Remember him? The minister of Transport in the Olusegun Obasanjo government who rode on a bicycle to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in 2001 as part of his campaign that Nigerians should embrace cycling as a partial solution to growing gridlock crippling the nation’s economy. He is Ojo Maduekwe, a lawyer-turned politician.
Maduekwe has been many things at different times in the country since he took a dive into the nation’s murky waters of politics.
Apart from being a minister, he was also national secretary to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); he is a member, Board of Trustees (BoT), PDP, and a diplomat. Currently, he is Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Canada.
Last week, Maduekwe came to town; in fact, to the ‘City of Excellence’ to seek ways to clear the huge mess the political class has littered the country with.
It was a book signature event where he was guest speaker. The book, ‘Writing the Wrong’, is authored by Chidi Amuta. The envoy spoke on ‘The Bipartisan Imperative: Leading from the Future.”
Maduekwe was taken to task, not only to explain, but to reconcile his offerings in the present government with the roles he played in the dark days of Sani Abacha regime, in the Olusegun Obasanjo-administration and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua government.
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Though evasive in his response, the cerebral politician who said that his yet-to-be-published memoir would answer whatever question agitating the minds of Nigerians on the politics of Ojo Maduekwe, the envoy, however, said his speech at the event was not “the kind of speech someone in government who wants to remain in government all the time will normally give. I am not looking for commendation.
“What I delivered is normally said by somebody who has left government. Going down memory lane, this is not the first time I have talked like that. So, what you heard Ojo Maduekwe say is the real Ojo Maduekwe.”
And what did he say in his speech? He had begun his lecture decrying the bitter rivalry between the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition.
“One wonders from faraway Canada how the two mainstream political parties demonise each other on a national security challenge which has become an existential threat, instead of locating a bipartisan response,” he said.
“Kicking the can down the road by leading politicians of various political persuasions who should be joining hands with the President to deal with a threat worse than the civil war does not qualify as responsible political behavioiur,” he further said.
Maduekwe pointed out that in a fragile, democratic state like Nigeria, “if we as leaders cannot diligently and consistently push for a common ground that can inspire national unity, we could inadvertently end up with the unintended consequence of a killing ground that can consume all. History is full of examples of how nations that were determined to commit national suicide by failing to locate a common ground were allowed their wish.” The envoy noted that bipartisanship only speaks to the need to work together for the common good, even when ideologically apart.
“If our polity of today is characterised by results that nobody wants, there has to be a change in thinking. We must begin to do things differently. Some paradigm shift will be required. And that shift is what I mean by the bipartisan imperative,” he said.
Apparently rallying the parties, Maduekwe, urged: “We must begin to address the wide disconnect between the conduct of politics and the goals of governance. No one party can do it alone. We critically need a common ground, indeed, a covenant of decent and civil behavior that will inspire style and substance across the aisle. What we are doing currently is not sustainable. It is not even politics! At best it is a triumph of tactics over strategy, with very transitory benefits. At worst, it is the rushing to the shore of lemmings for self-immolation.”
Recalling his position sometime ago on bipartisan cooperation, which he noted was a road less travelled, Maduekwe said: “The score sheet of the political class therefore, shows that on the few occasions when they appreciated that in the interest of the nation and survival of a fledgling democracy, there are necessary limits to partisanship, the politicians proved to be more than the sum of their parties.
“A fractious political class disputing over mundane issues of who gets which office and patronage, rather than over ideology and programmes, and which compounds its intellectual and spiritual barrenness by lack of visible demonstration of any unifying vision of its own worst enemy, but could also be perceived to be a clear and present danger to the society at large.”
“Let us not delude ourselves, as we did in three failed transitions, that we are out of the woods. There are still lurking around, in every corner of the land, dark forces of non-democratic temper ready to exploit the strategic innocence of an inexperienced but credulous political class. Our nation is hurting today from deep divisions caused by extreme partisanship. Therefore, we need repairers of the breach as a matter of national emergency,” he further said.
He suggested that we “must re-invent ourselves as apolitical class and be in quest of a critical mass of voices who will re-frame the fundamentals of why politics is such a noble vocation and remains the best platform for policy leadership with the farthest reach. We must begin to believe in something, and steadily reject the cognitive dissonance that defines our current outings.”
Chidi Amuta, author of the book, condemned the rising insecurity in the North, wondering how some groups of miscreants have taken over the control of some areas of the country.
“We used to be afraid of government because it was only government that had the powers to give uniform and gun; but today, we have gangsters, miscreants who, not only have uniforms, but also sophisticated firearms. We need to re-invent and strengthen the state.”
Amuta also advocated an end to nomadic education, noting that the system condemns certain group of people to life of nomads, a situation that does not allow them to see the civilization of the 21st Century world. He called for an arrangement where cattle farmers are more settled.
Zebulon Agomuo
