Akwa Ibom is leading change in Africa
THERE is something that is seriously wrong in Africa where those who lose elections refuse to accept defeat. There is something wrong in situations where those who do not win refuse to give up even when they have reached the end of the road.
The temptation to bring in Ivory Coast and Laurent Gbagbo is irresistible here. This tendency and hunger for power explain why Africa has a large share of the big men who refuse to give up power.
The attitude and reaction of the CPC led by former military strongman, General Buhari, has given many of us around the world cause for concern, yet it confirms what is already known about African leaders and the culture of what has come to be called bigmanism.
The big man in Africa feels entitled to power and fails to understand the simple understanding of service. He has no manifesto and if he has one rarely makes it a platform. There is no clear articulated political vision or future policy plan other than rallying his followers to see politics as a struggle of we versus them, good versus evil, North versus South, Muslims versus Christians, my tribe versus yours.
The debate is usually framed in eternal language rather than who leads in the next government lasting a few years. Because those who support opposing candidates have been told that they are enemies, the big man’s supporters do not see a loss at the polls as an acceptable option.
The language employed in the event of a defeat is usually sprinkled with the inadequacy of the voting process. Rather than concede and offer to work with the winning team, the big man points to a series of vaguely worded reasons for obstinacy and refusal to help in nation building.
The reason for refusal to concede is usually the argument that there was irregularity in the home region of the winning candidate. The idea is to send the coded message to the supporters that the election was truly a war between one region and another or a “we” versus “them”. Since the other group is already known to be evil, this coded message from the big man seeks to remind the supporters that the other side cannot be trusted and nothing good should be expected from those who do not wish them well.
Using this playbook, it is not difficult to interpret the message of Gen. Buhari who seeks to remain Nigeria’s big man in an age when Nigerians are rejecting such bankrupt idea. In a letter signed by Tony Momoh, the Buhari camp listed their reasons for refusing to accept the Nigerian election result widely seen as the most fair and free: 1. Our people were chased away in the other regions and so they did not vote. 2.
Our people were threatened and so they stayed away. 3.PDP had undue advantage; there were no accreditation of voters. 4.By the way the Excel computer programme was programmed to benefit PDP.
Never mind the fact that the Excel programme is simply a common spread sheet that simply tallies figures. Like every bad loser, and true to the behaviour of big men everywhere in Africa, the Buhari camp suggested conditions that will make them not resort to violence as is normally the case.
This always takes the form of: nullify the result from the other side and declare me a winner or change the rules of the game. And they are always sure to include a veiled threat: “In the interest of peace.”
The fact is that the big men practice what has been described as the politics of plunder. With no vision and no plans for the country, they resort to ethnic bigotry. The wrong assumption that the appeal to ethnicity is powerful enough to sway the uninformed and the uneducated is usually at the root of the false confidence. The big men employ old history and seek to turn neighbour against neighbor rather than articulate ideas and positions.
The young is often blamed for the infractions of those of earlier times. The idea is to sell what is often called “our own thief mentality” to those who may not understand the complexities of the workings of government. The poor and un-informed are made to forget the past failings of the big man, including in most cases the criminal past. The opposition is further painted as plunderers or potential plunderers and so those who fail to support their plunderer is doing a dis-service to their own selves.
The Akwa Ibom State political arena is a textbook case of this politics of bigmanism and plunder. The governor of the state, Godswill Akpabio, in four short years has managed to transform what was a sleeping tropical rain forest into a society of the 21st century. The roads once impassable, especially in the rainy seasons, are now modern thoroughfare with flyovers and bridges.
Schools that were abandoned are rebuilt and education has been made free and compulsory. An airport has been built allowing the state to be connected to the world. A new university has been built and most projects that were only dreams a few years back is now reality.
BY EZEKIEL ETTE, a commentator on national issues,writes from USA.
