In a rare demonstration of concern for the wellbeing of ordinary Nigerians, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio recently ticked the right boxes and even hit the right chords at the resumption of the plenary and urged his fellow lawmakers to rise up and meet the weighty expectations of Nigerians. In fact, the expectations of Nigerians are legion. This government promised Nigerians a lot of goodies during the 2023 election season. Indeed, they campaigned in poetry and told Nigerians those sweet things that will titillate the ears of lovers and probably wet their appetite.
They promised us heaven on earth or Eldorado. But they are now governing in prose trying to explain some failures and rationalizing the need for pains before gains. Good argument you may say. The Senate President and leader of the 10th National Assembly was in his best elements and he stole the show by showing that the 10th Senate really care for the feelings of ordinary Nigerians and even feel their pains. Concerned Akpabio expressed worry that a lot has happened and transpired in Nigeria while the National Assembly was on break.
The Senate President was right. Nigerians have received the short end of the stick despite huge promises by the present administration to better their conditions. The administration which will soon mark its two years in power should at least fulfill the primary duty of government as enshrined in Section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended): “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” This is the minimum expectation from our government. For most Nigerians who live near the theaters of wars, insurgency, banditry, terrorism, kidnapping and unknown gunmen, this administration has not fully fulfilled this primary function of government.
Akpabio appears to be at home with the general suffering of Nigerians. According to him, “the rising cost of living, the instability in the energy sector and the persisting insecurity in parts of the nation, all these demand not just attention but legislative action.” Akpabio equally called for “legislative action to support the great work the executive arm of government led by President Bola Tinubu is doing to fix the myriad of challenges which besiege our nation.” There is no doubt that the government is confronting many challenges and even demons which include inherited problems and self-inflicted ones. We shall return to this theme later in the article.
Unarguably, President Tinubu inherited a battered economy and mismanaged diversity from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari. Has he improved on it or has he worsened it? Let Nigerians be the judge. Akpabio rightly observed that Nigerians “in the South-East and North-West communities still battle criminality and terrorism. In the North-Central, farmers and herders still seek protection and justice.” Akpabio did not stop there because he has more to say. Beyond being an orator, Akpabio has a way with words. He can regale you with exotic stories and jokes about his being and rise to power in a turbulent water of Akwa Ibom politics where there are so many sharks and crocodiles. Pardon my necessary digression a bit.
This time around, Akpabio is sober and really concerned about the welfare of Nigerians. He is not joking about it. It is no longer a joking matter. It is time for serious state business. And he is attending to them like a genuine statesman, shrewd administrator and consummate politician. He probably feels their pains, worries and expectations and he is telling it the way it is without caring whose ox is gored. The Senate President deserves our commendation for rising to the occasion.
“In the South-South, the questions of environmental equity and resource fairness remain unresolved. These are not just news headlines, they are the bleeding wounds of the Republic,” Akpabio patriotically stated. The ‘bleeding wounds’ of the republic are indeed many. Akpabio probably captured some of them but not all of them. Nonetheless, the ones he captured are at the centre of our problem as a nation. They touched deeply at the very foundation of our republic. All the problems the Senate President identified in most of the geo-political zones such as the insurgency, insecurity, the farmers/herders clashes, environmental equity and resource fairness and others he did not say are self-inflicted and some of them are as old as Nigeria and some are relatively new.
Nigeria at independence started with a federal constitution which granted some autonomy to the federating regions. The centre wielded some powers but most powers reside with the federating units. All the regions were self-accounting and they did well more than any other federating units after them. Most of the socio-economic development achieved in Nigeria was during the first republic regional government. All the regions, North, East, West, Midwest developed at their own pace hence we had groundnut pyramid in the North, palm oil wealth in the East, Cocoa plantation in the West and Rubber and timber in the Midwest.
However, military coups and a civil war thwarted the course of Nigerian history following the mismanagement of our federation by some politicians and the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities. The emerged military government divided Nigeria into unproductive federating units which are ideal for unitary government. Our oil wealth was equally mismanaged and corruption was rife because of easy access to oil money. Agriculture, the mainstay of our economy, was unfortunately abandoned in pursuit of oil money and fake contracts and questionable oil subsidy regime.
Most of our existential problems as a nation are man-made. They are self-inflicted. They are many. But they are surmountable. That takes us to the problem of leadership. Chinua Achebe had identified poor leadership as the problem with Nigeria. Till today, Nigeria is still grappling with the leadership challenge at all levels of government. We lack exemplary leadership. Our leaders are too vast in rhetoric but short in offering personal example, the hallmark of true leadership.
Can the leadership of the 10th Senate be different and offer Nigerians the expected leadership or will they do like others before them? In a democracy, the legislature has enormous powers to make the desired changes that propel nations to greatness. We have seen the lawmakers perform such roles in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and others. Can they do so in Nigeria? That is probably what Akpabio is asking his fellow lawmakers to rise up to the challenge of meeting the weighty expectations of Nigerians. I hope they will answer the clarion call to patriotism. Will they fulfill this mission or betray it?
Let the lawmakers return Nigeria to true federalism which has indeed worked for us by devolving more powers to the federating units. What is the federal government doing with 68 items on the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution? Some of these powers should devolve to the states for the Nigerian edifice to work effectively. What is the 10th Senate doing about state police, resource control and the integrity of our electoral system and the war against corruption and creeping one-party state? Let the Senate rise up and do the right things. Nigerians really look up to them. They should not disappoint all of us. Next week: Mass failure in JAMB/UTME exams.