In mobilizing our people and ensuring an all pervasive sense of belonging in our body politic,and help to boost new social and political changes in the system, we must not forget that pretence cannot be exchanged for action well planned and executed.We must also realise that every coin has two sides to it; every struggle, every contest,every conflict and every debate and that each side is an integral part of the dialectics without which there can be no synthesis.That the struggle for power within and among political parties and federal units should not be a cataclysmic conflict between St. Micheal and Lucifer. But rather an unavoidable milestone or a turning point in our journey to modern political freedom.The era of grandfathers running the political and economic affairs of a modern democracy with their contaminated Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) has gone and gone forever. I mean the political spent force. However, we must not put dust on the mirror of the progressive elements among the ‘fathers.’ We all know them when we see them!
Of course, the failures of their moribund ideas has taken the gilt off their ginger bread. They are as good as a gimcrack! Any sensible Nigerian youth that worth his or her onion must look at the progressive countries of the US, Europe and the new world economic order of Asia, as reflected in our voting at every level in the last general elections. Nigeria need re-dedication, reformation and re-orientation.It is now or never.We need a new systematic political re-orientation that can bring about a proactive economic direction through development and reform now.
When you analyze a situation and want to take action,there are always three states of mind you can be in.
The first is stagnation, which means you do nothing.The second is revolution,which means changing everything. And the third consists of development and reform. And that is the approach I believe in. Since politics is the art of possible,it must be supported by a basis of intellectual knowledge so that we know where we are heading and what ideal we want to achieve.However,at the same time, politics must be pragmatic enough to recognise that an ideal moves further away all the time as soon as you do anything, and it is precisely that which defines development! Coherence must always be measured against two yardsticks: the ideal which has been set – that has to be defined before you start – and the resources available to achieve it. That is especially important when the resources available are always limited! Intellectual knowledge and action are not two separate things.
The message here is the pursuit of true federalism that will and can let every region of the federation work truly harder towards self-sustenance and be genuine contributors to the federation account. Then true devolution of powers from the centre down to the local governments. The recent political statement by President Goodluck Jonathan sometime last week that henceforth, Federal Government will hands off management of both secondary and primary schools and concentrate on the tertiary institutions is a welcome development. States and Local Government Areas must now be saddled with more responsibilities as it concerns education at these levels. Caveat, the Federal Government must now remember that when you impregnates a woman, you are duty bound to make adequate provision for her up-keeping and prepare of delivery period and upbringing of the child. In essence, I am imploring the Federal Government to back up this sensitive political statement of funding of education with legal frameworks. And the Federal Government address the issue of new fiscal policy and new revenue allocation formula must be accelerated once and for all.
Every state and region has one natural resource or the other. so, they must be ready to tap into these resources and contribute part of it to the Federation Account. It is a must. We must kill laziness and motivate our indigents to locate and explore their local resources. i don’t know what a man from a coal endowed region of Enugu is looking for in Lagos and end up selling wares inside traffic hold up in Lagos. What is an Ondo man who is hard working on cocoa plantation in Ondo wants in Abuja, when cocoa is wasting and turning to food for th birds of the sky on his father’s farm back home. Over-dependence on petrol-dollars has killed over morale and enshrined corruption into our national psyche. Let’s go back to where we rightly belong. Let the Federal Government boost agricultural investments. Let the real farmers be able to access funds and not the thieves in coats that are actually and only middlemen and fertilizer contractors.
Then the pursuit of true federalism must not be seen from the angle of disloyalty, but from the line of pursuit of restrengthening the federation once and again. It is a call to duty and we must not misunderstand ourselves. Truly, the Federal Government at the centre is overloaded and over-bloated! Let us carry out load-shielding by decentralizing powers and duties of governance. Let us all sit down and talk. This is not an issue for deliberation by the National Assembly alone. It is greater than that. Let all concerned make good contributions to a new Nigeria of our dream. In heeding this clarion call, I want us to listen to the current American President, Barack Obama, when he was declaring for Presidency on 10th February, 2007. He said and I quote: “We must learn to disagree without being disagreeable – that it’s possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised; and that so long as we’re willing to listen to each other, we can assume the best in people instead of the worst.” This thought-provoking submission is naturally meant for our country, Nigeria.
It is now or never. We need a change NOW! not just a change, but like Barack Obama’s political philosophy: “A Change We Can Believe In.” I believe our elected representatives are now reading through the lines. The major assignment for the Seventh National Legislative Arm and all other government levels must be to reform and re-structure our federation – to make it a new proactive entity, that everyone must be very proud of. I mean a working federation, not the ‘come and chop’ federation! We all now on our toes waiting to see what awaits our national fate. It must be no longer business as usual….It is NOW or NEVER!
