By Ifeanyi Ubakanwa
The very existence of different viewpoints is not a negative thing. It’s how we handle it that usually transforms and turns it into a negative thing.
But no matter the circumstances, a time still comes when we must tell the truth. If you ask me, the one truth I know is that in 2015, it was charisma not competence that brought Gen. Buhari to power. And now that he is President Buhari, democracy ultimately demand that we keep reminding him of the competence expected from him in finding answers to the basic problems and overwhelming challenges confronting Nigeria as a nation.
Having chosen his cabinet which he has all the right to chose, Nigerians must not rest on their oars or blame anybody tomorrow if in words and actions, they cannot set before this government a strong public philosophy that will unreservedly guide and show Mr. President and his appointees the kind of nation we want to see after the next four years.
In a country that has a projected population of over 200 million people, I don’t think there is anything more urgent than using the power of the federal government to call forth the latent potentialities in every Nigerian so that having the same spirit and having a country they know they can die for, we will all set sail in the same direction and replicate in our land, all those ideals Nigerians get acclaim for while outside the shores of the country.
It needs no argument, Nigeria is indeed a great country with good people who knows what it means for charity to begin at home. If the absence of a visionary and well focused leadership has been our bane, we must demand nothing less from a “Next Level” government.
For many years, our elites have confused charisma with competence, opportunity with brilliance and now thinking as oligarchs, it is almost becoming impossible for them to recollect that fundamentally, feudalism cannot co-exist with modernity. We have to let tgem know that their time is up. It’s up to this “Next level” government to clearly confirm to us if we are going to move forward or move backward. Uniformity must no longer be misunderstood as unity. There should be strength in our diversity not in being holed up together as a herd.
This is the 21st century. If democracy which we claim to practice remain the”government of the people, by the people and for the people, the people as the sovereign must understand their roles in it and rise up, speak up and begin to resolve our national problems and differences through common debates.
There is nothing like a perfect society. Therefore, Nigerians should rise and lead the way in ascertaining to this government that individually and collectively, they are tired of seeing government resolve national problems through the most violent and vile means. If we must move forward, all that has to change.
While for long the elite find it so pleasurable to take the ordinary Nigerian for granted, the time is now for the people as sovereign to show that they are tired of voting for those who end up ruling them to their selfish ends. Nigerians should stop being ruled as if anybody is doing them a favor.
This is a new tenure for our President and C-in C, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. If it will be true as a “Next Level” government, then both the leaders and the led must come together and agree on a comprehensive national outline and a public philosophy that will guide its realization. Nigeria must stop being a joke!