Politics tests character, often to destruction. The character of some ministers, their shadows and members of National Assembly of all parties has been wrecked by exposure of their expenses. The one character who has been tested to final destruction is Mr President.
The music stopped on his watch, first for the economy and now insecurity, for which the government of the day takes most blame. Government used to lay claim to higher moral ground, while the right always said greed was the motor of growth. When he first talked of his moral compass, Mr President should have cleaned up party funding, Legislators and ministers’ expenses and honours – and linked these reforms with curbs on the power that money breathes over the nation’s affairs. The expenses mess would not be fatal if the government were upright and strong.
The heart of the matter is the economy, and Mr President’s responsibility for the bubble years. He personally is to blame for government’s failure to ensure that ordinary people on median incomes and poor people at the bottom received a bigger share in national growth: it turns out that they fell back, and only the wealthy prospered. Government made the rich richer and the poor poorer: growth for the few, not the many. The incumbent government has been tested and found in want of almost every attribute a leader needs.
Squalid dealings by his poisonous Aides were exposed to the light of day; yet at the same time he lacks a leader’s necessary political cunning. Government indecision is legendary, the decisions it takes are too often tactical, not purposeful or strategic. The privatisation agenda are mere positioning in some illusory business-pleasing ploy, their long-term damage far outweighing one day’s headlines. The only question now is when will it end?
Ahmed Abdulrahman,
Kaduna
