By Denrele Animasaun

Denrele, your columnist, has taken a week off and will not be writing this week. That has given me the opportunity to put some words across.

I have watched the goings-on of the general elections and have noted what transpired and I thank God for His Mercies.

GEJ will be leaving the Presidency come March 29 and GMB will step in. What goes for him are his trustworthiness and his integrity. It is on that we believe he would do what he promises to do for his countrymen and women.

However, there is a couple of things he should do post-haste. And I have harped on them for the last twenty-odd years. There is a third one that stole on us in recent times, that is security. Whatever he does will not bear fruit except he urgently sees to our security. And he is eminently qualified to handle it. He may need to examine those who handle our security and make necessary adjustments – in throwing out the dregs and putting round pegs in round holes.

Second thing he should do is to see to our roads and put them in first class conditions. I believe in old gangs of PWD or its equivalent should be a permanent feature of our road maintenance culture.

Of course, the third thing is to put power into our lives. Day in and day out, Nigerians are crying out for lack of electricity. And that is despite taking it out of public utility to private enterprise. Daily, Nigerians are agonising for paying more money for a moribund utility. Nigerians use generators and more petrol for less efficient electricity. And no one needs to emphasise that the ability to have efficient electricity will mean a better economy.

Of course, there are many more things the General can do and will do but the three things I have highlighted above take the cake. They must be taken care of first and other things like employment will follow.

Femi Adesina

Buhari

I have read through many articles on the general elections but Femi’s offerings take the cake. In short,simple prose, Femi told us the truth about ourselves and why we should prefer Buhari to Jonathan. Of course, there were many who disagreed with him and he told them they were free to hold their beliefs.

In three or four basic lessons, he demonstrated the virtues of honesty and persistence.

I have read him over and again and will still go over his articles. He was afraid he might lose his job but he did not and thanks to Kalu Orji ,his proprietor, who thought he could have his say-so. To those of his colleagues who held opposing views, he gave them the dispensation that he got from his newspaper owner.

More ink to your pen. And God bless you.

From my archive:

The government I want

Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister, has been in the saddle now, except for a season in the cold, for many years. He leads the Swedish Social Democratic Party – a party that is not only democratic, but welfarist.

If you meet four people from the Nordic countries – Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland – you will, in 90 cases out of a 100, pick the Swede out. Not that he is loud. On the contrary, he is modest in an articulate way; he is confident without the swagger. The truth is: he is a legatee of a political system and of politicians that make him the focus of programmes and thereby, attention.

The Fin is nearly in the same mould; the Norwegians are birds of a feather; the Danes may change government a bit too often, but the changes are  occasioned by what they perceive as the Utopian ideal they must attain.

Paradoxically, Sweden, Norway and Denmark are monarchies. Finland and Iceland are republics.

The Briton may not be sure of many things, but he is sure that his Parliament is supreme; he is sure that he can protest his grouse to his representative and get redress; he is sure that the quality of judgment he will get at law will not reflect his social status; he is sure that he is the responsibility of the sovereign government of Elizabeth Regina from the cradle to the grave. For him, the Magna Cartais not just a name, but some substance.

The United States of America of the Japanese, the Germans, the Jews, the Irish, the Chinese and the Negro is one to all of them. They will hold aloft the star-spangled banner when the chips are down.

Vietnam is an eloquent testimony to the fact that black, white or pink, the American will lay down his life for his fatherland.

Here in Nigeria, exploitative governments and roguish politicians have bastardised the immortal wisdom of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was not a fool when he admonished Americans not to ask what America can do for them but what they can do for America.

America was the country of Great Expectation. America was the land of opportunities. Americans had used the opportunities that America offered to realise Great Expectations.

It is still among the few remaining countries where the drama of rag to riches is still being enacted. Without the footnote that the national treasury  becoming the worse for it.

What has Nigeria done for me to enable me help her? Do not ask me what I can do for Nigeria. Because I can do nothing. Not by choice, but because I have been rendered incapable by political circumstances.

But this country deserves a much better fate. It deserves prosperity. It deserves peace. It deserves, as leading the black nationin the world, respect – not out of sheer number, but out of achievement – possible because of our bounteous endowments in human and natural resources. And we shall get there only if we have good government. A good government  respects public opinion and ensures that the will of the people prevails.

A good government makes a fetish of equitable distribution of resources – not in terms of quota and federal character – but in terms of universal need and welfare. A good government forges a conscious link between it and mass organs like labour, youths and students.

Perhaps, the most important attribute of good governance is the power of personal example. Hitherto, Nigeria’s leadership has followed the pattern of the chubby-cheeked clergy-man whose admonition is: Do as I say and not do as I do. Too many retired civil servants are millionaires and the unasked questions are bothersome.

Finally, I submit that a good government must have a dynamic foreign policy. And by that, I mean emphasis should be Nigerians first, second and last. If I must admit, I admire the Americans; I doff my hat to Gaddaffi and have no bones to pick with the Soviets.

So, while we are about searching for a good political system, be informed that my preference is for a good government. By whatever name.

Vanguard  15 February 1986