18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2016 WITH less than a year into his first four-year term in office, President Muhammadu Buhari is already being wooed and prodded to contest for a second term in 2019. Those championing this are some members of the national caucus of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other interest groups within the party. They were recently joined by the Taraba State chapter of the APC whose chairman, Hassan Ardo, was quoted as saying: “APC members (have) declared their total and unconditional support for all the policies and programmes of the Federal Government and endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari for a second tenure if he is interested in contesting in 2019.” Asking an incumbent president or governor to declare for a second term has become a tradition among Nigerian politicians. While it is the constitutional right of these individuals to
Allow Buhari to do his work air their political views, we are shocked that the new ruling party, the APC, is toeing the line which the former party in power, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) defined during its sixteen years in power. Doing the same thing that the old order is still being discredited for does not reflect “change”. Besides, President Buhari is yet to build a single kilometre of road or add an extra megawatt of electricity to the national grid or activate any of his numerous promises during the campaigns, apart from the war on corrup-
tion. The financial package that would enable him to start work – the Federal Appropriation Bill 2016 – is yet to be passed, as it is mired in convoluted confusion and controversies. It was only in recent days that the concrete outlines of the administration’s economic direction started to emerge. Professional politicians within the ruling party should allow the President to justify the mandate given to him almost a year ago by proving his mettle and demonstrating his ability to give Nigeria the “change” he promised.
Prompting the president to ignore the huge amount of suffering that Nigerians are going through amidst severe scarcity of fuel, lack of electricity, massive job losses, growing poverty and the unfinished business of war on corruption shows how shallow and selfish our politicians have become. They are only interested in positioning themselves for power, rather than tackling the challenges of good governance and the advancement of our society. The truth is that President Buhari and the APC must prove their worth, . Buhari and his party’s ticket for a second term in office will only come from a resounding endorsement of the people, and this will be based on performance and approval of the electorate. Politicians should leave President Buhari alone to face his work!
OPINION
Edo: Onaiwu’s solution matrix By Farouk Usman
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HE Edo state governorship election slated for September 10, 2016 presents both an opportunity and a challenge to reposition a state with the sobriquet Heart Beat of the Nation. Getting it right starts from the party primaries especially that of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state. For a party that held sway from May 29, 1999 to November 12, 2008 and suddenly found itself in opposition in the state, there is a compelling reason to get it right owing to the wobbly performance of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state. To do so is down to a few factors of which the candidate of choice and cohesion of the party after the primaries stand out. There is an imperative that in keeping with the past, a new frontier of fielding a candidate without the blemish of jumping ship, inconsistency to party fidelity and unalloyed loyalty to the ideals of what the PDP represents is cardinal. It is in this sense that one begins to appreciate the aspiration of Earl Osaro Osaze Onaiwu, the Director General of the PDP Governors Forum, and a firm apostle of party discipline and unity in the contest to fly the party’s flag in the Edo guber race. Onaiwu is not just any other candidate. He is man who has been tempered in the furnace of administrative preparedness having at a young age served under the irrepressible Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia as Personal Assistant. It is a fact that C M Y K
Ogbemudia is the grand architect of the many development monuments scattered round and about Edo and Delta state. Serving under the one-time Governor of Old Bendel State opened Onaiwu to what service, unalloyed service, means to the changing the lives of people for good. During this period, the governorship hopeful also brought his idea of governance
For him, serving the people is respecting their wish in a free, fair and credible process and development to the table. His record of service, many have said, is what lent impetus to his being picked by another illustrious Edo son, the late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu as Special Adviser. In all of these, Onaiwu gained insight into the inner recess of power and governance, opportunities that cemented his aspiration to work towards service. Over the years, he has demonstrated that he is a man of many parts; entrepreneur, socialite, philanthropist, patron of the arts, and fundamentally, a vehicle for the formation of the Nigeria Governors Forum. In the early days when the governors were without a coordinating body to present a common front on issues affecting states,
Onaiwu proposed a peer review mechanism to the current Senate President Bukola Saraki where states can leverage on their economies of scale for accelerated development. Years on, his vision has lived on leading to his being a pivotal presence in the circle of governors over the years. Perhaps, David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of "The Libertarian Mind," was referring to Onaiwu when he noted that a leader must have a firm grasp of reality. According to Boaz, good character and a firm grasp of reality are fundamentals for service. In an era where good character is in serious deficit, where the moral quotient of leaders is grossly lacking, Onaiwu comes with a freshness of the untainted. The place of good character helps the leader to focus on delivering the dividends without the distraction of scandals and the foothold to galvanise the people to chart a new direction for not only growth and development, but moral regeneration. One other added value of fielding Onaiwu is that having worked closely with governors; he has an array of networks and synergies vital for modern governance. Edo state as it stands requires an individual that can galvanise a whole range of stakeholders to see the potential that the state has and take advantage of investing in it. To this end, experience matters a lot. What are the factors that have hampered Edo from leveraging on its abundant natural resource that is not within the premise of the Exclusive List? How can the state navigate the pitfalls of shoddy growth and development? How do the people get involved in the development matrix of the state?
Therein lies the difference in the Onaiwu Solution Matrix. For him, it is not just about acknowledging that the boundary of inclusive growth needs to be broadened to include those who have been excluded in the promise of participatory democracy, but getting the people to pitch their most pressing development challenging to the government. Also, Edo state currently needs a unifier. Not a divisive individual who will further polarise the state along ethnic and geo-senatorial lines. In all his campaigns, Onaiwu has maintained that let the best man wins; let the will of the people be sacrosanct while not discountenancing equity, fairness and inclusion. Aware of the cankerworm of not have singularity of a common platform, the governorship aspirant has been working round the clock to integrate all groupings in the PDP; preaching the gospel of sportsmanship no matter what the outcome of the primaries maybe. For him, serving the people is respecting their wish in a free, fair and credible process. It is not one dictated by money or some other primordial consideration but one conditioned by the experience, empathy, a vision of the Edo dream, a handle on the rich history of our peoples, the ability to collaborate as well as being nimble and decisive.
•Mr. Usman, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Benin City, Edo State.