By: AbdulRahman Agboola
The
generality of young people are expected to understand the imports of pedigree,
nay, just but few who are struggling to achieve distinctions and unblemished
records in their fields of endeavours are on the track to attain pedigree while
the political landscape is not even comfortable for the young men with pedigree
to emerge either as Governors or President. It is not damaging to state that
most of the young people tested with authority since 1999 failed and the urge
to turn the tides around is highly imperative with the poor state of affairs of
our Country today. The young people are the soul of every Nation, the quality
of thinking and depth of knowledge among them are necessities for growth and
development.
In
advanced democracy globally, scrutiny of public officers or people aspiring to
hold public offices goes beyond mere routine, it is an ultimate priority for
security agencies assigned with the task of background checks and proper
profiling for the purpose of ensuring stability in the polity. The result may
not yield perfect result but the essence has proved worthy where integrity
really matters, prior to issuance of security clearance to either get appointed
or elected. Where security agencies are
not compromised by political stooges that play to the gallery, security
clearance is a core prerequisite to earn trust as a public officer and when a
public officer is indicted for acts that breach public trust whether current or
in retrospect, such officer exit office in the interest of public trust. Every
political office holder is usually under watch for any oddity capable of
derailing the cause of good governance and when situation abound, any erring
public officer must drop the baton.
Ours
is not an advanced democracy but we can improve on the gains of the last few
years to advance democratic values and norms. Although, there are several
impediments such as poor orientation, self-indulgence, quota system and
affinity, blocking our path to toll the path of core democratic engagements in
line with the constitution, the urgent needs to create Nigerian Principles is
very germane to advance democracy in Nigeria. Paper qualifications without
commensurable proof of intellectual mobility by office seekers to discharge required
tasks effectively and in positive manner negate the task ahead and raise
germane concerns for future elections in Nigeria. People seems to have limited
opportunities to correct the ills of the society to transition while failing to
understand that political parties in Nigeria lacks ideological premises to
promote democratic ethos.
Every
great Country has guiding principles that serves as motivations for citizens to
entrust their welfare in care of their leaders that never betray citizens’
trust. In Nigeria, what are our guiding principles other than the Constitution
bestowed on the Nation under a military junta and has not witnessed a complete
overhaul. It has somewhat become a tradition in this era to submit to whim and
gestures of political office holders without halting that leadership when
situation arises. It is nauseating to observe that, except for bickering or crises
among political lords, no Governor or President in Nigeria ever stepped down or
democratically forced out of office on the altar of peoples opposition,
dissatisfaction or loss of confidence. The people are tied to the apron of the
intentions of the drafters of our constitution to allow every elected officer
to rule with ignominy if he chooses to and only get removed at election period.
The ruling class is guilty of misgoverning the people but the people themselves
especially the downtrodden, provided the platform for the oppressive tendencies
of the ruling class in so many ways. Topical out of this is our failure to
thoroughly investigate the private life, pedigree, antecedents, moral
background and career records of people we repose our confidence at moments of
elections.
Since
1999, every successive government has exhausted their terms and even influences
the emergence of their successors with virtually nothing to substantiate growth
and development in Nigeria. A re-evaluation of the method of governance in
Nigeria will be instrumental to future accomplishments if issues are dissected
into proper perspectives, commencing from restructuring of federating units,
unicameral legislature, local government autonomy and merger of Nigeria
Security and Civil Defense Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps, Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria Drugs and Law Enforcement Agency and
Department of State Security with the Nigeria Police Force to have an
efficient, strong and reliable Police Force like we had before the deliberate
decimation of the Police Force by the Federal Government during the Military
era.
It
is very imperative to state that the Nigeria Police Force was a cynosure for
other Africa Countries till government created other agencies with duplicitous
roles that weakened the operations of Police Force. It is not a misfire to
regard this act as a deliberate act by the Military Juntas that reigned in
Nigeria to ensure that the Military interfere in internal security and make the
police force irresponsible and the result is what we witness today. Since the 2015 Presidential Election, the
word integrity is fondly used as basis of appointment into public offices; this
parameter is a positive measure capable of forestalling emergence of crooks and
dubious personalities as public officers. In the last two years, notable among
indicted public officers on allegations of corruption are not at rest, the
system has put them on trial on varied degrees but much more needed to be
actualized to make them accountable for their misdeeds and deny them future
opportunities of holding public offices. Recently at the National Assembly,
there seems to be a thin disconnect from the tradition of outright submissions
to the will of Mr President on confirmations of appointees and approvals.
