The Trifecta That Will Take Nigeria Back

The Trifecta That Will Take Nigeria Back

Recently, yours truly and two other colleagues with whom I had done some pro democracy work in the past came together to start work on a project on how to reclaim Nigeria back to its rightful owners. Amongst us, you will find a local businessman, an IT administrator and an attorney. What binds us together is not just our resumes but our passion for Nigeria. But this piece is not about us, it is more about the men and women who make up the Trifecta of those who will eventually take Nigeria back. The civil society, the military and paramilitary society and the traditional institutions.

The civil society has being for the most part in the vanguard of promoting democracy in Nigeria. For as long as we can remember, the civil society has being very engaged but it is my opinion that the civil society has been equally unforgiving of those it deemed to have gone astray of its unspoken principles and ideals. It is the intention of this essay to address that malaise and to point out that there is a need to reconcile the different ideologies out there in order to reclaim Nigeria.

For the past several decades, there has been a theory out there that entrenched Nigeria elites are working in concert with one another to keep ordinary Nigerians in perpetual poverty and that in order to reclaim Nigeria, a violent revolution is necessary. Today, I declare that assertion as idle talk! After a careful study of those who have being in government for the last ten years since the return of civil rule in Nigeria, I realized sadly that rather than a team of entrenched powerful elites working together to keep Nigeria in perpetual poverty and bondage, what we have in Nigeria today is a disparate group of people joined together by the need to protect their class interests. Most of the time, their interests are not in sync with one another but they are joined together in greed and insatiable tendencies. Among this group you will find your old friend and school mate who has gone on to become the house of representative member in Abuja, the old ideological sparring partner who has gone on to become the Minister of the Republic or a senior advisor in government. To label all these people as unpatriotic or corrupt is simplifying an otherwise complex issue. To discard them from civil discourse is even more counter productive. What we need is further engagement, those who left the civil society to join government should be engaged and given the opportunity to explain their opinions. We should make them feel comfortable to express their opinions within the civil space. We should accept that while we may differ, we couch our differences in civility. I will give an example; do I think Segun Adeniyi is wasting his time with the Yar’ Adua government? Yes. Do I think he is an enemy of the civil society? No. The fundamental difference in our approach will be engagement versus endless and sometimes needless antagonisms.

Now, the military and the Para military establishment. Long the butt of joke amongst Nigerian civil society. Ironically, today’s Nigerian military and Para military are changing and I must say changing for the better. The emerging leadership within these groups is your former school mate and your former childhood friend, we need to engage them. The civil society alone can not save Nigeria from its present malaise. It took all three (civil, military and traditional) to get Nigeria to where we are today, it will take all three to dig Nigeria out of this hole. But this can only happen if we are working together. There will be some that will question my faith in the new Nigerian military. And they will be right; they can point to the incident last year of an admiral brutalizing a young Nigerian woman. But I insist that, that kind of behavior is not emblematic of the new Nigerian military leadership. I have spoken to several emerging leaders within the military and Para military establishments, there is a re occurring theme that runs through our conversations, these group of men and women cares about Nigeria as deeply as I do, they are passionate about change as I am, the only problem is how do we harness all of our passions together? While recognizing our differences, we ought to be able to work together to bring about the change we seek.

Our traditional institutions; they are the custodian of our traditions, norms, culture and customs. To disparage them in the belief that we are ideologically superior is to continue to be in political wilderness as we presently are. We need to court people who represent the symbols of our traditional institutions, we need to respectfully disagree with them if we find ourselves at different sides of a debate. More importantly because of their position and sometimes their age, we should seek their counsel. Trust me, the custodians of our traditions are also pained to see Nigeria the way it is. But just like the military establishment, they will be ready to partner with the civil society if we present our argument in an inclusive manner.

Now, I want to address the issue of the entrenched elites working in concert to keep Nigeria in perpetual poverty. As I have mentioned earlier, if we agree that most times these supposed entrenched elites are former friends, colleagues or may be even family, perhaps also people who have in the past expressed their dissatisfaction with the way things were in Nigeria prior to joining government, then we should agree that they are not working in concert, that beyond any parochial interests, what binds them together is their continued manipulation of the Nigerian system. Sometimes these manipulations are backed by Nigerian law itself! Tell me, what kind of law allows a security vote? The security vote is a large chunk of money that governors and the Nigerian president has at their disposal to use in cases of emergencies. However, most times, these funds are used to dispense political favours and the governors are not accountable to anyone on how these funds are dispensed. So while most Nigerian governors are making less than 2 million Naira annually, they get security votes in excess of 200 million Naira monthly! So who is fooling who? Then we have the most outrageous of all, the immunity clause, why would any sane democracy have this kind of law in its book? Why would a governor or a President after committing a criminal act, especially if the said crime is visible for everyone to see continue to serve his/her term? These are the fundamental issues that are at stake in reclaiming Nigeria. It would not make any difference if today’s agitators are given power, as long as they retain the same system, there will be little change in the lives of average Nigerians. What we need to do is to come together, agree on the fundamental issues and change the system when the opportunity arrives to do so.

This change, I believe will come from the ballot box. Nigerians have demonstrated time and again that they get it. If a persuasive argument is made on their behalf, they would not mind staying in line for hours and they will protect their votes. They have shown this in Bauchi, Kano, Lagos, Ondo and Edo states. It is up to us to honour Nigerians back if they eventually believe in our cause. What most Nigerians dislike and rightfully so is the hypocrisy of the Isa Yugudas of this world.

The folks at the Nigerian Development Movement, the Nigerian Liberty Forum led by Kayode Ogundamisi and the restoration group have begun the work that is necessary to claim Nigeria back to its rightful owners. I must warn us however, that in order to be successful, ideas have to be meshed, membership have to be inclusive and the dialogue have to be respectful despite our differences. It should also not be an avenue for politicians who have lost out in the power struggle to vent their anger, while they are most certainly welcome, their participation should be more of re appraising their past involvement in government and not just how to win power back for themselves but how to make the system work better for every Nigerian.

Back to yours truly and my two ideological brothers, in the weeks and months ahead, we will be unveiling our contribution to the task of taking Nigeria back to the public, I can assure you, we started on the premise that we do not have all the answers, that is why I encourage you to write me and tell me what we need to be doing even as we are in what I call our infant period.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever does” - Margaret Mead


Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia writes from Indianapolis, Indiana
abdulajia@yahoo.com