The illogic of calling basic, ordinaries transformational

I don’t know where you first saw it. I saw it propagated on Channels Television, especially during their 10 O’clock news belt, to the effect that what is going on here is comparable to what some great men did in other parts of the world. And I can tell you that all those who are mentioned in the advert but are long or recently dead, will be turning in their graves upon hearing the message being conveyed! In fact, they would not only have turned, they would also have sat up, watched and listened through the entire duration of the advertising. And they would have been shaking their heads vigorously that, being skeletons already, the heads would have dangled from their neck bones.

Martin Luther King Jr., for instance, would have pinched his bones to be sure that it is really him that the producers were trying to use to compare a certain living president, who has still not made up his mind whether or not to run for second term, but whom all those who hang around him think that there is enough to be profited and so think that he should run! They are speaking for him, when he should have long spoken for himself! And Mandela would say, “I had a mission. I fulfilled it and felt no need to tarry longer.”

A nagging question in the face of all this is: “How can a sitting president, just four months to elections not tell those he is governing that he would be seeking to rule them for yet another four years? It is the height of impudence and a show of complete disrespect for the electorate. It is what you call arrogance; being taken for granted, being ignored and being considered not to matter in the scheme of things! US president, Barak Obama, who is also compared, must still be laughing since the day “his people” showed him what some people were saying in Nigeria. Of course, it’s possible to find something to compare the two presidents if you seek hard. This would have to be the fact that minorities found their way to the top. As for how they got there and how they have been using the office, forget it! You must be kidding me if you were seriously comparing this apple and orange situation!

Now, there is something always dubious about to happen whenever politicians stand before electorate and begin to lay claim to something that beats logic! It is even worse if they are not the one confidently standing before electorate to say these things but pretend not to know, while cronies and hangers-on take over the narrative on their behalf. Now, let me give you something to draw a line and chew on! Transformations are not always huge, gigantic endeavours like it is being made out to be by a group of people who show complete ignorance of this because they seem not to actually understand the import. If you live and work in Apapa, you’ll find what is going on with regards to transportation far from transformational.

There have been pockets here and pockets there of brilliant flashes. But these are in no way transformational! Years of deceit by politicians have created a huge trust deficit. This deficit as a recurring factor in the lives of some electorates has now become historical; almost like it is taken for granted! It would seem as if politicians think that the votes given to them are so done because electorates have no choice but to cast votes! It is the reason why a politician who promised a set of deliverables last term and has not delivered is going to come back in the next few months offering the same set in appealing for new votes.

Now, let me return to the subject of transformation. What our elected politicians and their ego massagers like to see as transformation are the ordinary business for which electorates voted. There is nothing spectacular, not to talk of transformational, for government to build roads. To build a road from one point to another so as to ease the movement of electorates, their goods and services is the job for which public servants and elected office holders are paid to do. What is supposed to pass as transformational is to hear or read that government has decided and is working to raise finance, to build a modern, speed rail from Lagos to Kano – working to reduce the burden posed by inadequate means of transport.

In Apapa alone, you are daily confronted with things that show that the transformation agenda is just a slogan. From right in front of the Apapa Ports complex where government makes loads of money but refuses to redistribute, to terrible heavy load bearing bridges that are showing serious signs that they might collapse anytime soon and endanger people’s lives.

President Jonathan is a simple man. His story shows a man who has never had to put himself up for political office, but has by providence risen to where he is today. By this alone, it would be expecting too much from a man who has largely had someone do domestic chores for him. That everybody in government is going up and down to say that there is a transformation agenda under implementation shows how much sycophancy eats deep into the brains of professionals that have been used to deal with this matter.

Nigeria has been struggling with electricity supply for a long time. Yet, nothing has been done in this area that is transformational. If you asked those who know, they will tell you that it is not like going to the moon or the sun. But our people, especially our politicians, like to make it look big, as if it is an insurmountable task to embark upon.

Our leaders do normal things. They do ordinary things, those basic ordinary things that they are obligated to do by their elections. If you are elected into an office you have to perform the duties attached to the office. The things that are done under this circumstance are not unusual. This country could use with people who understand the narrative of transformation as I have little tried to put across here. It is important that we seek and find them and get them into government because there is so much rot and so much work to be done!     

PHILLIP ISAKPA