All around the world politicians say a lot of things while campaigning for office. They make many promises in a bid to woo voters to side with them. Most electoral promises weigh less than the air that conveys the words from the speaker's lips. The euphoric polical rallies serve only one purpose: get votes whatever it takes. When politicians speak extempore few expect them to even remember what they said much less make good on their verbal promises.
But when electoral campaign promises become codified as a written document and articulated in diverse official campaign and promotional literature of the political party of the politician aspiring for office, it is a different matter. The assumption is that the politician is actually sincere and, to prove his bona fide, he/she has reduced the promises into writing thereby indicating that a contract with the electorate is in effect if he/she wins the election and assumes office.
As the 100 Days Benchmark drew near last August, Nigerians were treated to the shocking denial by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), that President Muhammadu Buhari "never promised to do anything within 100 days" just as Mr. Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, tried in vain to distance the President from the widely circulated Buhari Campaign document titled "My 100 Days Covenant With Nigerians". It was a comical but failed effort to manage the high public expectations of a President who had been elegantly robed in grand Messianic Couture by his party and political handlers.
On Wednesday, 4th November, 2015, another drama played out in the Senate. Senator Philip Aduda (PDP, FCT) moved a motion for the payment of N5,000 (Five thousand Naira only) monthly allowance to unemployed youths across Nigeria. The motion was greeted with shouts of “No! No! No!” when Sentor Aduda tried to explain the basis of his proposal. Attempts by the Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to second the motion were disrupted by the rowdiness. Intervening, President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, put the question to a vote but the Senators responded along party lines. While the PDP members yelled ‘’Aye’’ in favour of the motion, the APC Senators, who were in the majority, shouted "Nay" and defeated it.
Hmmmm......
Now, what is one to make of this development? Are the APC Senators unaware that President Muhammadu Buhari had made the promise to pay unemployed Nigerian youths such an allowance a major part of his electoral campaign? Do they realise that the promise resonated with many youths and that it may have influenced how they voted in the last Presidential election? Did the APC Senators consider the effect their vote would have on the morale of the youths who have been eagerly anticipating the payment of the Unemployment Allowance? Was the manner in which the APC Senators cut down the motion the best way to deal with such a sensitive matter? Do the APC Senators care about the sensibilities of the Nigerian youths?
It is pathetic that the same APC Senators, who recently rejected the recommendations of a committee which they set up to review their overly generous salaries, their obscenely huge allowances and their scandalous perks, would reject a motion to pay an allowance of just N5,000 to unemployed Nigerian youths in line with their party's campaign promise and despite their "change" mantra. Evidently, their self-interest supercedes national interest. Sad.
But I am in no doubt that the APC Senators have also woken up to the reality of the economic state of our nation and the impracticality of the promise to pay unemployed youths an allowance. That was just another pie-in-the-sky campaign promise which would never have been made had the APC actually expected to win the Presidency. The One-Meal-A-Day-For-School-Pupils is another. Even at the best of times, Nigeria does not have the financial resources to cater for the sheer number of our unemployed youths and Primary School children in the manner promised. Doing so while our economy is now virtually in a recession is totally impossible.
Should the APC Senators not have used the opportunity of Aduda's motion to painstakingly explain to Nigerians why the payment of the N5,000 Unemployment Allowance is no longer feasible (contrary to their plans) and what measure their party intends to implement to make it possible in due course? Do they not realise the damage they have done to the President's credibility by making a circus of such an important economic and social issue? Was this not a golden opportunity to deflect whatever political point Senator Philip Aduda and the PDP might have intended to score in raising the motion by elaborating on the APC agenda for jobs creation, youth empowerment, diversification of the economy and the development of the employment capacity of our micro, small and medium enterprises? In fact, the APC could have seized the day and come out smelling of roses had their Senators not taken the low road of engineering an uproar in the hallowed chamber of the upper legislative house.
As I have said before, the Presidential Election has been won and lost. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is now President Muhammadu Buhari. It is now irrelevant who one routed for and voted to be President. The serious business of governance, good governance at that, must be the priority. While it is not easy to eat humble pie and acknowledge where one erred, it is imperative that the President and the APC jettison the campaign promises which are unworkable, apologise to Nigerians for making them, and focus on those ones which can be actualised given our present economic realities. Nigerians are very forgiving. Nigerians want President Buhari to succeed. And succeed he must.
God bless Nigeria.
NIGERIA DI FURE!
No comments:
Post a Comment