By Benedict Ahanonu
Without doubt Nigeria should have been greater than what it is today. Some curious persons would want to know why. Let me proceed by pointing out the fact that corruption which many people often lament as being the bane of Nigeria could just be as nauseating with the concomitant grinding poverty in the land which has been acknowledged is due to poor wealth distribution, but the idea of bringing back people who by their acts and deeds have immensely contributed to the impoverishment of the country to assume one position or the other in successive governments is more debilitating and to a large extent insulting.
Does it mean there is paucity of qualified and competent Nigerians who can handle such often very critical positions that impact on the economic well-being of the masses?
Visit any government office, department or agency, and you will find what some observers have described as “spent forces and dead wood syndrome.”
Tell me what people as old as 65 and above, who have been in government directly or indirectly all their lives and who directly or indirectly contributed to the degrading of the stature and dignity of the nation through their track record of underachievement in terms of quality and content, will still be doing in government or will do now to cause a turnaround?
For some obvious reasons, I don’t want to mention names; however, the truth is that the so many spent forces in government and government establishments will continue their characteristic clog dancing and Nigeria will continue to buckle.
This is not trying to insinuate that there are no productive Nigerians at 65 and above; instead, what I am driving at is that for as many that are within that age bracket and have been in government indirectly or directly at some point and obviously could not bring any positive change to the fortunes of this country should not continue to be recycled.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, while in power was guilty of this, although it did not start with him but one had thought that with his “Transformation Agenda “ which to all intents and purposes was a step in the right direction, he would have stood at variance with the mainstream by striking a strategic balance between political patronage which is a recurring decimal in every Nigerian government so far and the need to really transform the country to something better than he met it as President.
Surrounding himself with spent forces was like plunging into a dangerous adventure. The same mistake has also been made by the present Buhari-led government. The spent forces, have given their best and nothing more. Retaining them while people with new and better thinking are left to rot is egregious, insulting and unacceptable. What it implies is that the country has no future.
Since I was born there has been this much talk about the youths being the leaders of tomorrow. This sounds good and appealing but the truth of the matter is that these same youths are being emasculated by a system that seems unpromising.
Instead of empowering the youths to function, some of these self-seeking spent forces will recruit them i.e. the youths as political thugs and abandon them to their fate after winning or losing an election.
The Nigerian spent forces are anti-change elements and blinded pro-establishment agents that will stop at nothing in milking this country dry. As some will say, their best is yet to come even at 70 years? Ha! Ha!
It is only in Nigeria that spent and corrupt forces are celebrated and decorated through a circle of mediocrity. They continue to serve in government until they die. Even some amongst them whom were alleged to have been indicted by some of the seemingly toothless anti-corruption agencies are walking free and still in the corridors of power.
The scourge of spent forces is the worst thing to happen to Nigeria, but some are getting wise and quitting the stage.
Did you notice that Nigerian spent forces do not retire? They are all-weather operatives who are always there and ready to loot the treasury. Laughably, they see governance and being called upon to take a position in government or public office as a career, ‘a your-turn-thing,’ and not one of service; that is why they device ways and means to be relevant, this some have christened, ‘political cosmetic surgery’.
The world of spent forces is one of mediocrity and their best is nothing to write home about. Just as their name implies, they are spent and hardly relevant anymore.
After all, if they were that good, the nation should not have been at this crossroads as they would have lifted the country with their ingenuity and supposed skills.
So there lies the dilemma. President Buhari should watch it. Today, he is the president but tomorrow he might be in the fold of spent and failed forces, if he fails to use the opportunity he has now to get things moving in the right order.
He should also consider eliminating the army of spent forces both in his cabinet and the government.
A look at the composition of the National Conference that took place some years ago, can tell a better story. New blood should be injected into the system. The number so far is insignificant and rate is too slow.
What is happening now within the federal government is like old wine in new wine skin. They skin will neither bubble nor burst. That is the situation. The old wine in the new democratic dispensation is clogging its wheel of progress; the direct consequence is that the poor masses of Nigeria will never enjoy the dividends of democracy.
It is still the same old rhetoric and way of thinking. Still the same old squabbles and pecuniary inclinations. It is similar modus operandi and outrageous geo-political miscalculations. It is the same style and the same hood.
So which way Nigeria with the scourge of hardly valuable spent forces who make themselves perennial by means of political subterfuge?
Prince Benedict Ahanonu is an Abuja-based Media Consultant, Editor, Speech writer and Public Affairs Analyst. Email: bahanonu@yahoo.co.uk
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