08 August 2010By Saka Raji Audu
It was August 5, 2010, at
the International Conference Centre, Abuja. In a well
attended World Press Conference, Malam (Dr)
Ibrahim Shekarau, the Governor of
Kano
State officially made a declaration of
aspiration to seek nomination as Presidential
candidate of All
Nigeria
People's Party
(ANPP). The august event chaired by one term
Presidential Candidate of the party, Chief Olu Falae
witnessed a tumultuous crowd of highly placed
supporters all over the country to hear the man of the
moment. The occasion also saw prominent people from
each of the six geo-political zones who came out one
after the other to declare their unalloyed support for
the presidential aspiration of His Excellency, the
People's Governor of Kano State. Indeed, the highly
successful declaration ceremony, which has already
sent cold into the spines of the opposition, has
clearly shown that Governor Shekarau is widely
acknowledged and unexpected will surely happened in
2011 presidential election.
With the official
declaration of aspiration to seek nomination from his
party, ANPP by Malam (Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau, it is no
longer a rumour that the People's Governor of Kano
State will contest for the number one seat of the land
in the 2011
presidential poll. As at today, the
astute and erudite governor is the only person who has
taken the bull by the horn to make public his
intention to seek nomination as presidential candidate
of his party, ANPP for the
forthcoming presidential election. The
thought provoking speech of Malam Shekarau during his
declaration is really a food-for-thought likened to
the popular speech of the one time President of
America, Mr. J.F Kennedy.
The acceptance of Malam
(Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau to heed to the clarion calls of
many well meaning Nigerians to join the presidential
race is not only because it is time for the north to
take up the position, but because as a democrat,
Shekarau has the potentiality and prerequisite
qualities to take up the challenge with a view to take
the country out of the present socio-economic and
political doldrums. Nigeria, as we also know is at
crossroads and at 50, the country is still behaving
like a cow. A banker, Fola Adeola once likened Nigeria
to a cow when he said, "The cow was fat and juicy. She
was milked, milked and milked. Nobody thought of
feeding her. Now she is shrunken, dry and drying."This
is exactly the picture that fits the giant Nigeria as
it knocks on the door to its 50th birthday.
It was fifty years ago
Nigeria got her independence from her British colonial
masters. Since all these years, the country has been
on the search for good governance. She moved from one
system of government to another including
parliamentary, military and
presidential systems.
For the past eleven years, Nigeria has been practicing
presidential system of government based
on popular participation called "democracy." This
system of government, according to American
definition, is a government of the people, by the
people and for the people. In order to achieve this
concept of democracy, parties are formed based on
ideological inclinations, upon which each political
party seeks to administer the people of the country.
America, the architect of modern democracy, practices
two party system of government namely, the democrats
and the republicans. Nigeria however, due to her
peculiarities, practices multi-party system of 51
registered political parties, with fractured
ideologies. This makes it easy for its practitioners
to hop from one party to another with reckless abandon
in search of greener pastures.
Frankly speaking, the story
of leadership governance in Nigeria since 1999 has
been a sad point of reference. In spite of the human
and material resources Nigeria is endowed with, the
country is still walloping in miasma of hopelessness
mainly due to corruption, greed, sentiment, avarice,
nepotism, mutual suspicion and gross indiscipline
among the leaders and the led. As a result of these
unfortunate situation, every one groans on daily
basis. These normally lead to one form of crisis or
the other. As a result of the flip-flop policies of
the government in the areas of education, health,
energy and power, security, industry, agriculture,
etc, things become nosedived and abysmally
unregulated. The country is so much in mess today that
both the rich and the poor adopt spurious survival
strategy and engages in short-cuts as means of
survival. It is the responsibility of government to
engage and empower her citizens particularly the
youths in self reliance and qualitative education.
Sadly enough, the government seems to give credence to
militancy, political thuggery, electoral frauds and
illiteracy, all of which are capable of degenerating
into a bleak future.
