For a country deeply enmeshed in bitter partisan bickering, political intolerance and senseless blame-game, the statesmanship displayed by Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal and Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike deserves some commendation. It indeed demonstrates the needed difference between ‘politicking’ and leadership.
Last weekend, Tambuwal, led by his host, Wike, commissioned various projects completed by Governor Wike in Rivers State after the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Conference in Port Harcourt. The host governor is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his guest, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Among projects commissioned by Tambuwal were the Rumualogu-Alakahia road in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area built to ease traffic congestion in that sector of the LGA and the expanded and rehabilitated Okrika ATC Jetty and pavilion reconstructed by the government for safer water transformation in the area.
Commissioning the projects, Tambuwal described Governor Wike as a man of the people committed to the development of the state. “I see that Wike is a man of the people who is committed to the development of the state. I commission this road to the glory of God and the benefit of the people”, Tambuwal said.
Tambuwal spoke from the heart as a good leader should and not a political opponent and demonstrated very clearly, that what follows after every election is leadership and service and not the needless blame-game that has characterised governance at the centre and the bitterness that has coloured the criticisms of the opposition in the state.
Nigeria recorded one of the worst examples of opposition politics months before the 2015 general elections and did not abate even after opposition won the Presidential elections. To date, name-calling takes the place of reasonable leadership.
It was an opposition that saw nothing good in government and politicised even national security. Some examples may suffice.
When it became evident that Nigeria could no longer enrich a cartel of Independent Marketers, who through questionable refined products import claims, made non sense of the petroleum subsidy, and moved to liberalise the downstream sector, opposition kicked, even if they knew it was the right thing to do. They mobilized civil society groups, labour and the jobless lot, provided them with uniforms, foods and flyers in protest against a lofty economic move.
Months later in government, the same APC government did what they should have encouraged the Jonathan government to do when, the Naira had stronger value against other major currencies than later that more than N350 is needed to buy a dollar. Today, the official rate of fuel is N145, up from N87 while, in the open market it sells for between N200 and N300, with consequential hike in prices of basic needs.
This is in spite of the fact that there are no palliatives to cushion the effects of the drastic increase as was being contemplated by the Jonathan Presidency. Attempts to tinker such palliatives this time around were dashed, no thanks to a badly polarised labour which lost its bargaining power to needless power tussle.
In the area of security, opposition view then was that the Jonathan Presidency was too soft on Boko Haram because of the relative inexperience of the Commander-In-Chief. But when the Nigerian troops, under Jonathan’s order took the fight to the terrorists stronghold, the opposition was the first to cry genocide and ethnic cleansing, both concoctions intended to present the Commander-In-Chief as anti-North.
Even so, opposition politicians sponsored a campaign to pressure government to bring back the Chibok School girls abducted by the terrorists. Initially, Nigerians were fooled into believing that the Bringback Our Girls campaigners were apolitical Civil Society activists, genuinely moved by the plight of the girls. It was only after the elections that Nigerians indeed realised that it was a partisan crusade.
But like all monsters, the group has now grown bigger than its owner, and still pursues its agenda of pressuring the APC-government to go bring back the girls. Denied audience with the Presidency, the group staged another protest last week, although the campaigners were later disowned by parents of the abducted girls, who said they were not part of the ill-fated protest to barricade the entrance to Aso Rock Villa.
In those three instances, opposition politicians gave the impression that they had alternative answers to the problems.
First, they would make the nation’s refineries perform optimally and even build new ones. Nearly two years in the tenure, nothing has been done to stop fuel importation. Nigerians are now left on their own and at the mercy of the same importers. What government used to spend to relieve the people of the burden has been removed with no sign that new refineries would emerge to force down prices.
The second is the war on terror. The initial impression was that Buhari had a magic wand with which in three months, we would bring the terrorists to their knees. In fact, December 2015 was peddled as deadline government gave to totally dissimate Boko Haram. Yes, the troops have done well and won territories, hitherto held by the terrorists, but the war is yet to be totally won.
The third is the Chibok girls. The talk then was that a Jonathan Presidency lacked the required military intelligence to locate and bring back the girls. That a Buhari Presidency would within days, locate the girls and save them from the strangle-hold of their abductors. A year and three months after, that has not happened.
The excuses then are today the same. First, government knew where the girls were but was avoiding collateral damage. And later, there is no clear information as to their whereabouts. Just then, Shekau, the Boko Haram henchman released a new video, showing the depleted number of the girls, with an accusation that troops’ bombings were responsible for the deaths of many. The bottomline remains that the girls are yet to be brought back.
If these issues of urgent national concern were not politicised and treated patriotically through bi-partisanship, Nigeria would not be where she is today. For instance, Nigerians would have gotten used to the liberalisation and be relatively stronger to face today’s harsh economy and joblessness. Perhaps also, Boko Haram would have been history and the Chibok girls brought back home.
That is the kind of bi-partisanship that is required in addressing development concerns of the people. That indeed was what Tambuwal and Wike demonstrated when they left their different party garbs behind to celebrate service to the people. That is what electoral victory should be all about. Knowing when to stop political bickering distinguishes a leader from a political jobber.
This is the example opposition politicians in Rivers State should imbibe and not continue to make the state a battle-field, a war front of sorts, where, every political contest must be bloody and inconclusive.
My Agony is that die-hard partisan jobbers would rather than see leadership in Tambuwal’s rare demonstration of statesmanship, misinterpret it, as anti-party and a sign of voting ambition for 2019. That’s how petty some can get, but fact is, both governors deserve commendation for a rare leadership example.