TIMES OF BASHINGS

Politicians and voters alike have much to learn from Julius Nyerere and Aminu Kano, writes

African-Americans have a code which says that when “White Folks’’ (a media owned by White Americans) vigorously condemn a Black Man or Black Woman for what that person is doing it must be because it is good and beneficial for interests of “Black Folks’’. In recent times, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May visited Nigeria as a key market after Britain’s expected exit from membership of the European Union.

The visit and its presumed dividends was her campaign weapons for fighting those in her Conservative Party, parliament and a growing appeal by sections of the public and the Opposition Labour and Liberal Democrats turning against this exit. As a former colony in whose economy British financial and commercial firms have remained entrenched, Theresa May had to show that fears about China becoming the new rogue elephant in Nigeria’s economy and culture are hollow and uninformed.

Her trip was followed by President Buhari attending the AfricaChina talk-shop in Beijing. That was followed by The Economist Intelligence not only damning Nigeria’s current economic conditions, and if Buhari retains power after the 2019 elections. It was a brazen drive at fuelling the momentum of election campaigns in Nigeria in favour of “regime change’’.

This diplomatic hostility recalls cumulous clouds which preceded the military coup of August 1985 while Buhari-Idiagbon’s government was wrestling with the IMF/World Bank. That regime was determined to implement measures – including barter trade - that would ensure Nigeria’s economic nationalism. The devaluation of the Naira by the triumphant Babangida military faction as demanded by IMF/World Bank officials resulted, among other things, in the devastation of the country’s education sector; the explosion of corruption and, many have said, a severe erosion of Nigeria’s moral architecture.

The Economist Intelligence’s failure grade for Buhari’s economic performance and non-performance coincided with relentless demands for the dismissal of Buhari’s minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun. The fatal thin crack in her bullet-proof jacket was a failure to have a legitimate exemption from serving in the National Youth Service Corps scheme.

A leading newspaper attributed calls for her dismissal to patriotic policies she was pushing vigorously. Her determination to extract tax revenue ‘wisdom teeth’ from wealthy individuals and corporate organisations was viciously detested.

She also invented the “Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration (VAIDS)’’ under which tax defaulters were asked to either pay up their tax areas or face prosecution’’. Adeosun also fought to protect a “multi-billion Naira’’ in an ‘’Infrastructure Fund’’ from being headed by an individual whom she feared was likely to become a ‘’political godfather’’ money pot during the run-up to the 2018/ 2019 election drama. Her courage in defence of financial accountability and a healthier electoral culture was a road taken towards a political suicide.

Economic experts have urged African governments to vigorously collect taxes locally as a source of income instead of begging for loans from the so-called “development partners’’ who rope them with debts and inhibit their freedom to pursuing patriotic plans for growth. The Thabo Mbeki Committee set up by the African Union to investigate illicit drainage of funds out of the Continent, reported that as huge a sum as US$55b illicitly flow out each year. Mrs Adeosun was obviously fighting this crime. It is predictably bizarre that editors of The Economist Intelligence find this to be evidence of failed economic governance.

The times also warned that tens of millions of unemployed graduates from various stages of Nigeria’s education ladder constitute a ‘’time bomb’’. A key offer to youths against this hazard has been a ritual of politicians shopping for selection as presidential candidates by jumping from one political party to another. Agriculturists might depict the practice as ‘’shifting cultivation’’. There is, however, a damning lack of educative dialogue which offer these youths alternative visions of hope by either reforming the education sector and pouring funds into the agricultural sector; or changing society as a vital weapon for fighting poverty so that more violent Boko Haram, Maitasine or Abakoba and Niger Delta Executives, etc., do not explode from under society’s soils.

Mwalimu Nyerere once adopted devices like weekly folk tales he told on radio broadcasts and showing their relevance for current global and African affairs. His ruling political party insisted on candidates in each constituency gathering together and telling assembled community member why they should be voted for and not for the other two contestants who are also present. Election campaigns became vital educational income for voters and youths. Voters had opportunity to ask questions and gained a sense of importance in the electoral process. Mallam Aminu Kano in Nigeria and Leopold Sedar Senghor in Senegal won popularity by taking advantage of Harmattan season to spend long nights among village communities listening to, and talking with, voters.

These times have shown condemnations of “vote buying’’: the other side of “vote selling’’. Older practices of politicians dropping bags of rice; wands of textiles; tablets of soap, or ‘’Ghana-MustGo’’ bags full of Naira bundles, are apparently too distant from vote-casting to assure ‘’investors’’ of desired victories for their money. Voters are turned to nasty compulsive ‘’stomach vacuum cleaners’’. Youths are seduced as irrigation pipes for election campaign funds; and cynicism eats up their moral fire.

As a female member of the ECOWAS Parliament told me, politics in Ghana is warfare and women are withdrawing from “democracy’s blood-letting.”

ECONOMIC EXPERTS HAVE URGED AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS TO VIGOROUSLY COLLECT TAXES LOCALLY AS A SOURCE OF INCOME INSTEAD OF BEGGING FOR LOANS FROM THE SO-CALLED ‘DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS’ WHO ROPE THEM WITH DEBTS