AMAECHI REPENTS

In William Shakespeare’s book, “Macbeth”, three witches prophesied to Macbeth, a General in Scotland Army. In the presence of compatriot and fellow Army General, Banquo, the weird sisters told Macbeth, who was then Thane of Glamis that he would also be Thane of Cawdor and king. The king of Scotland at the time was King Duncan, a cousin of Macbeth. The prophecies sounded improbable, for there was a Thane of Cawdor and there was an heir apparent to Duncan’s throne. However, no sooner had the witches vanished like bubbles in the air than Duncan’s emissaries, Rosse and Angus come and pronounced Macbeth Thane of Cawdor to the utter disbelief of Banquo who exclaimed, “What! can the devil speak true?”

Rotimi Amaechi is a known

sworn enemy of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. From the latter part of his tenure as Governor of Rivers State when he switched allegiance from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressive Congress (APC) he has remained a consistent critic of his kinsman GEJ and anything that smells of the man. He did this so faithfully that Muhammadu Buhari as APC’s flagbearer in the 2015 Presidential election rewarded him with the position of Chairman of his Campaign Organization. Buhari saw in Amaechi a suitable and willing kinsman antagonist to a political rival. Like Caleb in the Bible who, instead of getting weaker, rather waxed stronger with age, Amaechi grew stronger in pulling down every political edifice of GEJ that he could. He succeeded in enthroning his principal as Nigeria’s fifth democratically-elected President. He was applauded for a job well done and further rewarded with the portfolio of Minister of Transport, amidst a Magu-like resistance from a vocal public.

But it appears Providence played Amaechi into the Transport Ministry where he could see at least, for once, one of GEJ’s achievements hitherto lost to good judgment, no thanks to political myopia that blinded eyes and mind to objectivity. But all that changed recently in a Town Hall meeting at Abuja where government interacted with the people. In a rather unfamiliar and repentant tone, Amaechi said “In the Ministry of Transportation, we did not meet anything comatose. We met an attempt to bring back our rail services. The Kaduna-Abuja railway was nearly 80% completed which we commissioned and commercial services have commenced.’’ We could not help exclaiming in Banquo’s Shakespearean English, “What! Can Amaechi speak true?”

If Amaechi’s comment is not flattery, then it must be that there has been wilful blindness to and deliberate distortion of others’ achievements for political gains. This is what makes most new regimes start new projects (which they usually never complete) instead of completing existing ones started by their predecessors in office. They fear that credit will go to their predecessors. I do not think this is helping the country. Government is a continuum. Nation building is a collective responsibility. Politics does not necessarily have to be rivalry if the goal is nation building. This, unfortunately, is usually the case because people come to office with a vision of personal-aggrandizement. They think more of what would be credited to their name than what would benefit the people. Our goal as leaders, however, should be to meet the good expectations of the people we serve. Leaders should see themselves as people contributing their quota to the overall good of the nation. With that mindset we can spend less by not starting new (and usually unnecessary) projects, and accomplish much by simply completing what our predecessors have started. Stable and progressive countries of the world do this. Donald Trump is having a hectic time as President of the US presently because it appears he is all out to uproot everything Obama planted. It will be too capital intensive and politically suicidal for new leaders to promote novel ideologies and initiate new projects as the economic brunt of that change will have to be borne by the people.

Amaechi has taken a step in the right direction. His ideological home-coming is heart- warming, and reminds me of Ibrahim Waziri’s political philosophy of the 80s. Waziri started out in Nigerian Peoples’ Party (NPP). He was later to break away and form his Great Nigerian Peoples’ Party (GNPP) following an intraparty power tussle with the revered Nnamdi Azikiwe in which he lost. Waziri adopted the position of “politics without bitterness”. While other political gladiators were at each other’s throat, Waziri never engaged in deriding his fellow politicians. Most of the time he sued for peace while maintaining his political principles and pursuing his ambition. For not allowing his political ambition to heat up the polity, the man was greatly respected, and was jocularly referred to as ‘Brother Waziri’. This is the spirit we need in Nigerian politics. Nigeria is still developing. We are still far from reaching the standard of developed countries. What we need at this stage is the corporate goodwill of citizens to make our nation great. We can promote peace by acknowledging our strengths and working together to overcome our weaknesses and failures. May Nigeria rise above the petty politics of fault-finding, and unite for our common good and progress.