Orji Uzor Kalu on Yar’Adua’s 12 months on the saddle

Sir,

I read your leadership series of 5th July 2008 with a tablespoon full of salt.

This is predicated on my last encounter with you after your “Fidel or infidel” which I considered and still consider an unfair assessment of El-Comandante and the achievements he has made in Cuba in the face of relentless United States unwarranted assault.

I am forced to write you again, after reading your most recent article on Yar’Adua’s 12 months in office. Each time I am chanced to read your leadership series, I crave for insightful information but you always disappoint me.

As a governor of a volatile state like Abia, with ndi Ngwa and old Bende division att dagger’s drawn, one had expected you write about the intricacies of governance. The younger generation wants to know how a master strategist was able to rule and survive the 8 years of cold war with the maximum ruler of Nigeria. They also want to read and learn how to handle renegade deputies, of which you are not in want of experience to share. Generations younger than yours, wants to know how you pulled out the coup that installed Theodore Oji, who was in EFCC detention at the time of election.

These expectations have not been met, rather you write like a journalist and a sensational columnist in desperate need to butt in on all national issues.

Wisdom in deed is like a goat skin bag and everyone carries his own. With this ageless African adage, I will restrict my reaction to national issues you raised and let your personal opinion be yours, for I may disagree with what you said but I am bound to respect your right to say so.

According to your article, “Yar’Adua is a firm and no nonsense person..” A good look at Mr. President, shows that he is a fair weather president, a man who does not think deep about his actions before making it official and open. The most recent, is the Niger Delta Gambari saga. Hasn’t the president over ruled himself? Why heat up the already volatile Niger Delta with a choice the people are against? He kept mute and allowed all manner of feathers to be ruffled before he capitulated. At the dawn of his ascension, the announcement of Acting Inspector General of Police and the following reversal does not show Yar’Adua as a firm person. He is more like a man who stirs the pond and pitch his tent where popular opinion is, so as to come across as a listening president. This unassertiveness will not be long before the fifth columnists in his government will hijack him.

Your article also said that “He has surprised everybody by the way and manner he has run his administration”. Sir, any good student of political psychology won’t be surprised. Mr. President from the legendry Yar’Adua family, is playing true to type. What role did his brother play in 1976-79? Shadowy. Hungry for power but afraid to stand out. His younger brother is playing same, only that he has taken it to a greater art. Mrs. President does the daily running around and is the most conspicuous face of this administration. The president, runs Nigeria on an Auto-pilot. Each day will resolve its crisis. Like Abacha, Mr. President has landlocked himself in Aso Rock with minimal visit to the states of the federation. Mr. President has visited more foreign countries than the states in Nigeria. Is this a style of leadership to be proud of?

A leader who goes abroad to wash her dirty boxers. At the just concluded G8 meeting, Yar’Adua opened up that it is a cartel of buyer of stolen crude oil that is behind the Niger Delta crises. If it is true, what has Mr. President done about the porous boarders of Nigeria? An oil sea faring tanker is not too tiny that it cannot be sported by the Nigerian Navy, yet the Navy high command has not been reprimanded. Has there been any structural and administrative change in the Nigerian Navy or Customs? The guns floating in the creeks of the Niger Delta are not manufactured in Nigeria. They are imported in containers, some duly cleared, while others are smuggled into the country via a well known smugglers route. Yar’Adua’s administrative style is suspect rather than surprising.

Now to the burning issue. Niger Delta. Your submission is that “the present upheaval in the region is not totally the fault of Yar’Adua. It was there long before he came”. Let me ask, which problem was Yar’Adua’s? According to Lucky Dube, “people have problems since the Pope was an altar-boy”. Same applies to Nigeria. It is these problems and their resolution that we go to the polls every four years to elect (forget about Maurice Iwu’s 2007 wuruwuru), leaders who will shepherd us to the Promised Land, where these problems will be minimal. Yar’Adua when he was being led like a dog to an Akwa Ibom man’s kitchen by Obasanjo, was telling those who cared to listen that he will solve the Niger Delta problems, declare state of emergency on the power sector. 12 months after, what do we have? Over militarization of the Niger Delta with casualty rate higher than what it was under Abacha and the Odi massacre.

The problem with Nigeria leadership class is that most of its members are not qualified to be there. Did Yar’Adua indicate interest? Was he not forced on all of us? Even some of you who vigorously campaigned, where shoved aside for a man who has no understanding of the magnitude of the multi-facet Nigerian problems.All the quasi qualification of Nigeria leadership class is money to bribe the conscience of the electorate. Where this money fails, they resort to violence as is being unearthed in Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These political leaders, never wanted to be leaders.

After amassing wealth, they believe that the next frontier to be conquered, is the political front and become his Excellence or Honourable this and that. If you read their biographies deeply a common trend runs through ie I never wanted to contest but my friends said why not go into politics. Some even go to the absurd by telling us that its their pastors who saw a vision that they should contest election. Haba African man. Leaders or aspiring political leaders should study, think of nothing but the problems of the constituency he craves to rule. Nelson Mandela took 27 years of his imprisonment to dream out the solution to a post apartheid South Africa. (What do we have in Nigeria? Leaders go to prison and come out with books on Women in the Bible, while others shed tears like babies.)

This way, once the mantle of leadership falls on him, he will not require one year to start consulting about the solutions to the problems of his people. Young Obama is mesmerizing the world because of his ideas and understanding of the problems of common Americans who want change. Obama’s war chest is contributions from people who believe in his solutions to America’s Republican battered image and failed economy. Would a Obama (Pat Utomi and his gang of vibrant Nigerians) survive intra-party garrison arm twisting in Nigeria not to talk of being on the national platform? Wouldn’t he be forced to float a political party that may never rise beyond a cultural association or a social club? Until we get it right that leadership is a passion and life long vocation, every four years, we will lose two years for the new government to settle down before addressing the lingering issues.

By the time you say Jack, they are campaigning for re-election to complete the good works (sic) they have started and the bold ones will ask for tenure elongation.

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