By Dele Sobowale
“Those who spend their time on small things usually become incapable of large ones”.
Rochefoucauld, 1665.
Let a perfect fool mysteriously become the president of Nigeria today and all of a sudden individuals and groups will spring up singing his praises; investing him with qualities he would not ordinarily claim for himself and Youth Earnestly Asking for Buffoon (let’s call our fool that), YEAB, will surface to organize two hundred million man marches. 

So it has been, so apparently it will remain because as the largest collection of black people on earth we continue to repeat all the mistakes of the past. We never learn from our own history. Any wonder why South Korea which had a lower GDP than Nigeria in 1960 now has almost six times as much.

They manufacture cars, refrigerators etc. We cannot even produce a nail without help from outside –thanks to the belly politicians, public servants and “youth wings” of outrageous political parties.

In 1960, in form three at Igbobi College, we were introduced to a book titled PRESTER JOHN, whose author I cannot readily remember. But I will never forget one passage from the book because I angrily tore it out. Remember, 1960 was the year of our independence and we were naturally full of hope for what the future would bring for Nigeria once we got rid of the British who, we were told by politicians of that era, were holding us down. Little did we know that they were actually holding us up. Now we know, don’t we?

Point to anything the British left in world standard which has  not been turned to ruins by our losers, sorry, leaders. University of Ibadan,  the GRA in each major city; Nigerian Railways, ad infinitum, readily come to mind.

According to the author, “The black man will remain backward as long as he lives only for today and his own belly”, or words to that effect. In the year of independence, that was, to me, an insult too much to accept.

Today, I not only apologise to the late author, I regret destroying a truth about the black man in general, and the Nigerian in particular, which has  resonated till today. Point to that person who had served in government, in Nigeria, who did  not corruptly enrich himself or herself and family as well as top party officials, and I will point to you a saint. Rest assured you will not count up to 12  saints out of hundreds of thousands who have passed through from Presidents to police corporals. The British chastised us with whips, our Nigerian leaders with scorpions.

It is necessary to state all these at the outset because of those who, when they fail to refute the facts presented and cannot provide their own, resort to name calling and abuse in support of President Jonathan who is now being deified by those who always worship the transient occupier of Aso Rock. I was both amused and sad when Godwin Daboh, ever the political rascal, endorsed Jonathan for 2011, using superlative adjectives which no achievement of the President can support.

With Obasanjo and Daboh now in his camp, Jonathan has all the enemies he needs. As the old saying goes, “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are”. It would be difficult to think of any two other men in Nigeria today who are living embodiments of “Politics Without Principles” (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p. 245 ).

That as you know is only the appetizer to what might be the hottest dish served this year, 2010. And it has become necessary because President Jonathan intends to run for election next year.

That is his constitutional right as many people have reminded us –as if we all suffer from amnesia. Oddly enough, one wonders where  these people were  when Yar’Adua and Jonathan were imposed on us by an unpatriotic former president who deprived others of the right to present themselves to the electorate in a free and fair election in 2007.

That alone demonstrates our penchant for adopting principles when they favour us and discarding them when they don’t. The same is true of zoning which produced a northern president, a vice president from the South-South, a northern Senate President, a Southwest Speaker and a Southeast Chairman of the PDP. Till today nobody had argued that an Igbo Senator has the constitutional right to vie for Senate President or a Jukun can contest for Speaker of the House.

If Mark and Bankole leave today, they will be replaced by legislators from their own ZONES!! Denying that truth represents the sort of blind alley to which our lack of principles leads us each and every time. But let me end the digression there for now.

BEFORE WE GO; ON VISION 20:2020.
“By the report, we are already among the top 30 countries in the world and our movement from now on to then would be that of getting to be among the top 20 instead of the 30 we are here today”.

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State briefing reporters about Vision 20:2020 document presented to the Council of States.

What Governor Aliyu was quoted as saying is just a bare-faced lie. The National Planning Commission should publish the global GDP league table to prove that Nigeria is indeed number 30. Yet, a retreat is going to take place with the document, in reference and presented to the leaders as the point of departure for discussions (mostly gas).

Power generation, according to this fairy tale, will reach a magical 35,000 MW by 2020. It has not moved beyond 4,000 since 1999. But, never mind, we will achieve in 11 years nine times what we did in 80 years. “We discovered the private sector generates 3,000 which is not captured”, said the governor with a straight face.

Apparently, according to “governor’s arithmetic”, 4000 plus 3000 equals 35,000. Now you know the difference between a politician’s and government appointees’ promises and those of normal people. These people just live on another planet!!

God help us with “leaders” like these.
BULLET POINTS
·    “I have read in the papers that the country might be celebrating its 50 years of independence and that we might be spending N10 billion on that…if we think about what we had in place 50 years ago, then we shall be celebrating 50 years of decline”.

Dr Christopher Kolade, Chairman governing Council. Lagos Business School.
Jonathan can go ahead and spend N10 billion and enter the Hall of Shame.

·    Dimeji Bankole and his colleagues at the Federal House of Representatives have turned a hallowed chamber meant for responsible lawmakers into a House of Ill Repute for conscienceless lawbreakers. What now does it matter if he is right or the so called progressives? It is clear to right thinking Nigerians that all they are fighting about is how to corruptly enrich themselves at our expense. And just to think that Dimeji’s dad promised us that his son would  provide good leadership and we believed the old man.