The transiency of power – Dr.Muiz Banire

THIS column, as most readers would have seen, is dedicated to good governance as it is the cornerstone forpreservation of humanity. So much is expected of leaders that they cannot afford to fail. Man must be governed so that he does not exist in a state of nature. It is the state of nature that they said life is brutish, nasty and short. For there to be replication of existence and continued survival of humans, there must be leaders who aggregate interests and distribute resources. In civilized climes, they have taken this as a priority and a tool for continued existence of peace and order. In less developed countries, unfortunately, many leaders have not seen the need for good governance and yet they want to be in the saddle till eternity.

Many have cornered the populace under them in perpetual servitude that it is not possible for the masses to live with a modicum of dignity deserved by all. Their attitude to governance is one of self-enrichment, self-aggrandizement and self-preservation to the detriment of the majority. While they leave in opulence, the masses wallow in abject poverty and these leaders enjoy the situation. Any voice of dissent is seen as a sacrilege. The dominant credo for those leaders is greed and personal interests above others. Mobutu Seseseko, the almighty ruler of Zaire ruled with maximum force with many of his subjects sent to early grave while others were imprisoned for many years. He accumulated wealth beyond the needs of his family while the masses of Zaire suffered. He enjoyed to the end but history is never kind to such characters. Nature itself does not suffer such fools gladly. A visit to his once imperial presidential palace is greeted with ruins and dilapidation.
A once splendid vastness has become hollow with grass occupying the luscious fields of self-ingratiation. One fails to understand why succeeding governments have not converted the place to national use but allow it to rot in emptiness of the graveyard. The once celebrated and worshipped owner has descended below the earth and abandoned all the gold, diamond and precious possessions. It is doubtful if he ever remembered that all was going to end one day. The mighty man of Uganda, Idi Amin Dada, has not been viewed with kindness by history.

The number of Ugandans that died in his hands are enough to fill a city without a plot of land left. He died in exile unsung. While the paint of imperialism has exaggerated his atrocities, it is certain that he did not lead with worthy examples and there is little to record for him in the books of good governance. The same applies to Charles Taylor of Liberia.

Once seen by many as a freedom fighter that was strenuously striving to rescue his people from the grip of dictatorship foisted on them by Samuel Doe, his regime had little or nothing to register to the knowledge of good governance. His leadership was marked by accusations of illegal trading of blood diamonds, acquisition of weapons and recruiting of child soldiers to aid rebels, acts of terrorism, murders, rape, sexual slavery, enslavement and enlisting child soldiers.

General Sani Abacha was another dictator to adorn the bloody garment of dictatorship and bad governance. He led Nigeria for four years marked by worst form of military force, oppression and repression. Fortunes belonging to the country that he stashed abroad have not been fully recovered close to three decades after his death. Francisco Macìas Nguema was became the first president of Equatorial Guinea on October 12, 1968. He was in office till 1979when his government was overthrown.

His regime was marked by crazy legislation like the institution of death penalty as punishment to deter criticism against the President or the government. he ruled with absolute powers and regarded himself as god. His eratic behaviour made many to believe he was insane as he declared himself President for life. Nguema was said to have ordered the death of those who wore spectacles and bythe end of his rule, almost all of the educated class had either been executed or forced into exile with many members of his own family killed. As a result of his terrible human rights abuses and economic mismanagement, tens of thousands of people fled the country to avoid persecution.

According to Wikipaedia, this led to Equatorial Guinea being internationally nicknamed the “Dachau of Africa” with the country suffering severe brain drain, as intellectuals and educated classes were forced to leave having fallen prey to his dictatorial regime. He was in power till 1979 whenhe was overthrown in a military coup d’état by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and was subsequently tried and executed. Africa has never been very lucky with good leaders. More examples of terrible dictators abound all over. Many tried to rival Pol Pot of Cambodia and Augusto Pinochet of Chile in dictatorial records. At the end of the day, they forgot that history has never smiles on those who trample on its precepts.

Many governors in Nigeria behave like the dictators mentioned above. They are never students of history and they abhor the good dictates of good governance. While many have failed to do anything tangible to improve the internally generated revenues of their various states, they have sunken the people into mass deprivation, destroyed the treasury with embezzlement and burdened the future with massive debt obligations. The moment they receive the monthly allocations from the federation account, the next thing they do is to convert the naira to dollars and keep same for vote buying during elections. They have promoted the culture of thuggery among the youths so as to have fresh and regular supplies of vagrants, vagabonds and hoodlums to rig elections, unleash violence, intimidate and oppress the people.

They enjoy the present situation of things but are only conscious of the beauties of good governance, democracy, preservation of human rights to which they are always paying glowing tributes in their dry speeches. It is not their choice to lead by good examples and make life more abundant for the people. Many of them, both past and present, are sponsoring terrorism by promoting terrorist groups like the bandits that are making life unlivable for the people in the north-west and central parts of Nigeria.

They are the sponsors of boko haram whose houses and businesses in the north-east are never affected by the rampaging lunatics professing religious puritanism at the expense of godliness. The ones in the south have created a fiefdom of thuggery that no one dares to criticize them and they have mortgaged the future of the people to arrogant misery that sees no reason why they people should enjoy their God-given resources.

The way and manner these politicians are conducting themselves, particularly when we have nearly passed half term in office is so mind-boggling that you wonder how they found their way into power as they do not deserve leadership positions among the monkeys. Some Governors are now emperors and behaving that without them, no one under them cannot become anything. The kind of money accruable to them is making them power drunk. What has a beginning, they forgot must have an end. Ofiisi ni o ri ehin akowe as the official must one day leave the opulent office that once made him crazy. I have sounded the note of warning and admonition that for every campaign promise they fail on they will account to God.

Every life unjustifiably taken, they will render account. Many citizens are starving while many are living in shelters unfit for animals. The empty rhetoric of these leaders does not see those animal dungeons their citizens are living in as fit for demolition and urgent replacement. There are no drugs in hospitals where there are places to be called by that name nor do we even have good hospitals much less schools. Except in the cities where a semblance of education must be presented to the outside world, most schools in the rural areas have no teachers and the ones that are there are only living on what is available. Many of the youths have taken to drugs with multiple dealers in a small ancient town like Igbajo in Osun State.

The same thing applies in many parts of Yorubaland today and the situation in the northern parts of the country is begging for urgent intervention as both male and female young ones have been run into delirium. State governments in many parts of Nigeria need to wake up and live up to expectations.

What is being bred under their noses is an army of lunatics who will destroy the little gains of today when their training in madness blooms to maturity. Moneys being sent home by Nigerians in the diaspora for rehabilitation of delinquent drug addicts are enough to educate the youths and make their lives more useful. It is unfortunate that the government has collapsed education and chosen drug addiction as a way of life for the young elements whose today has been condemned into total malady. There is no way terrorist organisations like boko haram and bandits would not have an army of youths to swell up their ranks. It is time our governors and leaders generally took governance seriously.

The more we sleep on this sacred duty, the more our futures are being condemned. Our futures are our youths and there is no way we can go into prosperity without the youths being made the illustrious army of progress.