Let’s Pray
by Sam Nda-Isaiah
Let us pray for our president, but let us pray even more earnestly for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It should be clear by now that there is a millstone around Nigeria’s neck that only fervent prayers can crack. Our situation is now so dire that our prayers must include that God give us the courage to do what is glaringly the right thing.
Nigeria’s president is very ill. And that is why we should pray for him. We should pray for Umaru not only because he is president of our country but also because he is a father, husband and guardian to many. But Nigeria is a nation, and there are precepts on how nations are run that are so unsentimental and unemotional, and sometimes cold-blooded. The existence of a nation is so important that if, for any reason, its president becomes incapacitated even for a day, an acting leader is created immediately. This is usually to send a message to the world. When the late President Ronald Reagan was shot in the course of his presidency and he was still receiving treatment at a hospital, his deputy, George Bush, was quickly sworn in as president. This remained so until Reagan became fit and proper enough to start taking decisions on behalf of the American people.
Similarly, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel fell critically ill, Ehud Olmert was sworn in as acting prime minister immediately; and, because Sharon did not recover fully enough, he never returned as prime minister. How many of us still remember that Sharon is still alive? And then, there is the case of the strongman of Cuba, Fidel Castro. Cuba is not even a democracy but common sense prevailed. When he became too ill to continue as president, he gave way to his brother. Today, Castro is still alive, but recuperating in his home. Cuba is greater than any individual, even if that person is Fidel Castro.
Umaru has had health challenges long before he became president. This is a documented fact. It has even been said that Obasanjo imposed him on the country because of his warped calculation that Umaru would be too sick and would spend most of the time attending to himself, while he (Obasanjo), as the leader of the party, in his position as the permanent chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, would be the de facto president. That way, he would have got his third term through the back door.
Well, at least Obasanjo succeeded in part. Though he has not succeeded in getting his third term through the back door – thank God for that – he has succeeded where it hurts most. Our nation now bears the brunt of his selfishness. For more than two years now, Nigeria has been led by a president who has spent more time on his sickbed than he has thinking about how to solve the problems of the country. That must explain why, since he became president, no budget has been implemented by up to 30% and the nation keeps going down the drain.
The official position of the presidency is that Umaru has an acute heart disease. But even an elementary school pupil knows that the president is much sicker. All one needs to do is compare his current photographs with the ones he took on the day he became president. And that was even the time many thought he was too sick for the office of president.
But the subject at issue must now be frontally tackled, and the only way forward is to follow the rules set by the supreme document that we have. If the president is too sick to govern effectively, does the constitution have any sections on how to deal with that? Alternatively, and better still, are there no people who could prevail on the president to be fair to himself and the nation and resign gracefully to his retirement home in Katsina?
I read something curious in The Punch at the weekend. It is to the effect that subtle pressure was being put on Vice President Goodluck Jonathan by an unnamed Northern group to resign so that there would be another election that would produce another Northern president since it is the “turn of the North”. I think that is utter nonsense and it is good to hear that the VP has debunked the story. The only chance for that to have happened was blown to smithereens by Justice Idris Kutigi and three of his colleagues at the Supreme Court in the judgement sustaining the election of Umaru, even though the whole world saw what happened on Election Day. By the way, the majority of the judges that upheld Umaru’s election right from the Court of Appeal down to the Supreme Court were Northerners. If they all didn’t see at the time of their judgements that they would not only be doing the right thing by annulling the glaringly fraudulent election but also be acting in the best interest of the North and Nigeria, then we all now have to face the music. If Umaru becomes incapacitated – or remains in Saudi Arabia for longer than necessary – then Vice President Jonathan should be sworn in as president. That would be the right thing to do. We must follow exactly what the constitution stipulates.
But we do not even have to wait to get that far. It is clear even at this point that Umaru has to step aside and let the country move on. If no one in the National Assembly has the spine and love of country to tell him this, then let us all troop to Turai and beg her to get her husband to go home. And if Umaru went on his own, he would have created at least one legacy that history would remember him for.
All said, I wish Umaru well. In spite of our glaring differences, I still think he remains a very decent man. I also wish him God’s blessings, and a quick recovery, and a blissful life in retirement as a former president of Nigeria.
E A R S H O T
6,000MW: Are We Still On Course?
It’s barely 30 days to our promised attainment of 6,000 megawatts of electricity. I hope nobody comes to tell us that they could not attain it because the president was sick. And while we wait, it will interest our leaders to know that Ghana intends to source electricity by nuclear energy by 2018 and that South Africa is already working on increasing its current 40,000 megawatts to 80,000 megawatts. Dubai city alone generates 16,000 megawatts, while the United States generates over 3.2 million megawatts. But just give us the promised 6,000 megawatts first.
November 30, 2009
Tags: nepa, Nigeria, obasanjo, Yar’Adua Posted in: Sam Nda-Isaiah
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