Barack Obama

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Often, one is pained to ask in cold anger: does a president understand that government is a human enterprise, and as a result, the occupier of that exalted office should recognize that his victory at the polls belongs to the people and not to a pack of cronies? That, in the natural course of things, is the inherent beauty and power of democracy.

Barack Obama, for example, as president-elect of the USA, acknowledges that the will of the people made it happen, that he is merely an instrument that brought it about. In his victory address in his home city of Chicago on that rarefied night, November 4, 2008, Obama, said” I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to; it belongs to you.” Yes, it belongs to the American people.

Now extend that to Nigeria. Does the same resonate with President Yar’Adua? I wish it were possible for the President to go out anywhere in the country, with a serial note book and pen in hand, with few security aides in tow. Let him feel free to mingle with the people, feel their pulse and their concerns. He should not forget to ask them how they feel about his 20-month-old administration. Mr. President would discover with great shock, the kind of answers he will get.

He will indisputably find how difficult and deep a hole we are all in, how feeble and cowardly the people think his government has been in tackling serious matters of state. Indeed, the President would discover, perhaps to his consternation, that anger is eating deep at our people as if acid was poured on their souls. It is because a vast majority of Nigerians are fed up, in fact, disillusioned with people in power.

They are also losing hope that government and politics can no longer be used to leverage changes in their lives. Competence and confidence are fast losing ground in our land and in our people.
Why has politics done so much good to people in other climes but has brought so much misery to Nigerians? To begin to answer this, we must first acknowledge the truth that life and leadership are measured by the impressions they leave on the minds of the people.

It is a measure of the vision and virtue of the leadership. For some nations, these two things have served them well. For Nigeria, the complete opposite is the case. Or is our case, to borrow the words of Dr. Wilson Badejo, General Overseer of Four Square Gospel church that Nigeria has been ruled by “accidental leaders who never prepared for office nor had agenda”?

It is however refreshing to hear President Yar’Adua say in his Christmas and New Year message that he will ‘deliver’ this year despite forecast by economists and seers that 2009 will be a tough year. But good leadership, good choice and clear vision can limit some of the envisage damage. Listening to the President’s speech brings a lot of things into focus. Let’s look at some of the things he said. He pledged a renewed pace in governance and accelerated delivery of critical infrastructure this year.
He hinged his pledge on the changes in the Federal Executive Council through the cabinet reshuffle done last month.

The clincher and promise of hope was when he said that in 2009, his administration shall match words with action and “strive harder to meet the national aspirations for greatness.” He added, Long deferred, the promise of Nigeria shall not continue to remain just a potential. It will soon be redeemed. Our season of renewal has dawned, we remain fully committed to deliver on our promise of a better standard of living for all Nigerians through our seven-Point Agenda.

Few things are clear in this message: It’s a tacit admission that he failed to deliver on his promises in 2008. There is nothing that derails a presidency like a president abandoning the promise that brought him into office. President Yar’Adua, it must be said, abandoned the compass that brought him to Aso Rock almost from day one. That is why darkness has befallen the nation and a promise of a better tomorrow now looks very bleak.
But can we trust that he can do what he has promised he will do this year? There is nothing wrong with living in hope or faith. After all, the scripture says faith is a substance of things hoped for, but the evidence of things not seen. There is nothing wrong with doing the talk, for talking is cheap, doing the walk is where the task is. There is nothing indeed wrong with been optimistic. Nigerians have been playing this expectation game for ten years now.

But come to think of it, what’s is the new cabinet that gives the president confidence? What’s the President’s own antecedents to show that he’s capable of delivering on his new promise? There is little in the new cabinet that gives real hope. Everybody was expecting new faces and new approach to politics. It didn’t happen.

For months, it was all talk and no action. And when it happened, it was a sprinkle of stardust. What one can deduce from the new cabinet is that the president has no nose for talents. It is these talents that will help any president focus and actualize his agenda. People from all political divide are applauding Obama for choosing a bright and competent team. It’s because Obama himself has got the nouns to identify talented people, as the Americans would put it, smart people. As Obama said, “if you have got really smart people who are focused on the same mission, then usually, you get some things done”

Remember, he didn’t say ‘all things will be done,’ because governance recognizes that as human enterprise which politics is, people have their limitations and frailties that are also subject to the environment the appointees find themselves. And our environment is indeed a big a de-motivation for reaching the heights.
Now to the president’s limitations. I have said this before and it’s worth repeating this New Year, that a leader who shows poor judgment in his appointments not only breaks faith with the people, he creates problems for himself.

When this happens, the legitimacy of his been in office, and by extension, his actions and decisions, become a matter of debate. Success, for whatever it means, requires in the main, diligence and adjusting course when errors are made. I don’t think this administrations has admitted publicly that it has committed serious mistakes. When errors are made and acknowledged, they act as a springboard for success.

When the president fails to deliver, that psychic energy that suppose to influence his appointees deserts them. The gritty truth is that until now, 20 months into his presidency, we are yet to see the ‘servant Leader’ and his vision.

Vision remains an abstract until it’s translated into tangible things that the people can see and feel, things that can remind them, ‘Oh! it’s good he’s in power! One would have been optimistic of the President’s pledge, but when you recall that such promise had been made before, and was broken, it becomes a forlorn hope to expect that anything will change for the better. But as said earlier, hope is eternal.

Life becomes meaningless when the people abandon hope. Agreed, been a president is perhaps the toughest job any man can task his brain, but the truth is that Nigerians don’t demand much from those who govern them. Many of their demands don’t go beyond the kitchen-table concerns –such as good roads, constant power supply, employment, etc.

If a president is able to provide these, I tell you, the people will forgive him other trysts. But never take the people’s patience for stupidity. This year will test Yar’Adua in all fronts – his speed, or his “go –slow”, his flexibility or rigidity. So much will come to play that will define, once and for all, his presidency, whether he is there for real or for joke.

For all that matters, Nigerians should in 2009 be more attentive to how politicians run their lives. It’s no longer safe to be indifferent, because one thing is for sure now: none of the political parties is speaking on behalf of the people. That’s the surreal in our democratic experience. What the president needs to do to regain the confidence of the people is to tack back to the centre. That’s where the people are, the hapless majority.