I regret that I finally have to validate the ridiculous “Jonathanian” and “Buharist” mentality today. The truth is, I detest using such tags on people. Since the folly of political polarity gripped our country just before the 2015 elections, I have refrained from lumping people together with labels like “Buharist”, “Jonathanian”, “Hailers or Wailers” and others with which people have been stuck. I do just think that these names are derogatory; they also detract from the essence of democratic citizenship, in my opinion.
But then, today’s shift is not without reason. Granted, nationals are bound with the duty of supporting their democratic leaders, but a particular group of Nigerians have elected to take their support for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration beyond the normal demands of citizenship.
With this set of people, it is impossible for the President or his administration to do any wrong. Now, I concede the right to beatify any human being by anyone who so desires, what I find objectionable are the mindless attempts to disrupt contrary arguments without regard to their soundness.
While people are entitled to choose blind loyalty, they trample on the rights of others when they interrupt their positions and attribute every point that disagrees with their own as either sponsored or unpatriotic. You are then forced to ask yourself if these folks have a good grasp of what loyalty to country is.
The piece on this column last week would, for example pass as one of the most constructive pieces of advice a citizen could offer his leader. Titled, “Mr. President, you do not have three more years,” the piece merely drew the President’s attention to how ill-advised it would be for him to imagine that he had three years to impact on Nigerians. I stressed the point that politicians are not in the habit of suspending their ambitions on the score of national service and that from about the end of 2017, the President might find no one but himself willing to till the ground, working single mindedly, for Nigeria.
Some supporters of the President took offence! Describing the intervention as another link in the long chain of anti-Buhari sentiments, most of the responders are wont to dismiss even the most objective assessment of the government.
And so it has become difficult to evaluate the performance of Nigerian leaders without incurring the wrath of some people who fervently hold on to their belief in the infallibility of certain men.
The tendency to suspend reason is not peculiar to those who support the President, although they are more easily irritable given the growing disenchantment of Nigerians with the administration. Some of them speak more eloquently in defence of the government than those who are even paid to do the job. But the supporters of former President Goodluck Jonathan are no less obstinate and caustic in their reaction to issues that concern the Buhari administration. The arguments on either side being still hot and divisive as it were before the election of March 2015!
There are all sorts of blind accusations and partisan affection in the appraisals of public issues and discourses. If you dare to support a good policy of the Buhari administration no matter how rich, deep and utilitarian that may be, you are a labelled a supporter of the All Progressives Congress the same way commentators are considered looters in the ilk of the Peoples Democratic Party folks if you speak in defence of Jonathan.
The capacity of our people to remain static on these lines of affiliations, not reconsidering at any time, is almost sub-human to be honest. After all, aren’t human beings said to be endowed with the ability to see issues from different points of view? How is it that people make up their mind not to ever see a good point reevaluate no matter what they see?
Twelve months after the last elections and 11 months into the new government, these opinionated political observers find currency in our offices, social media platforms, social events, intellectual communities, market places and even worship centres. There is never an end to the strife.
Unfortunately, for the mass of the people who ignorantly draw blood in furtherance of these divisions and in protection of their own perception, the beneficiaries of these bickering have always been our political and bureaucratic elite, those who feed fat on our divides, who see opportunistic advantage worthy of perpetual exploitation in the way we see ourselves and they do everything to lead us on.
For themselves, the rich and the powerful very often collapse these artificial divisions whose relevance find expression only for the purpose of advancing theirpersonal and political interests. They are at home amongst one another while on first class flights to all corners of the world and when giving their children in marriages across ethnic, social and political divides.
Sadly, it is the same people who are victims and objects of elite political conspiracies, who are unable and, in many instances, incapable of discerning elite motives which have been the basis of our national gloom and underdevelopment.
Yet, these same people are the engine room upon which democratic growth can be built, even if Nigerians, both government and the governed do not seem to understand this. While government still treats citizens like some hirelings who have no say in the matter, the people, possibly due to the deferential values in our culture, largely see government in the image of a father, who should not be criticised or provoked to offence. This is the reason why instead of holding people in government accountable, we treat them with awe and allow them to run riot on us.
Nigerians have for example, suffered, and even been traumatised by a series of deprivations over the last couple of days but we still have people who defend a government which has not found sufficient reasons to explain the problems and what it is doing about them to the people. Some of the hardline supporters of the government insist that it is premature to even blame the government for anything since the immediate past administration is credited with a lot of malfeasance.
We however fail to accept that while politics and political parties may come in different colours and shades, good governance bears no vagueness and most Nigerians who complain, only desire a change in the quality of their lives. And if government cannot, for any reason deliver that to them at any time, such a government must communicate its limitations to the people, empathise with them, advise them on the fleeting nature of the challenge and then carry them along every step of the resolution of the issues. Any government who fails to do this deserves immediate reprimand from every Nigerian of good conscience.
We should all note that the Buhari administration presents another opportunity for Nigeria to take its place in the comity of nations. I am of the opinion that missing this opportunity to set Nigeria on the path of sustainable growth may be a fatal wound to the development of Nigeria and it is only the watchfulness of the citizenry that would get us there.Should we continue with this election hangover as we have carried on in the last one year, citizenship would be greatly hampered, democracy itself would be in danger and good governance would suffer immeasurably?
To promote a representative republic, we need to refine, deepen and elevate the level of national discourse for nothing provides the safeguards and protection for the people other than eternal vigilance and citizens’consciousness against the partisan and opportunistic tendencies of men in power.
Above all, we must realise that all of us are in a race, not against ourselves, but against the rest of the world, most of which goes on advancing the frontiers of development while we are here tearing ourselves apart. Government is not our father, we elected them to serve us and we must all come together to support, support not meaning docile. We should insist that they deliver on their promises to us, no matter what our political sentiments are. That is the way to move Nigeria forward.
PUNCH
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