2015:ISSUE-BASED CAMPAIGNS,PLEASE! Ayo Oyoze Baje They are masters of the game off grand deceit. Their bags of tricks are filled with con cards. Their stock-in-trade includes brazen acts of betrayal of sacred trust, blackmail, subterfuge and outright treachery. Not a few of our politicians are given to chasing the shadows as mere distractions from the main reason of their being in political office, which is good governance. Now, we are at the eve of the next general elections and expectations are high. Ordinarily, aspirants to the various posts that would be vacant by May 2015 should be telling us what exactly they hope to do, to better our lives. But what do we see on the pages of newspapers and see on our television screen? Most paid campaign adverts are nothing but murk raking. Old files are being dusted up and sooty cupboards flung open to reveal some dark and ghoulish skeletons. Once again, a Northern-Muslim is pitched against a Southern -Christian and emotions run high. The easiest campaign slogan is to castigate President Jonathan as if all our challenges of infrastructural deficit and corruption started during his tenure. The other slogan is to malign the ruling party, PDP for sundry crimes against Nigerians. To me, that sounds like a broken record. It is nothing but cheap blackmail. What we want to hear is how you, as an aspirant or candidate would turn things around for better. How to put food on our table, ensure sustainable infrastructural development to generate massive youth employment and mitigate the scourge of insecurity. With oil price plummeting at the international market what solutions do you have to stem the tide of poverty? We would want to know how your government hopes to provide stable power and water supply, good access roads, safe water, air transport systems and micro-credit schemes that would be sweet music to our eager ears. Beyond telling us, the electorate about your dreams we want specific details. How do you hope to bring primary health care delivery down to the grassroot? How would you reverse the drift that has seen Nigeria ranking at the bottom rung of the ladder in maternal and infant mortality rates? What about the critical issue of education for the citizenry, which should form the solid bedrock of our national development? How would you guarantee that we do not continue to record the highest number of school-aged children out of school amongst the oil-producing states? What about the fast crumbling infrastructure in public primary schools across the country, with some of our pupils compelled to receive lessons under trees, and on empty stomach? How would you ensure that state governors pay their counterpart UBE fund as a matter of priority? How would you, as a patriot make sure that our secondary school students do not continue to record the highest failure figures in WAEC, NECO and JAMB? And by extension feed our universities with quality undergraduates who would serve as veritable catalysts and drivers for the Vision 20-2020 dream? We all know the plethora of economic and political problems bedeviling the country, but few are ready to find solutions in practical terms. On that score, one abhors campaigns of calumny against individuals or political parties. Who does not know that our dear country should have been much better after fifteen years of unbroken democratic governance? That is, if the retired military brass, with the cash to splash had not taken hold of the nation by the jugular back in 1999. And if those now calling themselves the true democrats had not themselves benefitted from massive electoral fraud. In this time and era, we want politicians who are passionate about Nigeria’s sustainable economic development; based on the principles of people-friendly ideals, politicians who are ready to sacrifice the self for the state. We want Nigerians aspiring to public office to learn from President Barack Obama of U.S. and David Cameron of the U.K. Their campaign manifestos for their countries’ number one political spot were focused on the critical issues of sustainable economic development. They were articulate enough to identify the state of the nation, as at the time of throwing in their hats into the ring for the electoral contest. They assembled the best of brains and mind to beam their probing searchlights into the future. They looked specifically at the issues of the economy, job creation, internal security, food security vis-avis the rampaging impact of climate change. Yes, they knew there were diverse and daunting socio-political challenges. But they did not lay all the blame at the doorsteps of their predecessors as Nigerian politicians are wont to do, just to gain cheap popularity. They reckon also that governance is a continuum, which explains why President Obama retained some of the eggheads from Bush’s era, during his first term in office. As far as he was concerned the country’s political stability and economic viability are far above the interests of individuals or groups of people, no matter their clout or connections in the corridors of power. How many Nigerian politicians would ever do that? Once the opposition gets into power at the state level it is goodbye to bad rubbish. None of those who served with their predecessors is good enough to render patriotic service to the state or country. As the campaigns flag off, we want well-thought out, issue-based, problem-solving manifestos. We want those with the elixir to our many socio-economic and political challenges to come forward and spell them out, in practical terms to get us out of the self-imposed economic wood. Violence is not the answer. The change millions are clamouring for must begin with the self. Anything short of that is pure balderdash!
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 11:35:10 +0000
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