By Douglas Anele

As indicated earlier, due to Prof. Wole Soyinka’s principled support of humanist ideals and consistent criticism of military dictatorship in Nigeria his admirers were surprised and disappointed when he joined the APC vuvuzela campaign urging Nigerians to vote for candidate Muhammadu Buhari because, in his own words the retired military dictator had become a “reformed democrat.”

But why did Soyinka change his mind about Buhari after criticising him severely before despite knowing what every tiro in psychology or human behaviour should know, namely, that with advancing age people hardly change from their core beliefs, attitudes and behaviours? Some commentators have suggested that Prof. Soyinka was misled by his acolytes Tinubu, Kayode Fayemi and Amaechi.

Others detect a whiff of tribalism in his volte face. Consider this: On February 7, 2013 members of the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), including Chief Olu Falae, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, Sen. Bode Olajumoke, Sen. Femi Okurounmu, and Prof. Adenike Grange among others met at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan, to bring to limelight the alleged marginalisation of the Yoruba in distribution of key appointments during Jonathan’s administration.

It is very likely that majority of them were convinced that voting for Buhari was the best way to teach former President Jonathan and the PDP a bitter lesson. Perhaps Soyinka wanted to align his position with that of the YUF. Now, whatever might be the true explanation, to the best of my knowledge unlike Dr. Dele Sobowale and Chief Dele Momodu, Prof. Soyinka has neither publicly accepted that he made a mistake in his positive reassessment of Buhari nor apologised for supporting a man under whose presidency Nigeria became the world’s Mecca of poverty, kidnapping of students by violent criminals, and unemployment.

Instead at every opportunity he has been lamenting and criticising Buhari’s government but without the venom with which he excoriated Jonathan’s. Although some people commend the Nobel laureate for that, his jeremiads will not achieve anything tangible since the damage has been done already.Given the deteriorating state of affairs in the country at the moment,President Buhari has unwittingly vindicated those who have consistently rejected him at the polls, especially majority of Ndigbo appalled by his persistent indifference and sometimes open hostility towards their legitimate concerns.

It is puzzling that Nigerians suffering seriously from the current hardships are still defending President Buhari against evidence-based criticism and, what is worse, often insist that his government is doing well. That absurd situation is easy to understand especially with respect to northerners.

Arrowheads of Fulani caliphate colonialism like Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, his Kaduna State colleague, Nasir el-Rufai, and other prominent members of the northern military-civilian establishment believe that Buhari is performing well by consolidating the North’s political and economic domination as envisaged by Usman Dan Fodio who believe strongly that he was acting under Allah’s mandate.

Even, their intermittent criticism of Buhari is insincere in that they deliberately refuse to urge him to do what is absolutely necessary for the progress of Nigeria, that is, to reconstitute the country into a confederation or revert to the 1963 constitution that allowed various regions a reasonable degree of autonomy to pursue their developmental objectives.

Some of them who argue that the main problem is not the over-centralised geopolitical governance structure but the quality of leadership forget that a unitary system of government is unsuitable for a multiply plural country like Nigeria. Because the country recorded her best economic growth when the federating units were relatively independent, such a blueprint would have minimised the egregious shortcomings of over centralisation of political power that breeds corrupt and inefficient leaders.

As it is, Nigerians in political positions are trying to build something on nothing. The northern ruling cabal is hell-bent on dominating power at the centre, aided by political misfits from the south who appear incapable of subordinating their individual bulimic interests to the developmental aspirations of the collective.

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Instead of showing Nigerians what they can accomplish through wise use of human and material resources in their states, governors and politicians particularly from the south are busy with primitive accumulation, fighting their own people and ingratiating themselves before Buhari and his band of Fulani supremacists. The outcome of all this nonsense has been the toxic recycling of mediocre leadership lacking in basic understanding of how to lead efficiently.

That is why those championing One Nigeria without insisting on radical reconstitution of her political architectonic for effective governance are really providing justification for the demand for self-determination relentlessly championed by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).

Nigeria is a leaking basket case of missed opportunities and grossly incompetent leadership, a country where people of below average intelligence are celebrated as heroes. Take the case of retired Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. In terms of poor quality of governance, his administration stands next to Buhari’s. Yet, Babangida has the audacity to speak ex cathedra about politics, corruption and leadership in the country.

Of course, even the corrupt, the incompetent, and the mediocre can say one or two interesting things about these attributes in others. But anyone expecting something solid, substantial and productive from Babangida must be waiting for Godot. Babangida’s negative legacy as a military dictator jars one’s consciousness as epitomised in his ill-conceived and poorly implemented structural adjustment programme and cruel annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections.

Yet, some journalists still refer to him as “an elder statesman.” In Nigeria, journalists have perfected the disgustingly shameful art of baptising wicked, corrupt and intellectually deficient military dictators and politicians with the hollow label of “elder statesmen.”Retired Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalam Abubakar, we are told, are “elder statesmen.” And as the ugly trend continues others like Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Orji Uzor Kalu, and Rochas Okorocha would eventually join that exclusive club.

Something must be wrong with the way a typical Nigerian, educated or not, reasons most times, because of which Nigeria could set a world standard and enter the Guinness Book of Records for the propensity to celebrate mediocrity, folly, and hypocrisy. It is amusing to see people show so much respect to past military leaders and politicians who ruined the country. Buhari was condemned, and rightly so, for his dictatorial rule that worsened the situation in the country.

By 2015 Tinubu and repackaged him as the messiah that would bring about change. The dummy was bought even by so-called educated Nigerians, and the crippling result of that terrible misjudgement is with us right now. The same Nigerians complaining about obscene extravagance of public officials also justify the new private jet, luxurious mansion and other items of bulimic ostentation displayed by “men and women of God.”

Many Nigerians that publicly condemn pornography and programmes like Big Brother Naija in private are the most avid consumers of pornographic materials who engage in all sorts of sexual voyeurism or perversion. The very people lambasting mechanics and other artisans for dishonesty are either selling expired and adulterated drugs, re-bagging rice or replacing “Made in Nigeria” label with “Made in Italy” on a shoe, shirt or bag. Amazingly, each of these people expect the other person to be the epitome of virtues.

Late Prof. Chinua Achebe claims in his little book, The Trouble with Nigeria, that our problem is fundamentally bad leadership. What he failed to realise is that Nigeria might be an inherently deformed construct such that failure of leadership might be just a symptom of that deformity.

And since leaders of any country do not just drop from the sky but emerge as a consequence of complex interactions between the citizens, institutions and traditions in the context of geography and prevailing international relations, certain conditions are more conducive to the emergence of good leadership than others. Here in Nigeria, the challenge is to stop trying to build a country on nothing because the conditions for the emergence of genuine sense of belonging to a nation are yet to take root.

Concluded.

Vanguard News Nigeria