisement of the electorate has for sometime been evolving into a system of self-defeating re-conditioning of the psychology of the electorate, making them to virtually resign themselves to the hapless fate of a dysfunctional political process dressed with a normal looking democratic face, thus causing serious de-motivation for realising the critical quantum during voter registration and turn-out, which is the truest test of any transparent democratic process.
The further consequence of this very destructive trend is the widespread disbelief and distrust of the democratic process by the electorate, the declining ratios of participation in the processes and the forced withdrawal from the process by most decent and self-respecting people, thus yielding the political space to a self-succeeding generation of increasingly desperate power-mongers and hustlers.
Consequently, the effect of the above gaps in our leadership capacity has over the years, like a cankerworm, raided and assaulted our body politic in so many dimensions – socio-cultural, economic, youth disorientation, etc, and has, of course, now become the most significant impediment to our development as a nation.
From all indications, Nigerians are fed up with this trend and our country is about to make a very critical U-turn in our development as a nation. If we get this turn right several years of peace and prosperity await us; if we miss the turn, future generations will live their daily lives in fear, uncertainty, despair and eventually irreparable crises.
It is a well known fact that achieving an effective new national rebirth anywhere in the world has the best chance of success when driven by a transparently exemplary and stubbornly dedicated leadership, fully ready to isolate, attack and defeat the old order of reactionary forces whilst at the sane time boldly taking every step necessary to win the trust and following of the citizenry in order to change the society for the better.
•Engineer Dagogo-Jack, FNSE is chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power. This piece was first published in February 2011.
Via: Sun News Online