2023 Presidency: Another Retirement Plan Or Governance? By Ishowo Oluwatosin

Reminiscing on events of 2014 and days that preceded the 2015 election; the heated debates, threats and propaganda that swept the media space against Jonathan, the present reality is very sad and it is even more disgusting that present realities and scorecard of the present administration proves that presidency of the supposed messiah is nothing but a “retirement plan” all along. The hope of both well-wishers and citizens who passionately fought and believed in the dream of a man who promised a better Nigeria was dashed and thrown out of the window.

This must be the most important lesson in our recent history, especially the new generation that anti-corruption fight and 4+4 is not an economic policy. We must not pick the comfort of a single man at the centre of power above common prosperity. Equally, we must understand that what affects an economy is not limited to corruption but also things that are not done. Most importantly, the very essence of a working economy is one where people are not deprived of the fruit of their labour, a working economy is one where people are working and such productivity reflects in their lives. In essence, our main problem is not limited to corruption but also a corrupt economy.

A corrupt economy where banks are not helping business, where loans are not granted and those granted are with killer interests. A well-corrupted economy where business ideas don’t see the light of the day due to the Nigerian environment hence cripples people from contributing to the economy. It is a system riddled with social investments and poverty alleviation schemes that do not seek to promote prosperity. It is also where high unemployment rate limits the number of talents available for use and 80% of our needs are imported. The chief cause is nothing than four of our refineries are left to rot, inability to process our own crude oil despite pushing out nearly 2 million barrels per day according to “The Economist Magazine”. It is aided by a corrupt political system where funds that are meant to be injected into the economy are distributed as embarrassing social welfare packages, where winning an election is more important than stabilizing the economy.

Nothing will change in 2023 than another retirement plan from a certain individual, no significant change will take place when the presidency is used as a compensation for men who have serially lost elections. The government will continue to change while the people remain the same. A nation where people don’t know that rebuilding a society with cracked moral code is more important than leaving it on the shoulder of a single man going into the villa. A nation where we failed to know that abiding by simple laws will save us billions that are wasted in the legal system. A country where people don’t know that the very essence of democracy is to share responsibility and that one’s responsibility does not end with voting at the polls. It’s easy to blame the system while exonerating the people who continue to subject the system to threat and invasion. It is difficult to rebuild the country without the support of the citizens.

The polite and extraordinary waste of trustworthiness and failure to realize that ineffective honesty leads to a decline in trust in such a society. Corruption is a culture in Nigeria and has posited us as a nation that is desperately poor due to lack of ambition as a people. We spend more hours learning about concepts of economy and how political systems are supposed to work ignoring moral decline in the nation and the need to let the Nigerian educational curriculum reflect the aspirations of the nation.

In Nigeria, the people strongly believe in taking axe to a hog house to axe a runt because it is born as a weakling and will result to waste. But they will spare a child born with impairment because it was not its choice to be born that way. The question is, was it the runt choice to be born that way? Why must we continually bear the outcome of the decisions of ancestors we didn’t choose and a nation we didn’t pick.

The believe that tangible factors are the sole determinants of national prosperity but ignoring the intangible factors won’t get us anywhere as a people. In a bid to avert another retirement plan, we must perform our roles as citizens by not wasting time in search of a messiah – but a man who will address the causation of these myriads. A man who will save us from the desperation to be poor due to lack of ambition as people. Our search for a messiah is enough, let the search for men begin, I mean ordinary men who are ready to search for available extras to make this country extraordinary.

Abraham Lincoln was a Republican who issued the emancipation proclamation in 1863 to strike out slavery, Democrats aggressively kicked against it as most of these slaves were black and an important feature of power in American society. Today, Democrats are the ones that offered a black man; Barrack Obama the chance to be the President of the most polarized nation in the world. Also, Democrats are the ones that gave a black woman a chance to be a vice-president-elect. Even if our political parties failed to have an important feature that will indicate and reflect nation-building and national interest, we must help them to find it, we must hold them accountable by preventing them from turning matters that affect our lives to an ideological and political attractive package.

We have tested yesterday, we are testing today, we should be able to predict our tomorrow and tailor our actions towards what we want it to be. This is the major lesson of history. The fundamental role of history is to provide sufficient knowledge and information to people about themselves.

ISHOWO, Isiaq Oluwatosin
gmail:[email protected]
Twitter: @Tosinishowo