Discretion as we know is the better part of valour. The medium as has also always been drummed into us conveys the message. Taking it from this perspective, President Goodluck Jonathan ought to have been far more discreet, shown greater circumspection and used a more somber medium for last week’s declaration of his intention to seek another term in office. This would have reflected accurately, the mood of the nation. In the aftermath of the carnage which had taken place the previous day at a school in Yobe State, he would have elevated himself in the public’s perspective as a caring and loving leader.
Putting that behind us, now that the race is very much on, it is in the interest of the nation to have an issue focused campaign. Posterity will not forgive the present crop of leaders if what will turn out to be pivotal elections are contested on the self-serving grounds of ethnicity and religion. It will be rather unfortunate at a time of plunging oil prices and its detrimental effect on our future if the elections are not turned into a forum to discuss how the nation will cope with the new realities that we have clearly not prepared for. This could spell doom for the nation and must be avoided at all costs.
The issue-based campaign we advocate has to be anchored on the key issue of how to achieve sustainable social and infrastructural development, for the future of our nation rides on this. It cannot but be so. With collapsing oil prices and long-term, perhaps irreversible shift in the world oil market and outlook, the coming elections must be real, incisive contest of ideas and exploration of options as to our future direction as a nation.
For the sake of the nation, the contestants must focus on the economy, security issues and of course, education. The three are interlinked. For example, mass unemployment has created a devil’s workshop for idle hands and minds thereby providing cannon-fodder for recruitment into all manner of insurgencies. Sustainable economic development is therefore the substructure upon which all other things will be focused on.
In our present predicament, the issue of security is also vital. Insecurity is not just confined to the North-East corner, it is present elsewhere and there are potential flash-points across Nigeria. The country needs a real, perhaps even a water-shed discourse on the options available in dealing with insecurity in all of its ramifications. This is not, and cannot be the time for hurling brickbats and sprouting vacuous shibboleths. Impassioned and reasoned analysis as to future strategy and tactics is what is called for.
In a similar way, a debate on education is vital. In a globalised world, the quality of education as well as its reach will determine the wealth of nations. Therefore the linkage between a quality education system and an internationally competitive economy is obvious. The two added together also affects national well-being and the state of the nation’s prosperity. The options available to enhance sustainable development such as the one deployed by Brazil to lift millions out of poverty (40 million people were lifted out of poverty in eight years) have to be explored.
The inestimable pearl, Chinua Achebe’s famously observed a long time ago, that Nigeria’s problem is that of leadership. This is why Nigeria’s future rests on the quality of its present leadership. Collectively they have to use the coming election campaign to proffer solutions to the country’s seemingly intractable problems. This is not and must not be the time for vacuous sloganeering and the inducement of discord.
