AGAINST
the jostle by politicians ahead of the 2015 elections in this country,
the halfway point in the American President Obama’s two terms on the use
of power is significant. It offers Nigerian political playmakers a deep
lesson not just on how power is won, but also how it is accounted for.
The most basic lesson is the decency embraced in seeking power, and the
commitment to using the power to meet the people’s aspiration.
Unfortunately in Nigeria, hardly had the April 2011 elections been
concluded that titans and factions of the Peoples’ Democratic Party
(PDP), Nigeria’ ruling party, began to talk about, and position
themselves for the 2015 elections. Will President Jonathan contest in
2015? Where will the presidential ticket be zoned? What faction or
regional bloc is ‘capturing’ what party organ to position itself for
2015? Most citizens have found these agitations in extremely poor taste,
a desperate pursuit of power for its own sake. Nigeria’s opposition
parties have also announced a merger to hopefully wrest power from the
PDP in 2015, a development that has brought the next election year
closer to the populace. The concern is whether politicians will use the
current opportunity to organize politics to promote the interests of
Nigerians rather than the narrow ambitions of cliques and cabals.
President Obama contested the American Presidency as a one-term Senator. His suitability was left to the rank and file party members to judge. This is internal party democracy as a choice of masses of members which is a contrast to godfather democracy in which decisions are reached by a small group of party elders and lorded over the rest of the people. Nigerians should demand from the party of their choice that contenders for public offices should have their ideas and suitability rigorously tested in genuinely competitive primaries, so that those who are elected are made accountable to the electorate rather than to godfathers.
President Obama made concrete promises anchored on very clear policy platforms while running to become President of the United States. These were not vague promises of the usual goodies - roads, free healthcare and jobs, etc, which are never backed by concrete ideas and figures about how to actualize. Obama’s campaign focused on key issues such as legislation on universal healthcare, immigration reform and withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in his first term. These entailed detailed planning including the design of policy, institutional innovations, elaboration and costing of implementation steps to make the policies a success. Nigerians should hold politicians accountable for their promises. Isn’t it alarming that no politician is seriously examining the myriad of problems confronting the country, and their likely solutions? Do they consider the civil service adequate for planning and accelerating economic growth that the country so desperately needs? Will they implement the Oronsanye Report on pruning the cost of governance? Will they abolish the grossly unpopular governors’ security votes and immunity from prosecution or prune the lawmakers’ gargantuan pay? If they win power, will they facilitate the building of local refineries so as to eradicate the bogey of fuel subsidy? To borrow from the American debate, will they promote big government or make Abuja smaller?
President Obama inherited a deep economic crisis, occasioned by structural factors such as the lopsided balance of trade with China and errant policies such as lax regulation of the financial system. He worked day and night to restore America’s economic health, growing grey hairs in the process. Even some of his harshest critics admit that without the stimulus policies which he initiated largely in the face of the opposition of the Republican Party, America’s economy would have suffered from a much deeper and longer slowdown. By election night, President Obama had hauled the American economy far away from the emergency room and was thus able to successfully defeat Republicans’ claims to superior stewardship of the economy.
Nigeria’s poor economic performance and pervasive poverty call for rigorous policy plans from contenders for political offices in 2015. Nigerians should not accept any lamentations or excuses about how bad things are, and how they will take forever to resolve.
President Obama cobbled together a majority from minorities-African and Latin Americans, women and young people. There is far more than identity politics to the construction of this coalition as the groups have coalesced around an alternative vision of America offered by President Obama. Obama’s America is a country where equality is more than a political or constitutional principle. Rather, it makes a more demanding claim on the state to offer better life opportunities to weaker members of the society believing this strengthens the American society. This is something that Nigeria can emulate.
President Obama hit the ground running from the podium in which he was inaugurated for this second term having identified policy priorities for the next four years in very clear terms. The unfolding politics of 2015, however, shows that Nigerian politicians are just preparing for another power grab. Nigerians deserve and should demand much better. President Obama and the American voters offer useful lessons in how power should be contested, used and accounted foFROM THE GUARDIAN
President Obama contested the American Presidency as a one-term Senator. His suitability was left to the rank and file party members to judge. This is internal party democracy as a choice of masses of members which is a contrast to godfather democracy in which decisions are reached by a small group of party elders and lorded over the rest of the people. Nigerians should demand from the party of their choice that contenders for public offices should have their ideas and suitability rigorously tested in genuinely competitive primaries, so that those who are elected are made accountable to the electorate rather than to godfathers.
President Obama made concrete promises anchored on very clear policy platforms while running to become President of the United States. These were not vague promises of the usual goodies - roads, free healthcare and jobs, etc, which are never backed by concrete ideas and figures about how to actualize. Obama’s campaign focused on key issues such as legislation on universal healthcare, immigration reform and withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in his first term. These entailed detailed planning including the design of policy, institutional innovations, elaboration and costing of implementation steps to make the policies a success. Nigerians should hold politicians accountable for their promises. Isn’t it alarming that no politician is seriously examining the myriad of problems confronting the country, and their likely solutions? Do they consider the civil service adequate for planning and accelerating economic growth that the country so desperately needs? Will they implement the Oronsanye Report on pruning the cost of governance? Will they abolish the grossly unpopular governors’ security votes and immunity from prosecution or prune the lawmakers’ gargantuan pay? If they win power, will they facilitate the building of local refineries so as to eradicate the bogey of fuel subsidy? To borrow from the American debate, will they promote big government or make Abuja smaller?
President Obama inherited a deep economic crisis, occasioned by structural factors such as the lopsided balance of trade with China and errant policies such as lax regulation of the financial system. He worked day and night to restore America’s economic health, growing grey hairs in the process. Even some of his harshest critics admit that without the stimulus policies which he initiated largely in the face of the opposition of the Republican Party, America’s economy would have suffered from a much deeper and longer slowdown. By election night, President Obama had hauled the American economy far away from the emergency room and was thus able to successfully defeat Republicans’ claims to superior stewardship of the economy.
Nigeria’s poor economic performance and pervasive poverty call for rigorous policy plans from contenders for political offices in 2015. Nigerians should not accept any lamentations or excuses about how bad things are, and how they will take forever to resolve.
President Obama cobbled together a majority from minorities-African and Latin Americans, women and young people. There is far more than identity politics to the construction of this coalition as the groups have coalesced around an alternative vision of America offered by President Obama. Obama’s America is a country where equality is more than a political or constitutional principle. Rather, it makes a more demanding claim on the state to offer better life opportunities to weaker members of the society believing this strengthens the American society. This is something that Nigeria can emulate.
President Obama hit the ground running from the podium in which he was inaugurated for this second term having identified policy priorities for the next four years in very clear terms. The unfolding politics of 2015, however, shows that Nigerian politicians are just preparing for another power grab. Nigerians deserve and should demand much better. President Obama and the American voters offer useful lessons in how power should be contested, used and accounted foFROM THE GUARDIAN
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