By  Ayo Oyoze Baje

“I speak like an elder citizen with love for Nigeria. But I must confess that we have let the citizens down… It should be noted that our elected political leaders are not our rulers but our servants. “We are a governed nation and deserve good leadership. But somewhere along the line we lost that fire of Fela. Those of us who think that the elections of 2023 is about who becomes the president miss the point. The question we should ask ourselves is if Nigeria will survive and in what form? No one will help Nigeria if we don’t help ourselves”.  – Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed (Director of Publicity and Advocacy of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF).

FELA DEBATE 2022, which was the first event to kick-start this year’s Felabration turned out to be highly engaging, informative and indeed became food-for-thought for the attendees on the sordid state of the nation. With the best of patriotic and well-informed minds such as iconic Bishop Hassan Kukah, Kadaria Ahmed (Leading Nigerian journalist  and Executive Director,  Daria Media), Kingsley Moghalu (The Founder, and President of Strategies LCC) and of course, the already mentioned Dr. Hassan Baba-Ahmed as discussants, it could not have turned out any less. Good enough, it was ably moderated by Mr. Edmund Obilo, the Director of Research at Bilficom Media Systems. Worthy of note that Baba-Ahmed who began the debate reminded Nigerians that we should understand that when we listened to Fela, we listened to our own voices; to ourselves. His lifestyle was not what was on the table.  Rather, he stood up to the existential threats that bedeviled the country. At that point, he brought on stage a young Nigerian boy that is probably seven years old and let us know that the decisions we make, come 2023 general elections will not be about us but the next generation. That should serve as cause for concern for us. As he rightly advised, poverty and insecurity affect us all and no group is better than another. He recalls speaking with Nelson Mandela when he left prison and he kept asking him what really happened to Nigeria that he kept hearing stories about Nigeria branded with the negative issues of crimes and corruption. What should engage our attention is how to get the old and better Nigeria back. He wondered how ASUU could be on strike for seven months and our leaders did not feel concerned!  It is time to re-invent Nigeria, to bring back the Fela fire in us. In the intelligent perspective of Kadaria Ahmed, Fela was more than music. Though he used street language, people tend to underestimate his genius. She expressed full appreciation for both the music and for his political ideology.

Our challenge is that Identity Politics is our main problem. It is real, deliberate and meant to enthrone divide-and-rule as one of the legacies of the British colonialists. For her, it is disturbing that 62 years on we still have the politics of ethnic sentiments. She revealed that corruption has become so much entrenched in the system that a 4km long pipe taking out thousands of litres of crude oil embedded somewhere in the South-South was only discovered recently after nine years! She asked how it was possible that no police officer, no naval officer, no politician and even the local vigilantes knew nothing about it.  The bitter truth is that corruption pans virtually all the ethnic groups. She took a swipe at Zamfara state where she hails from and wonders how a gold-rich state has become so insecure and ungoverned that bandits have become lords as they are being turbaned by the Emirs! What happened to the industrial hub, with rail line in Gusau, back in the sixties boasting of Tate and Lyle textiles, Mushilin tyres, tanneries and a popular sugar-refining company?  Like Kingsley Moghalu she touched tellingly on the issue of national unity. Though she hails from the north, her children grew up in Akure. And as Baba-Ahned stated,  the misery of poverty is real across the country. In fact, it is reflected in some families where the daughters  sell their bodies to feed the members. On the way forward, we need unity of purpose .  There are fundamentals that must change. Nigerians must begin to hold their leaders accountable for mis-governance. We need to enthrone internal democracy.  We need to decentralize political power from the centre down through the states to the local government councils. LGA autonomy must come to stay. On Prof. Kingsley Moghalu’s part, he highlighted the issue of national unity with personal instances. It was  Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Ransom Kuti who  him a Yoruba name, ‘Ayodele’, during his naming ceremony. He stated that it was Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi  who facilitated  his Fellowship to study in one of the world’s most prestigious universities.  And it was Alhaji Lamido Sanusi Lamido who gave him the rare opportunity of becoming the Deputy  Governor of the CBN. To him, “ we, as Nigerians are not as divided as we think”! That should serve as food for thought for those igniting ethno-religious cries in the country. On the 2023 Elections  we need  leaders with a World View, who will unity Nigerians as it operates in US, UK and China.  Besides, such a leader should focus on Educational Foundation hinged bolstering values and driven by skills acquisition. We need leaders that would kick-start employment generation for our youth, many of who are jobless. So, our focus in 2023 should be on candidates, voters and INEC. The elections will mark a watershed year in our history. He stated that: “Thinking is more important than you think”. We should go beyond managing or tolerating the bad situation by working towards solutions with workable ideas. Unfortunately, Nigeria lost the path to federalism between 1947 and 1951 when the basics of consensus was that of true federalism  as they have it in US, Australia, Brazil, India. But while the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello were in support, Dr.  Nnamidi Azikiwe was in opposition.  But Moghalu believes that we can heal the wounds of the past. As he stated: “I have been a Peace Maker in Rwanda, Cambodia and some other countries and I know exactly what it takes”.

Nation building is meant  to turn our country into a nation, with focus on building institutions based on social justice. We must watch INEC. Expressing his candid and patriotic views, Rev. Father Kukah use to wonder if our current group of political leaders do not see, hear or feel the immense pains the people have been going through. As he spoke via zoom, he decided to feature on the Fela Debate out of solidarity for Fela, who demonstrated that a tree can indeed, make a forest. Fela’s  influence remains global. This is therefore, the period to interrogate the process of the election cycle with its recurring ugly decimal of hope and failure.

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The election can be compared to a wedding ceremony but it does not translate into the marriage. Intentions must metamorphose  into concrete actions to birth good  governance.

As Femi Falana(SAN) rightly noted, the time to engage our political leaders to institute constitutional democracy is now. But we must do so by more engagement of the civil populace. And as the eldest of the Kuti family pointed out, the Action Time to hold our leaders responsible for what goes on in our communities, local councils, states and the federal level is now!

But Kukah stated that come 2023 Nigerians will be disappointed because we have not been doing enough on engaging our politicians after every election cycle. Will his prediction come true?

Only time will tell!