Leadership position of any
given office is very cumbersome because it entails
responsibilities that only the principle mind can
carry. It is not easy to be a leader. Any one who
thinks that leadership is easy only believes so in
terms of leadership without responsibilities. In any
case, I do not think that leadership without
responsibilities is required in any society, if the
essence of leadership is to serve people and the
entire society for progress. Most of our Politicians
and office seekers are being stimulated in their
political participation by their desire to project and
some times, promote their selfish goals and values and
not by a sense of civic duty to serve the interest of
the community. Their desire is to gain reward through
political participation. They are never interested in
the service to the people but how to amass wealth to
the detriment of the people they pledge to serve.
The essence of any
leadership position is to use one's experience to
create enabling environment for the survival and
development of a just and balance society, a society
devoid of rancour and unwholesome practices, a society
that is ridden of corruption and bigotries, a society
that is built on trust and sincerity of purpose and
indeed, a society where ethnic and religious
differences does not matter. In order to create this
type of good atmosphere, every leader uses guiding
principle as a basis of carrying out political,
economic, social and cultural responsibilities. The
practice of democracy, as the late revolutionary Malam
Aminu Kano once
remarked during the first republic politics, has
resulted to massive corruption and abuse, and the
alienation of people from government. Indeed, since
the present political dispensation began in 1999, our
politicians and party leaders have extorted money from
government contracts, waiting to purchase erectors and
votes when the time comes so that they can continue
milking the country dry.
It is also a sad note to
observe that the past leaders that caused severe havoc
to Nigeria's socio-economic and political advancement
and made the country to be walking on crutches having
been amputated by their corruption, mismanagement and
inefficiency are staging a come back to cause another
heavy devastation to the country. We must try to
uncover such leaders and avoid them fooling us again.
We should also tell them that we have competent men of
God and integrity that have also been tested and
trusted and among them we expect the people of Nigeria
to decide who should hold their trust in 2011 poll. We
should be bold to point out that despite all
unfortunate problems of Nigeria lingering around; one
is convinced that there is some one that could still
do the country good if given the chance. This is where
the present people's governor of Kano State, Malam
Ibrahim Shekarau as alternative remedy to the problems
of Nigeria comes to play.
Indeed, we are optimistic
that with Shekarau's kind of leadership, especially
when one looks at his unprecedented achievements he
recorded for the people of the most populous state,
Kano, there is no doubt that as a new
generation politician; he will be able to get rid off
the age long political and socio-economic problems
that have been bedeviling the country. As a gentleman
of impeccable character, he cannot allow any social,
political and economic convulsions to continue to
happen to Nigeria and Nigerians. As a matter of fact,
there are so many things that differentiate the
governor of Kano State from most of his colleagues in
other states of the federation. I want somebody to
correct me if there is any other governor in Nigeria,
apart from Shekarau whose administration publicly
informs her people on monthly basis the government
income and expenditure. Please, tell me who among the
governors that allows non-indigenes in his state to be
part of his government. These are just tip of the
iceberg. It is this distinctive approach to issues
that any one who truly has concern for Nigeria should
ensure Shekarau's choice for President in 2011.The
ANPP delegates in particular and Nigerians in general
should not make mistake on this.
This is chiefly because, to
move the country out of her socio-economic and
political quagmires, we require leaders that have the
fear of God, no matter how little. We need leaders
that truly represent the yeaning and aspirations of
Nigerians, irrespective of tribal, religious and
political affiliations. We need leaders that strongly
believe in the unity of our diversity. We need leaders
that are consistent in tackling problems and issues
rather than parochial sentiments. We need principled
leaders that can stand on their oars and call a spade
a spade, not minding who is involved. Indeed, Nigeria
needs a president that knows the rudiment of democracy
and not some one that is already used to command. One
of these hard-to-get leaders that have distinguishably
carved a niche for him self is Malam (Dr) Ibrahim
Shekarau of Kano State. Nigerians are therefore
extremely happy that God has made him to declare his
intention to run for the presidency.
Many Nigerians have spoken
well of him. Professors, politicians, traditional
leaders, students, market women, government
functionaries, trade unions, professionals and even
his opponents have distinguishably commented and
appraised Malam (Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau as a man that
should be elected as the next
President of Nigeria in 2011. Nigerians
are patiently waiting for him to take up the mantle of
leadership in 2011 so that he can stop the country
from being milked, milked and milked without being fed
like a cow. Allah bamu sa'a!
Saka
Raji Audu writes from Kano and can be
reached on his email:
sakaraj@yahoo.com
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