The
Senate in particular has raised their responsibility by relying on security
clearance before confirmations as indicated in their reliance on test of
integrity. Who is legally empowered to issue security clearance and what is the
level of fairness of that agency to the Nigeria System. Since the Senate has
priority for integrity test, Senators should be the first point of reference
and Sahara Reporters has taken the lead by putting the most vocal Senator in
the red chamber to integrity test through his academic records from the
University he attended. Senator Dino
Melaye is obviously a product of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria where he studied
Geography at the degree level. Although Sahara Reporters alleged Dino Melaye of
not graduating from the institution, different revelations showed he graduated
but under questionable circumstances at variance with laid down regulations considering
the academic transcripts of Senator Dino Melaye, he failed the integrity test
woefully because circumstances that surrounds his graduation negates standard
the institution is reputed for. He spent 8 years for a 4 years Course and was
eventually granted waivers of seven carry over courses before exiting the
system with a poor grade and until the management of the prestigious Ahmadu
Bello University make categorical statement to clear the air on his academic
career, we cannot conclude on this matter.
Aside
his academic qualification, Dino Melaye never had a carrier in the civil
service nor organized private sector other than running a Non-Governmental
Organisation known as National Democratic Youth before his ascendance into the
corridor of power in 2007 or thereabout. He is political machinery and how can
political machinery with flares for display of wealth pass an integrity test.
Come to think of it, he once earned a suspension from the House of
Representatives and enjoyed the backing of the leaders of All Progressive
Congress that super imposed him on other candidates for the Senatorial Election
in his constituency without a proper primary election and as a matter of fact,
Samuel Aro was disqualified for Dino Melaye at the primaries by APC Leaders.
Where is the place of pedigree in his ascendancy to fame and political power?
There
are numerous Senators with records of frauds in previous positions held while
several of them are battling with moral crises over public knowledge of their
dubious antecedents by the general public yet they secured security clearance
to contest elections same for some serving Ministers and Governors. We cannot
afford to continue to allow people of flawed antecedents to occupy public
offices simply because they have means of escaping the wrath of the law, the
law must be functional enough to sanitize the corridors of power and prevent
ill motivated personalities from occupying sensitive positions any longer.
Aside Sahara Reporters and Premium Times, just a handful of Print and
Electronic Medias currently engage in genuine investigative journalism, without
which democracy will not thrive beyond civil rule as we have witnessed in the
last 18 years. The media has the responsibility of sensitizing Nigerians on
issues of national importance, though press freedom places embargo on blackmail
and slander, proper reportage should be the watchword.
If
we evaluate the credentials of public office holders, we will discover that
majority of them lacks integrity but we cannot allow the vicious circle to
continue. My fears on the project for a better society where the ills will be
replaced with virtuous deeds are the young men and women of Nigeria deeply
enmeshed in frivolities and self-indulgence. It has become a habit among young
people to blame the elderly population of misruling this Country since 1960 and
feels they should vacate the center stage for young people to govern the
Country and available statistics shows that a paltry few out of people below 45
years of age that have occupied public offices in the last 17 years have
mismanaged the affairs of the people and enriched themselves corruptly, which
means it is our system or method of governance that strongly require necessary
reviews.
An
amusing situation is the fact that the elderly people mostly wielding political
influences and power today fought against status quo in their younger days
where they struggled and achieved Independence for the Country, change of system
of government from parliamentary to presidential, abolition of regional
government, state creations and led struggles for the enthronement of
democratic rule in 1999 whereas, we the young people of today have failed to
coordinate ourselves to achieve interesting systemic change at this era but
promote misdemeanours under the guise of freedom of speech, religion, social
life and association, a situation that must change if Nigeria must move forward
as a Nation.
Let
young people of Nigeria close their ranks and unite to achieve a total overhaul
of the system by conducting proper analysis of issues from well informed point
of views before accepting or condemning policies, actions and principles at
variance with their knowledge. The act of submitting to authorities and wishes
of people we regard as role models and mentors because of pecuniary gains or
lack of knowledge about their dubious tendencies has placed this Country on
perpetual ruin and the right time is now for genuine activists and mobilisers
to raise the advocacy for a better Nigeria in the best interest of this Country
on the verge of economic ruin. Politicians fights dirty for absolute
control over structures, while masses gets carried away with the bait of public
interest as the basis of feud among the gladiators, their bigger interest still
unite them, it's
all about relevance and sadankata, nothing like public interest yet, let the
holiday katakata continue but young people must be productive in thoughts and
actions, fairness should be fair enough for public good and equity must be equitable
without limitations.
Comrade
AbdulRahman Agboola
Good
Citizen of Nigeria
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