Buhari At 72: Lesson From India Experience Jacob Ogunseye The announcement of the choice of delegates who converged at the Teslim Stadium in Lagos to elect their candidates for the nation’s presidency under the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC) was unprecedented. The organisers of the convention has been praised for the awesome job, there is no need dwelling on that now since the election has been adjudged as one of the best in recent time, other candidates including a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and other sitting governors have congratulated the declared winner and promised to work with him to take the country out of her present predicament. I want to believe that the choice of General Mohammodu Buhari (Rtd) by the delegates was one the best to win the power over from the ruling party come 2015. It is no doubt that the emergence of the Daura born General has discombobulated the camp of the ruling party. The attacking machineries of the presidency and the ruling party have since resulted to name calling, personal insults on the opposition leaders and blasphemy to the extent of comparing President Goodluck Jonathan with Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, these selling points are cheap as very few gullible will fall in this market. The allegations of religious and ethnic bigotries against him have given out; the issue of human right violations during his days as military head of state are no more putting up and they have now shifted attention to his age. Yes, Buhari is 72 but what has age got to do with the general performance of a president? Though it will be utterly unsatisfactory to dismiss the impact of age on the physical abilities of a man but that is not enough to rubbish their competency and credibility. A look at the emerging great nation of India suggested that the country has the average age of 24. Despite the youthful population, it is surprising to note that the median age at which a Prime Minister first takes office in India is roughly 64 years and 8 months. In 1977, Morarji Desai took over the affairs of the largest democratic country at the age of 81, P V Narasimba Rao assumed office at 70; in 1991, I K Gujral was 77 when he resumed in 1997 and Manmohan Singh was 81 when he was leaving office early this year – The Diplomat Newspaper, 2013. These are just few of India leaders who assumed power in their late ages. I am not taking brief for gerontocracy but highlighting its’ importance in nation development. The combined years that these leaders have governed India were remarkable for their economic growth. Today, India is in G20, ranked third in GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) while we languish at twentieth, tenth in GDP based on current prices while we followed at distance twenty-first despite similar challenges. The case with this great country is not about the ages of our leaders but the character, the willingness and the know-how. President Jonathan has been running the country with men and women in their fifties, yet we are witnessing the highest level of corruption in the history of our country. We also have the Iboris etc in their youthful ages that have failed us; it is not the age but the agenda. The growth of the India’s economy was through economic policies introduced by these aged leaders with wealth of experience to transform the nation. Manmohan Singh lowered tariff levels, reformed exchange rate policy, liberalized industrial licensing policy and relaxed India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) policy. These reforms opened the doors for multinational corporations to invest in India. Economic barriers were removed for foreign business organisations. Many multinational corporations took advantage of India’s new economic policies and increased their stakes to more than 51 percent in their subsidiaries resulting in a several fold increase in foreign direct investment in just three years. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 71 and other septuagenarians’ leaders keyed into India’s expertise in information technology and increased domestic consumption to pay off for their teeming growing middle class population – International Policy Digest, 2013. These are what we are lacking. The moral here is that if Gen. Buhari honestly has the policies, procedures and framework to captain our ship, let’s give him a chance. Is it not worrisome when a government make a mere statement of creating universities without framework for its sustainability? The chronicles of failure of policies to transform the economy from oil dependent over years are suboptimal. The teeming youths of our country should be engaged. Today, 64% of labour force in India depends on agriculture which contributes approximately 26% of gross domestic product and formed 18% of total Indian exports. The age did not limit India leaders from taking their country out of the mud; I believe Gen. Buhari will replicate this experience in Nigeria if opportune in 2015. What is stopping us from doing the needful? leadership.ng/opinions/396282/buhari-72-lesson-india-experience
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:31:33 +0000
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