Nigeria: A Paradigm shifting By DBA 12th Nov 2013 There is a paradigm shift that is happening in Nigeria today that is out of the control of all concerned! This paradigm shift has been long overdue and is a prerequisite for national greatness! It has been plaguing us since inception and it polarized this nation from the day it got its independence! This plague is that of tribalism and religious bias! Both of these are artificial divides that doesnt serve any purpose but to give us a false sense of security based on natural human xenophobic tendencies! Well, the ongoing imbroglio amongst the leaders in Nigeria today is but a flashpoint in the larger struggle for true nationhood. There are 3 critical anecdotes that wills us as well as force us to reconsider our approach to governance and leadership in general! The Patrick Yakowa saga has made some in certain quarters reconsider the hitherto presumed notion that only a Northern Muslim can be democratically elected as a Governor in Kaduna State. Well who knew that Namadi Sambo would be called upon to become Goodluck Ebele Jonathans running mate for 2011? Reality is the vacuum created due to this scenario brought a second fiddle to the number One slot in Kaduna against all odds. Following his short spell in office providence struck again and the status quo returned as he met a ghastly death in a helicopter mishap! We heard some thought provoking rumors that some started dancing on his cold grave celebrating the return of a Northern Muslim candidate to their rightful position in Kaduna geo politics. If this wasnt enough we need to take a deeper look at the Taraba debacle where a predominantly Christian State is having to make do with a Northern Muslim surrogate. The general idea I gathered in Taraba is that a MUslim can never be elected into the number one slot; however another air disaster created a condition that triggered the unthinkable! Dambaba Suntai that we could all sees not supposed to consider any form of serious work until full recovery of his motor skills can still be seen struggling to maintain the status quo albeit lethargically! Another mind jarring moment for our preconceived ideas as mere mortals that believe we can control things yet we cant even control the most important things in our existence I.e. the day we are born or the day we die! This same issue has played out so many times in the last 3 years that we are now forced to think deeper about our strongly held biases whilst being prodded to go the extra mile in formulating a new ideology for leadership in this democratic dispensation! This leads me to the most important of all our vices! The quirky manner in which a little known ethnic minority leader suddenly got thrust into our consciousness as our President!! Once again we as humans had set the entire chess board and expected all to play their roles accordingly as predefined but once again the hand of death quickly knocked us out of our reverie when our dear President was taken away from us in the most dramatic episodes in our leadership tussles! Some want to claim that OBJ planned it all but I am quick to dash their assumptions on the rocks of common sense as no man can predict the day of death of another except for outright murder! The Northern Muslim ticket should have subsisted for at least an 8 year period or so we thought! It wasnt meant to be. Yaradua, whom I really wanted to feel his leadership style due to his pedigree left us in the lurch of an epic constitutional struggle which without a doubt has brought us to this point in history. GEJ is perceived unrepentantly by some in certain quarters of the national divide as a usurper par excellence, however he and his kin see him as a maxim for changing the wealth dynamics into their tribal coffers if anything like that really does exist! It is our turn they say boastfully as they lap up the patronage of their benefactor at the Aso Rock villa. I know one thing for certain that Jonathan never thought in his wildest dreams he would ever become President of Nigeria but providence in its magnanimity bestowed the leadership of this complex country on his inexperienced shoulders! We should be asking ourselves why him and why at this critical point; as one thing about ephemeral issues is that there is never a coincidence. Nigerians did vote for this unknown character amidst the euphoria of a breadth of fresh air. How ironic as today the Northern Muslims are still screaming for their mandate, the Yorubas are totally disillusioned at the National level and the IGbos even more so not certain when the mantle of leadership will ever reverberate in their back yard! The Ijaws whom providence has smiled on are now beating their chests and proclaiming Jonathan as the rightful heir to the nations resource allocations. With these self induced frustrations on all sides, the political dynamic is officially in turmoil and is begging for a new direction? The new mantra is now imperative! Its make or break time as can be seen from all indices of nation building. What we all fail to see here is the pattern that has formed in its myriad dimensions! Now the equation of zoning is questioned! Religion and ethnicity as the basis of choosing leaders is gradually becoming unworkable for a country like ours. The cosmic is sending us signals that we can no longer ignore. Its no longer about where you are from or what religion you belong to but mainly about time and chance meeting with preparedness and responsiveness. This is the responsibility of any leader that is so thrust into the unexpected limelight of leadership. Merit must become the order of the day as with the clannish, religious and tribal sentiments evoked by all the stakeholders in determining whose turn it is hasnt really changed the reality of the common man in his dastardly and hopeless existence! So what if I decide that my candidate in 2015 should be BAbatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos regardless of his tribe, will the North see reason with this choice? What if I say the IJAW son must continue to govern us towards stability and the theory of fairness? Will I be burned at the stakes? What if I decide that Buhari regardless of the quasi fundamentalist stigma attached to his person is my choice for the Presidency? Will the Yorubas my own kin disown me and label me the traitor to the Southern Nigerian ideal? What if i surprisingly believe that Rauf Aregbesola of Osun is my candidate for President, will i be eaten raw by my Christian brethren whom Ive gathered wish to believe he is the living incarnation of the antiChrist? Should I really be bothered about what the proletariat will say if I can justify the merits of the candidate within my conscience? I am beginning to see that the key to successful leadership in Nigeria is merit devoid of all religious, ethnic and nepotistic bias! This evolution of our leadership ethos will permeate even to the state levels as your Senatorial district, ethnic group, local government or even family background will not guarantee that elevation to that hallowed space of leadership in Nigeria. This evolution of the Nigerian state is rather interesting as anyone that believes in the Darwinian theory of Evolution will be quick to tell you that the Early man never had a direct influence on his evolutionary transformation into the Homosapien that we have all become today. So also will the mind bending calculations of the numerous political herds be ineffective to determine the future of this nation state called Nigeria! Regardless of the seeming confusion within the polity, of one single thing am I certain; that Nigeria will survive the onslaught! In what shape though and with what leadership I can not tell at this point even as Ive made up my mind to be a combatant in the ensuing struggle for a Greater Nigeria in my lifetime! God bless the Motherland! This piece was written by Chief Daniel Bankole Afilaka, Chairman Labour Party, Osun State Chapter and Founder of the Nigerian Youth League/Coordinator of the OOdua Vanguard.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 19:13:20 +0000
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